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If you are feeling a little concerned about how you will recover following surgery, you are not alone. Everyone has heard stories of how difficult it can be to get back on your feet after an operation. You may have even gone through surgery before, so you have first-hand experience. Fortunately, there is a relatively new approach to physical therapy and surgery that is helping a lot of people recover faster and more fully. Pre-surgical rehab can make life after surgery easier. Contact our Hazel Green, AL or Fayetteville, TN offices to learn more!
What is Pre-Surgical Physical Therapy?
Pre-surgical rehab, often called pre-hab, is a simple concept. Instead of waiting until after you have gone through surgery to do rehab, why not do some before as well? It may not seem terribly innovative, but pre-hab has been gaining a lot of popularity with surgeons, patients and physical therapists—because it delivers serious results.
Comparing Post-Surgical and Pre-Surgical Physical Therapy
Post-Surgical Physical Therapy
Most people are aware that surgery should be avoided if possible. But sometimes surgery is the only option available to improve your health and your life. You know that going through surgery means going through physical therapy as well. Often you are required to rest immediately following surgery so that you can heal. You have to give your body time to recover.
Unfortunately, all that lying around can cause you to lose strength and mobility. Your injury may have caused you to be less active as well, which can cause you to lose muscle mass, flexibility and mobility. There is also the damage caused by the actual surgery to consider—damage that may take time and exercise to fix.
Physical therapy after surgery is designed to make you stronger and more flexible. It is intended to repair your body as much as possible so you can get back to leading a normal life. Everyone’s results are different, but you can guarantee that physical therapy will lead to better outcomes than going without it. It will help with mobility, strength, pain management and more.
Pre-Surgical Physical Therapy
It has been known for a long time that patients who are in better physical condition prior to surgery tend to recover more quickly. However, it has only been fairly recently that doctors and physical therapists have discovered how beneficial even just a few sessions of physical therapy can be before surgery. You do not have to be an athlete to benefit from a little exercise before surgery—especially if the exercise is targeted to your specific needs. A physical therapist is the perfect person to help you find and perform the right exercises prior to your surgery.
Pre-hab prepares you for surgery in several ways. It helps you to get stronger and more flexible, but it also helps improve your mindset. Doing a little work to prepare for surgery allows you to feel more involved in the process. The exercises your physical therapist takes you through in pre-hab will also be similar if not the same as the exercises you will do after surgery—so you will be able to train them when you are in good health. This training will make doing the exercises after surgery easier.
Don’t worry if your surgery is coming up soon. Even a few sessions of pre-hab can make a noticeable difference in your recovery.
How Does Pre-Hab Work?
The pre-hab process is not complicated. You just need to talk to your doctor and physical therapist about getting pre-hab and they will take care of the details. Your physical therapist will do a thorough examination and design a set of exercises based on your body and your coming surgery. Then you will go through the exercises with the physical therapist and probably at home on your own. Ideally, you will be able to go through multiple pre-hab sessions before surgery.
Your Pre-Hab Team
Our physical therapy team is here for all your pre-hab needs. If you are going to have surgery, please contact TheraFit™ Physical Therapy & Fitness Center in Hazel Green, AL, and Fayetteville, TN. to discuss pre-hab. We are standing by to answer your questions and schedule an appointment with a physical therapist.
Are you scheduled for an upcoming surgery and concerned about bouncing back from it well—or even hopeful that you’ll end up feeling stronger than before?
Our highly skilled and experienced team of physical therapy clinicians can guide you through the entire pre-surgical and post-surgical process so that you can maximize your outcomes and make the most out of any type of invasive procedure.
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What Is Post-Surgical Rehab and What are the Benefits?
Both pre- and post-surgical rehab are essential elements for successful patient outcomes. Post-surgical rehab with a physical therapist is especially important in order to make sure things go smoothly after your operation is done. This is because any type of surgery is a form of trauma and can affect the body differently. Even minor and uncomplicated surgical procedures can have a major impact on your health.
Individualized post-surgical rehab with a physical therapist not only minimizes your pain and accelerates your rate of healing (and return to sport or work). It also reduces the chances of post-operative complications including infections, bleeding, blood clots, muscle weakness, scar tissue, decreased function, and other factors which can negatively impact your long-term health.
Another critical reason for electing post-surgical physical therapy is that it can help you reduce or completely avoid prescription painkillers, including opioids. An opioid epidemic is currently gripping the country and impacting every socioeconomic class. According to the CDC, an estimated 115 people every day die from opioid overdose, and upwards of 29% of people prescribed opioids will end up misusing these dangerous drugs!
For this reason, the CDC advises people to choose physical therapy over prescription painkillers whenever possible.
Common Reasons for Surgery and Things to Consider in the Post-Surgical Phase
When conservative treatment options for an injury or health condition fails to provide effective relief, many patients elect to undergo surgery for rotator cuff tears and other types of injury, including:
- Full or partial knee replacements
- Total hip replacements
- ACL, MCL, and/or meniscus repairs
- Heart surgery (e.g., ablations, stent placements, cardiac pacemakers, etc.)
The impact of these surgeries should not be understated. Most surgeries incur at least some degree pain, inflammation, mobility limitations, and swelling. To complicate matters, you likely were already experiencing pain and dysfunction prior to your operation!
Plus, you’ll likely have to learn how to do certain things some things all over again (even things as simple as walking and dressing), either to accommodate healing tissues and/or to avoid recurring dysfunction. Your physical therapist can teach you how to perform tasks safely while following critical post-operative guidelines (e.g. hip precautions, sternal precautions, spine precautions, non-weight bearing, etc.) which are often outlined by your surgeon.
How Physical Therapy Helps in Post-Surgical Rehab
No matter what your particular surgery may be, you can rely upon a physical therapist to get you moving again. Our physical therapy team is here to help you make sense of confusing medical terms and learn the right progressions of exercises and activities to maximize post-surgical recovery!
Instead of masking pain, physical therapy helps you resolve your pain and other impairments. We do this through techniques such as joint mobilizations, home exercise programs, and non-invasive modalities including therapeutic ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and cold laser therapy.
Depending on your post-operative environment, a physical therapist can also help you problem solve how to safely get in and out of a car, up and down stairs, in and out of bed, and so on while protecting your healing surgical site and keeping you safe. We can give you adaptive tools to compensate for reduced movement while at the same time working with your body to restore the normal range of movement as quickly as possible.
Lastly, our physical therapy team can also educate you about lifestyle and nutritional techniques to optimize your healing and health in the long-term. That way, you’ll be far more likely to avoid re-injury, recurrent surgeries, and prolonged downtime.
Feeling anxious about an upcoming surgery? Contact our Hazel Green, AL, and Fayetteville, TN physical therapy clinics today to request a pre- and post-surgical appointment and set yourself up for post-operative success!
