Cancer Truth Note: #77
Physical Therapy consults are NOT common for cancer survivors.
If you are not back to 100% 6 to 8 weeks post surgery ask for a physical therapy consult. Many years ago when I was recovering from a car accident injury my orthopedic surgeon told me, if people don’t fully regain their mobility in the first 6 to 8 weeks, they often never regain it. He told me this on the day he was dismissing me from follow ups because I had reached the benchmarks he set for me. It was still a 6-month road of recovery for me to walk without a limp and another year before I could wear heels for more than a few hours at a time (if you know me in the real world you know I love heels). It was two years before I was back to running. Full recovery took time.
It is important to meet the basic goals in those first few weeks and keep building upon the successes. If you don’t know where to start, let’s talk. I can help you get started, whether the right first stop is physical therapy or if the right first stop is a studio like mine where the focus is getting you moving again and graduating to all the activities that you want to be able to do, maybe even better than before. The important part is to get started. Just because PT consults are the norm, doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from asking for one.
Did you have PT as part of your cancer journey? How did it help you? How can you get moving today?
Continue the conversation in the facebook group Surviving is JUST the Beginning or follow me on Instagram.
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