Electronic Health Reporter

Everyone’s lives eventually get touched by a need for physical therapy. Whether your mom is going through it after a hip replacement surgery, or you have to go through it after a car crash, it’s not easy for anyone. Physical therapy can look completely different based on injury and the patient, but there’s one thing that strings it all together.

It helps people.

If you, or someone you care about, are coming out of surgery, physical therapy may be the only step left to finish healing. Here are all of the ways that it can help and why patients shouldn’t skip it.

Sets goals

Surgery can be scary because it takes away some of our security in ourselves and our bodies. When we lose that control, it’s essential to feel like we can earn it back. Physical therapy gives us attainable goals for things we can achieve or hope for. Although not every series of treatments can guarantee a perfect recovery, the milestones that come with can be good enough to feel success in small steps. These goals are vital to handle well about ourselves.  

Helps with mobility

Nobody wants to have to rely on others all the time. Physical therapy after surgery makes it so that we can be more self-sufficient. When you go to your Lehigh Valley physical therapy, you’re not going there to practice moving- you’re rebuilding muscle and strength that you’ve used before — or that you want to gain full use of for the first time in your life.  

Makes healing a team effort

You don’t have to go through this process alone. Instead of sticking you with nobody or getting through a challenging ordeal alone, physical therapy gives you a person or team you can fall back on. This work is an incredible thing that will leave you feeling lifted and supported by professionals and friends. Healing and moving past pain is an excellent and awe-inspiring task to undertake. There’s no need to pressure yourself when you can have others cheering you on instead. People need support systems to lift them when their bodies can’t do the work for them.

Gives you a schedule 

Many injuries pull people out of work and set them at home to heal. As good as this can be since it alleviates strain and stress, it also sucks away our daily schedules. You no longer have a workweek to look forward to ending or a lunch break to stop for every single day. As freeing as this may feel for the first few days, most people report they feel lost without a set schedule. Although it’s better not to think of physical therapy as a job — it can give you a plan to look forward.

Physical therapy isn’t something you can skip out on or pass when you need it. Like any medication, surgery, or treatment, it’s there to help your body get back to a livable and comfortable state. Take the time you deserve to get through this process and move on with your life on the other side of it.