PHYSIOTHERAPIST IN
THREE RIVERS, VEREENIGING

Rehabilitation

The Work of Your Physiotherapist: Restoring Health (Rehabilitation)

Rehabilitation is the process by which your body recovers its full function following injury. It is a vital part to the healing process and can often be over looked or neglected. It is importantly to realize that the process of recovery doesn’t stop with the treatment of injuries or of relieving of pain. Muscles and joints are always left weak following injury and need to be rebuilt if the body is to fully recover. From the perspective of a physiotherapist the most hazardous time in the injury process is at 1 to 3 months after injury. During this time your muscles and joints have not fully strengthened – even though the pain may have settled. Most injuries that reoccur during this period do so because the rehabilitation process has not been completely finished

Injury rehabilitation is not just about getting back into every day activities; it involves careful planning, guidance and supervision from a qualified Physiotherapist – providing a detailed guide for recovery following injury.

But there is more to the healing side of a physiotherapist’s work. She also works with:

• neurological rehabilitation when clients are affected by conditions of the brain and spinal cord. Neurological rehabilitation comes into play when people suffer from conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury or dementia.
• post-op rehabilitation. With many orthopaedic operations, surgeons will expect the patient to perform both prehabilitation (before the op) and rehabilitation (after the op) to ensure the best possible result is achieved. Following the surgery you may be seen by a physiotherapist before leaving hospital and given advice and exercises for the first 5 to 10 days. Having a good understanding of these exercises is an important part of the rehabilitation and will enable you to have a good outcome. Over time the exercises should be changed to more challenging exercises and progressing the number of repetitions will also build the muscle strength and improve the range of movement. The early post operative exercises generally are not sufficient on their own beyond the first 2 weeks but the injury will not tolerate more difficult exercises too early. This is where your physiotherapist can guide and assist you as to how quickly to progress the home routine for rehabilitation. Your physiotherapist can also contact your surgeon to check if he or she has any specific requirements for the post operative phase.
• Injury rehabilitation consists both of sports specific and functional rehabilitation. In this process the physio will construct a step-by-step rehabilitation process for each and every injury – providing a detailed guide for recovery following injury and the initial treatment. Whether it is a shoulder injury or knee injury, back pain, neck pain, or a repetitive strain injury, we will have an exercise program to suit. By tailoring our exercise programs to the individual needs of our clients, we ensure our Rehabilitation is both functional and achievable.

Conditions We Treat…

• Treating injuries
• Sports injuries
• Muscle injuries
• Tendon injuries
• Ligament injuries
• Joint injuries
• Bone injuries/fractures
• Myofascial injuires
• Nerve injuries
• Relieving pain
• Arthritis
• Neck pain
• Shoulder pain
• Back pain
• Spinal pain
• Joint pain
• Knee pain
• Sciatica
• Headaches
• Jaw and facial pain
• Pregnancy related back and pelvic pain
• Restoring Health/Rehabilitation
• Post injury rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation after physical trauma and disability
• Post surgical rehabilitation
• Post stroke rehabilitation
• Pneumonia, bronchitis, sinusitis