A few notes on physiotherapy

"What do you expect to achieve through physiotherapy?"

"I want to improve muscle tone to help improve and maintain stability around the joint". I don't expect physiotherapy to eliminate my pain. I hope that I can ease a little pain though! But honestly, when it's as bad as this, physio very often aggrevates and enangers the joint. My physio goes by the principle that you 'work to tiredness' not to pain. Most of the time this does work, but psychologically you feel like some weakling who can only repeat 3 times and has to stop as if she ran a marathon. Oh well, that's between me and the physio ;o)

I want to keep my muscles as strong as I can get them (we're not talking olympic status here!) in case I do have to have some form of surgery in the future - could be next year, could be 10 years, who knows. Hip sugery will significantly reduce your mobility for a short period of time and whilst your bones heal, your muscles waste. But, muscle has a form of 'memory'. The better the tone they had prior to any surgery, the faster they bounce back afterwards with exercise.

Sometimes its hard to commit to the exercises due to tiredness or pain, but its so important to do them as instructed. I'll admit, I only ever managed to fit in 2 of the 3 times a day my physio asks of me, I'm not gonna beat myself up about that. But I make sure that when I do them, its quality not quantity.

This is out-patient physiotherapy. In-patient physiotherapy is something else altogether!