"I tried physical therapy, it didn't work."
I can't tell you how many times I have heard that exact phrase. But I want to bring light to a revelation here: not all physical therapists are created equal.
Do you just throw out remodeling on your house if you dislike something the contractor did. You don't like what the doctor says or does, do you get a second opinion? Chiropractor too rough... you go to another. Physical therapy should be treated the same way. And trust me, I will be the first to tell you there are BAD PTs out there. They probably won't hurt you but they may not get you better either.
In many, many cases physical therapy is just what you need for your musculoskeletal injury (muscle, bone, nerve). More and more research is supporting exercise and strengthening to be the BEST thing you can do for pain in muscles and joints. Who specializes in exercise? Physical therapists.
Physical therapists also have training to help you overcome that pain so that you can exercise through the use of massage, dry needling, manipulation and joint mobilization. The goal is to get the pain tolerable enough so that you can exercise as well as make the modifications needed to your exercise so that is doesn't make you worse but better!
Physical therapy is a relatively new field starting to grow during World War I and being accepted as a part of the healthcare realm in the 1950s. So this field is changing and growing at a rapid pace. New evidence and research comes out daily on what helps, doesn't help, should help, etc. So don't throw out PT as "something you tried and it didn't work."
Generally speaking, healing takes time sometime months or years. However, you should be able to see small changes and victories in the first week or 2 of PT. If you aren't, and your PT isn't trying to change anything or isn't able to explain why they are doing what they are.... maybe you should change PTs instead of throwing out "It didn't work".
Check out this cool article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/article/physical-therapist-search.html
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