Pre-Operative Joint Replacement Therapy Your joint replacement is a few weeks away and you want to make sure this process goes as smoothly and painless as possible. The best way to help your joint and surrounding muscles prepare for surgery is to begin to get them stronger, before surgery. This will allow your joint and the surrounding area to be stronger than normal. This prepares your joint and surrounding muscles for the rehab plan you will have post-surgery. Trust us, start EARLY! Post-Operative Joint Replacement Therapy You’ve just had your joint replacement surgery and need to find a physical therapy office that understands your specific needs. Here at SportsMed we have Doctorates of Physical Therapy, who rehab joint replacements every day! We will have three main goals during your care: Increase Range of Motion back to 100%Increase Strength back to 100%Decrease Pain to 0% An additional benefit to having your joint replacement rehab with us will be the option to utilizes our AlterG, Anti-Gravity Treadmill. Yes, you should be full weight-bearing post-surgery, but that may be a difficult task for your mind to agree with. To help you gain confidence back in your walking pattern, we may use our AlterG treadmills to help you along the way. These amazing treadmills, developed by NASA, give us the ability to adjust your body weight in 1% increments. So we can guide you back to a perfect walking stride 1% at a time! Come check out the treadmill if you want to learn more. What Can You Expect? On your first appointment, you will meet with a physical therapist that specializes in your joint replacement rehab needs. This will ensure you are receiving the best care we can provide. If you are a post-surgical patient or have a prescription from your referring doctor, your physical therapist will review your doctor’s requests. Your physical therapist will then ask you a series of questions to help us understand where you currently are in your rehab process. Along with these questions, your therapist will do a series of physical tests to understand your current strength, range of motion, and pain levels. Based on the above evaluation, your physical therapist will discuss your future treatment plan, how long you will have to come to therapy, and what you can expect over that time frame. You will have the opportunity to ask as many questions as you need, to feel comfortable about the road ahead and to understand your treatment plan.
