ARTHRITIS
(Knee, Neck Spine, Low Back Spine, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Degenerative Joint Disease and Degenerative Disc Disease)
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You CAN NOT “Cure” arthritis BUT YOU Can Manage very well with minimal pain and discomfort. Most importantly YOU CAN live, be active and AVOID some surgeries with the proper physical therapy
What types of arthritis do we help the most?
Arthritis comes in many different forms and types. It can be very frustrating to hear those words arthritis because
many of us assume “there is nothing I can do about it. I am here to say that is not correct and there is a lot you can
do!!
We have treated many types of arthritis successfully to restore your faith in your body, improve your ability to stay
active and live an active and independent lifestyle.
The most common types of arthritis that we see are:
● Knee osteoarthritis
● Neck spine arthritis
● Low back spine arthritis
● rheumatoid arthritis
We can help most all types of arthritis and I want to give you hope that you can improve your life with conservative
treatments.
Perhaps you have a scenario where you have tried physical therapy and didn’t see a change in your condition. Perhaps it made you feel worse? How is our practice any different?
With Focus Physical Therapy if your frustration is a diagnosis of Low Back arthritis, neck arthritis, knee arthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis as well, our goal is to help you be as pain free without medications or injections of any kind.
Here at Focus Physical Therapy our unique hands-on treatments can negotiate pain quickly with joint mobilization, soft tissue work, and other types of techniques. With the expectation of your pain being manageable, our therapists help create a plan to get you moving in the right direction to suit your lifestyle.
In a majority of our arthritis cases we work first to restore your range of motion. In order for arthritis to not be painful on a day to day basis the goal would be as close to a full range of motion as possible so your body has space and the arthritic areas aren’t compromised.
From there we work with you to become stronger. To feel confident to try the activities you thought you couldn’t do, This may be in the form of walking a little bit more, exercising a little bit more, sitting on the floor to read a story to the grandchildren, climbing the stairs without feeling out of breath or having pain.
With our help, we want you to be able to have pain under control, full range of motion and flexibility, and finally have your strength back.
All good things do take time – but with our knowledgeable therapists and your patience as well as determination -it can be done.
Misconceptions and feelings about arthritis
Have you been told by your doctor or some other healthcare professional “You have arthritis”
Whether it’d be arthritis in your knees, in your spine, or other parts of your body – you may immediately start thinking, “Oh my gosh, I have something that’s really serious. It’s never going away. Why did it happen to me? What do I do now?”
That’s a very common feeling that a lot of clients experience because arthritis feels initially like a diagnosis that you can’t do anything about. It can be daunting, painful and really frustrating.
Perhaps you have had a feeling like you’re just stuck and there’s nothing you can do. There is no one to help. That’s a common misconception where we step in.
Having the diagnosis of arthritis, and more specifically osteoarthritis, is NOT an uncontrollable diagnosis. There are ways you can improve and get your life back!
Some healthcare professionals have different approaches to arthritis, but at Focus Physical Therapy, we take a very natural approach. It’s true – you can’t cure arthritis. But arthritis is a normal aging process that happens to most of us, and that’s okay.
If we work together – and use the tools that Focus Physical Therapy can provide, you can manage this diagnosis to where you can be mostly pain-free, live an active and healthy life without surgery or injections.
It doesn’t mean you won’t potentially require surgery or injections but with the correct interventions and treatments in place you will have the support you need.
How Do We Help Arthritis?
How does physical therapy help arthritis when it can’t be cured? This is a question we hear daily.
The truth about arthritis is that it is a natural aging process. We can improve your body functions with any types of arthritis in order to get your life back and be as pain free as possible. Arthritis is helped by being in motion and that is how your therapist can help. We work with you to restore movement, flexibility, strength as well as have your pain under control.
Arthritis can be unique in that there are different stages. At different times you may find your body is experiencing more pain or stiffness.
Just think – have you ever noticed that when you wake up in the morning you’re super stiff? It’s because you maybe haven’t moved all night and you’ve become still without motion.
Our therapists have the expertise and knowledge to use the correct techniques for pain control to allow the next steps. To help obtain that motion quickly so even if you do wake up with stiffness – it can be corrected quickly and your day can start in the right direction.
When it comes to the spine and the knee, our therapists have a lot of techniques that feel good right away, get you moving better, and restore the natural range of motion to your joints.
When you have arthritis, you tend to guard the area in your body where you don’t feel confident fully straightening it all the way (knees). You don’t feel you can bend it all the way like you used to. Maybe your back is also becoming super stiff where you aren’t comfortable turning as well. You may feel that your neck is sore and stiff and it feels worse than a massive crick because of sleeping incorrectly. .
Our therapists begin treatment with manual techniques for pain control. From there it is important to learn what exercises and movement you can tolerate. Everyone starts somewhere and everyone is unique to their comfort level and their pain level. If you were to try doing generic exercises (as you may have already in the past) it could possibly hurt and if you aren’t guided in the beginning it could cause more frustrations to where you give up altogether.
Our therapists will show you how to self-manage your pain. When and how to use ice and/or heat to help out in the right way. As well as how to keep moving and how to modify activities until you make more progress and can move to next steps…
What to expect with physical therapy with Rheumatoid arthritis?
What should you expect with rheumatoid arthritis if you go to physical therapy? Well, the expectation should be that we can’t cure it, but together we are going to improve your quality of life.
Perhaps you are starting off with struggling walking, struggling to be active, struggling to go up the stairs. If those are your goals that’s where we start!
The most difficult part about rheumatoid arthritis from a physical therapy standpoint is that the condition is very irritable. If you have this specific arthritis you know this well. Maybe you have tried treatments that seem to only make it worse.
When it comes to rheumatoid arthritis, irritability means that if you do a small amount of motion or activity it can cause a massive flare up that takes more time, patience and treatment to manage.
If you know you have rheumatoid arthritis, you’ve already been to a doctor, and you’re doing some things to help manage, maybe medication, injections, and/or infusions. At Focus Physical Therapy we will use our hands with gentle techniques such as gentle massage, gentle joint mobilization to work your joints, muscles and body.
This can have an extreme feel of release for rheumatoid arthritis when it is treated the right way. If we are giving you the time and care to not rush through your treatment. From there we introduce you to specific flexibility exercises to be able to manage your discomfort on your own between therapy sessions.
What you should expect is to feel better! Our goal is that this occurs relatively quickly. With our tools and support you would be able to learn how to manage your pain better, as well as learn how to keep care of yourself the rest of your life in order to decrease the dependence on medications, injections. You will be able to live a fuller, healthier life without rheumatoid arthritis managing everything or guiding everything.
How can Focus Physical Therapy help RA?
As you already know, rheumatoid arthritis is a very difficult autoimmune condition and musculoskeletal condition that is very hard to manage. It’s hard to find solutions that allow you to live your life and not have restrictions. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, you may have already gone through the whole gamut of going to the doctor, getting the testing to show that you do have this diagnosis. Because RA is an autoimmune disease you will have specific markers that prove this is your diagnosis.
How would physical therapy fit in? Physical therapy is a great tool to be able to help you, not get worse. RA can be extremely painful and can stop you from participating in the activities you may have enjoyed for years. The joints can be so hard to move that it’s easy to give into it and not maintain what you have. We want to help you get that control back!
What our therapists perform is gentle manual techniques, meaning that we can do joint mobilizations, gentle massage, and we have the unique skills to be able to restore range of motion, restore joint mobility to allow you to exercise and be more flexible without painful flare ups.
We can help you manage this diagnosis better. You can live your life better, be able to walk better, be able to do stairs, be able to exercise and manage it so you can have a full life.
"Find Out How People Just Like You Came to Focus Physical Therapy - and Left Happier and Much Healthier!"
Please enjoy watching stories of other people with neck, shoulder or other pain just like you who came to see the physical therapy team at Focus Physical Therapy – and left much healthier and happier:
Rachel
Migraines & Rotator Cuff
- I've gone to many physical therapists, trying to find a solution. Brad has changed who I am, he has educated me, and made me physically and mentally stronger. I know I have someone in my corner, who's always going to help me.
Fonda
Shoulder Pain
- Don't wait, don't wait another second. Get it taken care of now, you have no idea what it can do for you. I was getting depressed mentally because I couldn't move and I just thought that that's the way getting old is. Well, it's not, it doesn't have to be.
Renee
Scoliosis
- What I've experienced here, I would definitely say that it's changed me, the way I move, the way I live. I wish I would've found this 20 years ago. It just wasn't available to me back then. I really feel that this has made a huge change in my life.