Initial assessment
Before any treatment can begin, we need to find out more about your specific condition and general health.
Vicki will ask questions about your condition, your general health and your lifestyle. It is important for physiotherapists to know about any medication you may be on and other health conditions to make sure that our treatments are safe and effective.
Please feel free to make a few notes to bring with you, and if you have any clinic letters from seeing a consultant in the past these can give us lots of useful information too. In some cases, such as if you have had surgery in the last three months we will need to understand the full details of what your surgery was and any post-operative instructions from your consultant. You can ask your hospital or G.P. for a copy of your 'operation notes' or relevant clinic letter.
What to expect
We will ask you to describe any symptoms you have, and to tell us about what sort of things impact on your condition - for example any movements or postures that hurt, and may ask you to score any symptoms you have between 0 and 10 (Zero is feeling perfectly fine!). It helps us to work out the nature of your condition and what sort of intervention you need if we can build up a really good picture of what you are experiencing.
We would then look at how you move and at anything that might relate to the problem you are having. Often this involves checking the movement function of other areas - for example, knee pain may actually have its origins in your hip or lower spine. It is helpful if you wear comfortable, loose clothes to your appointment - ideally allowing for exposure of the main area to be checked. This means we can see the muscles, skin and joints in the best detail. However, we can work within your comfort zone and have a range of towels to help with draping during examination if needed.
We may check strength, mobility, balance, functional activites, biomechanical interactions and nerve distributions, depending on what pointers we have from listening to you and what we see on assessment. We can also check on your blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturations if necessary. It is important during any of the examination or treatments (and between treatments) to let us know of any changes in your symptoms.
Will I get any treatment at my first assessment?
Usually during the initial assessment appointment we will be able to provide some tailored treatment, and also give recommendations for any further treatments with ourselves or others which may benefit you. If anything comes up that we would like you to follow up with your G.P. or other healthcare provider, we will liase with them in a timely way and/or give you the information you need to get in touch with them. If specific movements or exercise therapy are indicated we will give you access to either written or online information depending on your preference, and we can send you a link to a personalised programme using 'Rehab My Patient' which has excellent videos to use.