“Do you like have your own patients?”

“Yeah, but my neck hurts so I should go somewhere else, right?”

“Do you guys treat backs?”

“You guys just kind of do a lot of stretching, right?”

(The infamous PT picture…)

These are only a few of the quotes that I hear regularly, in my daily practice as a physical therapist. In school our professors would occasionally go on a short rant about how the general public doesn’t know what we do, but we students always brushed it off thinking, “there is no way people don’t know what we do and how awesome we are, they will flock to me when I graduate.” Wellll, turns out they were right (source).

So, what do I do? What do I treat? How? And why you should come see me (or another PT).

*Disclaimer- PTs work in several very different settings, this is what I do in outpatient private practice*

What I do:

Put most simply, I figure out where you hurt, and why you hurt then help you move better and hurt less. I do a thorough ‘interview’ of my patient to get an idea of what is going on, then do a thorough physical examination to try to prove myself wrong, if I can’t, then I’m on to something. Once I have ‘diagnosed’ you. We chat about all that I found and address each thing with a number of treatment options.

What I treat:

Nerd language: [neuro]Musculoskeletal pathologies and movement dysfunction.

Actual human language: If a muscle, tendon, bone, joint, ligament, nerve is hurting I treat it. If you aren’t moving the way you used to or wish you could, I can help you. If you have a headache (a specific type that originates from your neck) I can help you. If you have an ulcer, I cannot. If you have a [currently] broken bone, I cannot. If you have heart disease I cannot give you appropriate medication. I do not treat those systems, but I have brilliant colleagues who know WAY more about those systems than I do, and I will give you their number.

How I treat:

After a thorough assessment, I will have a number of ‘problems’ to treat. Physical therapists are positioned in a really cool place, because we have the ability to treat you with our hands, called manual therapy, with instruments, called instrument assisted manual therapy, with modalities, like ultrasound and other and with exercise (which is a REALLY broad category). Some dysfunctions respond best to hands on treatment, others do better with exercise. It all depends on what we find in the exam! No one gets the same treatment because no one has the exact same problems.

Why you should come see me (or another PT):

Physical therapists, especially outpatient physical therapists, are easily accessible (compared to most orthopedic surgeons), thorough (we get more time with you than most professions 30-1 hour), experts in our area of practice (look above). We are effective (source, source, source, source) and cost-effective (source, source). We are a great first contact point for you if you are in pain, because if we can help you we will and if we can’t we will know where to send you!

 

If you want to see me in particular (and you live in Northwest Arkansas), I work at Premiere Physical Therapy, call (479-273-9933) and I will do my best to help you or get you to someone who can.