HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Advice needed

Support Forums
>
Fibromyalgia
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/7/2012 1:42 PM (GMT 0)
Good morning all,

I need some advice. For the last 4 weeks I've been seeing a physical therapist who is also an athletic trainer. He has given me some tools for my pain such as more stretches and telling me I need to try to maintain a proper posture at all times and also my core intact due to my back injury if I want to improve.

What I need to know is the therapist is strongly suggesting that I write down the amount of repetitions I do for each and every stretch I perform to see if I can do more.... This to me sounds more exhausting. To have to pick up the pad of paper and write down the amount of repetitions... There must be 40 or more that I do. That would probably add more minutes to my already exhausting though beneficial regiment.

I was doing 20 minutes of exercises and stretches. Since the therapist has added more I now do 30 minutes of stretches and exercises x2 a day. The writing down of the number of repetitions seems like a big waste of time. I've found that I'm not able to do as many since I began going to this therapist. Some of my areas of pain and my level of fatigue have increased. 

As you all know, our level of pain changes each day, each hour. He doesn't get it. I want him to be satisfied with my telling him if I can do more repetitions or not on the days between my appointments. He seems to think my pain is in a large part mental.

This therapist has helped me somewhat with my level of pain in some areas that's why I have been continuing to see him. I'm strongly considering canceling my appointments.

Yesterday the therapist had me do more and I was too exhausted and sore to go for a walk in the mall afterwards and my legs hurt throughout the day and night.

This is a crude way of putting it but does anyone ever get the sensation of having your legs being pulled out of your sockets?

Please tell me what you think and point me in the direction of any helpful articles. Thanks!

 

Posted 1/7/2012 2:04 PM (GMT 0)
Do what is comfortable for you. You know your body. Don't push it, it will flare. but a small amount of increase might help. But do what is right for you.

Know that everybody here cares.

Hugs, Karen
Posted 1/7/2012 2:18 PM (GMT 0)
Maybe you need to remind him that more is not always a good thing and that you suffer from chronic painful conditions....gentle stretching and exercise a re recommended but you are not his typical client.

Sometimes specialists think that their specialty can cure anything and we are just whiners...

Let him know that you are the boss of your body and know its limits. I just love it when healthy people tell us what we "should" do...they cannot possibly get it!!

Speak up or maybe you could change PTs...good luck
maggie
Posted 1/7/2012 3:25 PM (GMT 0)
I'm with Maggie and Karen on this - I had to see a PT after a foot surgery. His opinion was basically - suck it up, why are you whining so much? But I knew something had to be off because for all of my life up until then I'd always had a pretty high tolerance for pain.

Truth is only you know how you feel. Don't over exert yourself or it will have the opposite affect of what you want. At the same time, exercise IS really beneficial if it's within your limits - especially when an injury is involved (my now healed fool agrees) - but it's important to pace yourself. A PT or trainer's goal is to push you - all day long they listen to people whine about not wanting to do whatever it is they're doing - so in their defense, I could see how they could need some extra convincing to understand you need a more gentle approach due to your condition. And if that doesn't work, maybe look for a new PT.

As for logging repetitions - I was given a physical printed out spreadsheet to log reps (not sure if you got the same deal). I'm with you - I hated it. It wasn't so much the writing part as the interruption I guess - it seemed not so helpful to me. For me (and note here - I'm FAR from anything resembling a medical professional) it seemed that the majority of the time I kept within a certain routine (obviously not the case if you're increasing reps right now so maybe this won't work but still) - when I had a set number of reps to do I just kept a list by me and only wrote something down if it changed for some reason. It mean far less writing. Or - here's another idea if you don't already have this - use excel to make a check off sheet. So rather than writing a list each time all you have to do is check off the box for "12 reps" or whatever you did.

Best of luck and take care!
Bridget
Posted 1/7/2012 4:28 PM (GMT 0)
The therapist obviously doesn't know much about fibromyalgia.  I refuse to see anyone who thinks this is all in my head and that if I work harder, I can overcome this illness.  It doesn't work that way. 

 

GENTLE stretches and GENTLE exercises help fibro a lot.  If you are doing anything and it is causing you pain, you need to back off, in my opinion.  When stretching, I can feel the muscles pull but that's not pain.  If I am feeling pain, I stop and know not to go that far next time. 

 

Sherrine

Posted 1/8/2012 1:08 AM (GMT 0)
I just recently found a new doctor in my area. He beleives in Fibro. He told me the only thing that seems to help Fibro is arobic exercise but not any kind, only water arobics. He said any other kind only hurts you before it can begin to help. He strongly suggested I try to get a membership to a pool where I can get this kind of exercise or swim laps. I am tapped out after the holidays but it is on my list to do this year. He is not even in favor of too much walking unless I feel up to it.
He spends time with me each time I have an apt. and really listens and talks about my pain and what we can do to manage it. The reason he gave for the arobics is it increases your endorphins and that helps you to sleep better at night.
I agree with everyone else. Don't ever stand for anyone telling you it is in your head! The real problem is what isn't in their head is the knowledge to help you with your pain so they try to hide their ignorance by insulting you.
Posted 1/8/2012 3:40 AM (GMT 0)
I'm afraid I can't help you much here. Every time I've tried PT, it's backfired and I've ended up in so much pain I had to quit. In theory, I think it's great, though, so I hope you can keep doing it...

Debbie
Posted 1/8/2012 5:21 AM (GMT 0)
I tried to do some excercise one day because I was feeling so good. The next day I paid for it. I hardly could move. I learned with fibro you have to do gentle excercise. You must listen to your body. One day you might not feel like you can do it due to the incresed spasms or etc. It sounds like he or she doesn't really know much about fibro pain.
Posted 1/8/2012 7:24 AM (GMT 0)
It is not all in your head but your trainer thinks so. Leaves me wondering what else he's wrong about.
Posted 1/8/2012 11:10 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks, everyone, for your responses. They are very much appreciated. I have decided to cancel any further appointments with him. I feel I can't trust him. At the last appointment I told him how sore I was after the prior appointment. He told me we would take it easy. He didn't. In fact, he pushed me into doing more of one repetitive exercise as if he was trying to prove to me how much I could do if I didn't think about it. (I was talking and not focusing on how exhausted and sore I was.) I paid for it the rest of the day and the next.

I'm not sorry for seeing him. Now I have some tools to help my pain like keeping my core tightened, keeping my posture correct as much as I can, and some new stretches to help my neck. Did you know tightening your stomach is not how you tighten your core? He says it is vitally important that people with back injuries not slouch. I have been a sloucher all of my life. It is exhausting to try to sit up straight and not have as much support, so I do it as much as I can.

Kidz Mom, I did water aerobics for years before I came down with fibromyalgia and I loved it. But I had to stop. All at once, the water became too cold for me, and I felt the instructor didn't understand my fibromyalgia. She pushed me too much. So my advice is to find a place with a pool water temperature you could easily tolerate, an instructor who is certified and knows what he or she are doing (some are just there to chat and not give you a workout), and even though the water would feel good be careful about pushing yourself too much and possibly paying for it afterwards.

Thanks again all.

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply