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Ok, now I have my first physio appointment this morning and I have NO idea what they do!!!!!
My lower back is really bad (been bad since Oscar was born), anyway it has become a lot worse in the past few days and I am wondering if I can get an idea of what they do before I head in! Arrrghhh!! Are they going to hurt me?? :lol:
TIA ;)
Hi Dani. My friend has been seeing a physio long-term for back problems. She has a deep massage-type thing and has to do excersises. She says it hurts a little while its happening, but the relief afterwards is well worth it.
I'm not sure whether your back problem is the same, and physios are different in the way they treat people, but you'll be fine! Think about how much better your back will feel after you get the treatment. And if it hurts, tell him/her to stop, LOL!
All the best. Let us know how it goes.
Depends on what the reason is - my physio did a combination of massage, US heat treatment and needling.
The needles are the best - they are like a massage for the muscles right in the spot that's knotted.
Generally they start off by feeling your back, legs and arms, and will push and poke and ask "does that hurt" a lot. Then the look at whatever, and show you pictures of muscles and spines and stuff.
If they decide to massage your lower calves, or arms, or legs, just go with it, as its often the little niggles that cause the pain.
They'll usually give you exercises to do at home too ...
Good luck!
good point! Also ask your physio what pain you can expect today and over the next couple of days - but it's well worth it.:
WOW! That is possibly one of the most horrible things I have ever done to myself ROFL!
I am not very good with pain etc and man that was not nice. I do feel better for it now but geez! I have to go back next week so they can hurt me again :lol: but after that my lower back should be fixed and then he is going to work on my shoulders. They have been bad for years so he said that it will take some time to undo everything that I have done!! Oh, well :rolleyes: if it makes me feel better I am sure that I can handle half an hour of pain! :)
Dani,
Glad your back is feeling a bit better!!
If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost (ball-park figure will do) I have had a really bad back for years too and after pg and now with lugging my chubba bub around as well as weight gain, it is slowly getting worse. I am interested in getting it looked at, but money is an issue at the mo. Thanks
What did the not-very-nice man do Dani?
Great that it feels better, Dani! Another of my friends is a physio and (I didn't want to tell you this before you went - didn't want to scare you;) ) her patients think she is mean!
LOL, she gets called lots of nasty names... Even though she is very friendly... my favourite name that one of her patients gave her is 'the baby-faced assassin' LOL!
Hi, I'm actually a physio, as is my husband, and he has postgrad qualifications in back/neck/spinal pain.
There are a few different schools of thought with regard to back pain and tons of research around on it, which makes it very hard for the average person to know what the best treatment is and how to get it. What we know doesn't work:
massage (feels nice but doesn't fix the problem)
ultrasound
bed rest
We both work using the McKenzie method, which is based on the patients responses to various movements and repeated movements. Basically it comes down to you doing certain exercises (very specific to each case) which will reduce the pain and increase your ability to move. The beauty of this approach is several fold. There's little hands on, so you don't get pushed and prodded into pain. You learn how to treat the pain yourself so you don't have to go as often. The exercises should give you immediate pain reduction. I did a comparison study at a place I used to work on how many treatments patients needed before they were discharged, and it showed that patients treated with McKenzie approach needed about half the treatment sessions to get better compared to those receiving other treatment. Oh, and even though someone might have had the problem for years, it can still respond well to treatment, saw it with a grand rounds patient in March who'd had pain for 10 yrs and after one session with the top bloke had no pain at all!
The cost of physio is very dependent on where you live too, some are expensive, some aren't. You can find a McKenzie physio by googling for their directory in Australia (or you can pm me as i have a hard copy) or you can find tons of physios by looking in the Australian Physiotherapy Association's 'find a physio' directory.