What to expect during your visit to Fortius Physio
We get asked many questions about what to expect during your visit with a physiotherapist.
While some of you may have been to a physiotherapist before, here are some common steps to expect when you come to see a physio.
- Paperwork
First thing’s first, when you see a physiotherapist, we want to get to know you, so there will likely be some forms for you to tell us more about why you’re coming, where the area of pain is and what you’re looking for out of your session. If its your first appointment to the clinic, it’s best to try to come in 10 minutes before your scheduled appointment to fill out the paperwork. - Assessment
What better way for us to make your plan individualized than assessing your movement, listening to your story and better understanding what areas can be improved? Expect to be asked a whole bunch of questions, and try a variety of movements so we can pin down where to help you best! Keeping track of the things that you find difficult in your day-to-day routine and what movements feel good to do will be key to help us figure out the best plan of action. - Avoid sitting for long periods of time
Prolong periods of sitting puts pressure on the discs and ligaments in the low back. Some jobs require long periods of sitting so it is recommended to take frequent breaks to walk around or stretch and to help reposition yourself properly when you sit back down. - Goal Setting
How do we tell when we’ve improved or made a difference…GOALS. We work with you to determine what your goals are, and figure out a strategy to get you to achieve those goals. Goals can be as simple as lifting grocery bags out of a trunk, or walking for 30 minutes, the important part is that they are individualized, which is why there is no “one treatment fits all” in physiotherapy. - Homework
We cannot achieve everything we want to achieve in one 1 hour session, or a 30 minute session with you so we need your help! You’ll likely be given some homework to do so that you can keep progressing. We can’t help you unless you’re ready to help yourself, and what best way to do that is to start building it into your at home routine. But with that being said, any questions or concerns about your homework we can address so that you’re continuing to improve while your not physically in the clinic with us.
Other things to keep in mind:
- You will be given exercises during your course of treatment and before you say “exercise doesn’t work for my condition” let me stop you. The absolute BEST thing you can do for your body is move it! So let us help you find the ways you can move your body without increasing your pain/soreness/discomfort!
- We will use multiple different tools to achieve results, that can be: ultrasound, TENS, heat/ice, cupping, kin tape, acupuncture and the list goes on! So if one tool isn’t working, we have many more we can use.
- Physiotherapy isn’t a one stop shop. It takes TIME to achieve goals and to get to where you want us to be, so please don’t expect to be automatically “healed” or “pain free” within one visit. Some plans take a year, some plans take 12 weeks, and others take 4-6 weeks, but they all take TIME.