Have you been told that your pain will not resolve and you can't return to the activities you enjoy? Our Physiotherapists and Osteopaths successfully treat people with chronic or complex pain, even if they have had lots of treatment elsewhere including seeing other physios, osteopaths, chiropractors, doctors and having had injections and operations. Check out our testimonials or google reviews to be inspired or book in now to see one of our specialists.
Chronic pain is a term banded around without people appreciating that it is not a diagnosis. The meaning of ‘chronic’ varies but really just means ‘long term pain.’ ‘Long term’ is defined as anything from 3 to 6 months or more. Chronic pain is NOT the same as ‘incurable pain’ but unfortunately the terms have become synonymous. That is why we prefer the term ‘complex pain.’ Just because someone has been experiencing pain for a long time it does not mean that it will not get better. What it does mean is that the treatments designed for acute or short term pain will not work. Or at least they will not work as quickly as they do for pain that has only been experienced for a short time. Basically the longer you have had your pain the longer it will take for it to get better and for you to return to doing the things you want to do.
For example, if you have had pain for six months, you will need to have physiotherapy for six months to a year to recover. If you have had pain for a year of more, you will be looking at a programme of up to eighteen to twenty four months. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely that your insurance company or the NHS will provide you with physiotherapy for this period of time and you will therefore need to pay for at least a proportion of it. The short term cost needs to be weighed up against the long term gain of being able to work and do the things you enjoy. You also need to consider that it may not be as costly as it sounds as long as you do all the things that the physio tells you to do (and not to do!) so that in effect you become your own physio and therefore do not need frequent appointments. In fact, I would recommend that you question the clinical reasoning of your physio if they ask you to have weekly appointments for more than about six weeks because after this time you should be becoming more independent and less reliant on hands on treatment. Hands on treatment will then only be appropriate during flare ups, and this should only be episodic. By the time a year is up your appointments should only be once every few weeks or months.
Please do get in touch if you would like further information or to speak to one of our experienced Physiotherapists or Osteopaths.
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