Have you ever been told by your insurance company that you need to go to X amount of physical therapy visits before you can get an MRI or another procedure?
Has this ever felt frustrating to you? Like how in the world can this therapist possibly know what to do without seeing your imaging results?
I get it. It is confusing and frustrating and we are going to dive a little deeper into this topic.
Let me first say that my patient population is mostly adults with long standing pain who are currently or have been active. They mostly come to me with aches and pains that have been present for a while and have gradually gotten worse and are now becoming a problem rather than a traumatic event.
🚩If you had a traumatic injury like a car accident, a bad fall, or some other thing like likely caused injury, yes, imaging is appropriate and I would want those results. If you have any severe motor changes or changes in bowel and bladder function, that is serious and needs imaging.
Other than that, imaging doesn’t always help me much as a PT. Here’s why.
1️⃣ As a physical therapist, my primary goal is to help you move and move safely. Even if you have the worst imaging results on the planet, my goal is STILL to help you move safely. I do an in depth movement and musculoskeletal screen to let me see how you’re moving and doing things day to day. An MRI is an image taken lying down not doing functional things. In this position, there is nothing indicating what is provoking your pain day to day. My exam tells me more about things that impact you daily.
2️⃣ Some special testing I learn as a physical therapist lets me assess different structures. I know how a properly functioning body *should* respond and what to suspect if it responds differently and I tailor my approach to your plan of care based on that. While I'm not an MRI machine, my testing gives me a pretty clear indication if you have an issue with muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, or joints based on these tests and what "normal" should be. I also compare to your other side to see what your "normal" is and gauge how you feel when you are doing said test/motion. This is SO much more telling to me because these tests are generally motions you end up doing in some way or another during the day and it gives me so much more insight into the bigger picture than just a MRI.
3️⃣ Sometimes people get imaging and the language used to describe their imaging induces fear in some cases and makes people feel like they can do less because of X diagnosis. If you have imaging results you want to discuss it, I will definitely do that with you and explain what that means in terms of movement. My job is to help you move regardless of your diagnosis and to change the approach based on how YOU present each time I see you.
👉That’s what I’m here for. If you need help moving, fill out the contact form on the website and I am happy to help!
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