My name is Becca and work for SOL Physical Therapy, but I’m not a physical therapist. After living with a literal pain in my neck (and shoulder … and forearm) since 2009, I decided that it was time to get some physical therapy. One week into my journey, I have been a baaaaaaad patient.
As much as I want to pretend that everything is going well, I cannot lie. In the week following my physical therapy evaluation, my shoulder and neck felt more painful than they did before.
This is not my Physical Therapists fault. It’s my fault for being a bad patient.
Why I’m a bad patient, reason #1: I didn’t schedule all my follow-ups.
On a daily basis, I tell our patients the importance of committing to a schedule and scheduling as many follow-ups as possible into the future. Talk about not practicing what I preach. After my first appointment, I was just like “Meh. I work for this place, I’ll just go whenever.”
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. In not scheduling appointments, I set myself up for some serious failure. I didn’t know when I would be back to see my SOL PT, and (based on my personal motivations) didn’t have that upcoming appointment to motivate me. Which brings me to…
Why I’m a bad patient, reason #2: I didn’t do my home exercise program (HEP).
I work in a place that has everything I need (and more!) to easily complete a HEP. I can even grab a physical therapy aide to watch me do them if they’re not with a patient.
Did I? No.
When I told a few coworkers about not doing my HEP, they were not happy with me.
My PT Says: You didn’t do your home exercise program? 50 Demerits!
My Trainer Says: Becca! You have to do your HEP!! We can tell when you don’t.
But wait, there’s more!
Why I’m a bad patient, reason #3: I didn’t follow all of my PT’s recommendations.
To my credit, I did follow two of them. I got the green light to set up better workstation ergonomics, and I’ve been paying more attention to my posture as I work (mostly because my PT walked in on me once and was like “Hey! Sit up!” Now, anytime anyone walks in, I think it’s her, and I straighten up!).
But! I didn’t follow my PT’s advice to get up and move every 30 minutes. Between working on SOL’s new website (teaser!), and putting in hard hours prepping for the class I teach outside of SOL, I basically spent 100% of the time between my evaluation and today glued to a computer.
Not only did I not move every 30 minutes, I barely moved at all. And I spent most of my time working in the body positions that got me into this painful mess in the first place.
Like I said, my shoulder/neck hurts worse this week, but I know that it is 100% my fault.
I’m a little nervous to report back to my PT tomorrow, but I know I have to go to my first follow-up if I ever want to get better.
Help a sister out! When I go back in for treatment, I want to have a gameplan to tell Korey about how I’m going to get my HEP going strong! How do you keep on track with you HEP? Any tips for me?
