What happens at a Vida Physio appointment?

You may have seen many physiotherapists in the past or this might be the very first time but what happens at a Vida Physio appointment? What can you expect and what is the process?

The first and most important part is to meet and understand you, your injury and your goals. One of the best parts of being a physio is getting to understand the person you are treating.

Do you want to return for a specified event or are you looking to take your time to make sure healing is optimal?

Do you prefer a detailed list of exercises or just a few to do each day you can remember?

Do you like all the data on your injury or not?

These are some of the questions we are looking to find the answers for in the first session. I think it is so important to individualise treatments to the person for the best outcomes.

I explain to all my patients that you may have the same injury as the last person that I assessed but your treatment could be completely different depending on a number of different reasons but some key factors are length of time you have had the injury, your symptoms, your age and the activities you are looking to return to.

We will discuss the history of your injury and I may ask some questions about previous injuries or other health concerns that may be affecting this injury. If you have seen any previous medical professionals about this injury it is always worth bringing along any correspondence such as letters, scans or exercises that you were given to complete. Even if you didn't act on this advice or you felt in didn't help.

You are more than welcome to bring someone with you to any of your appointments and if you are under 18 it will be required that you have a parent or guardian with you for all your sessions.

I like to keep my patients informed throughout all our sessions and I ask a lot of questions so feel free to ask me anything you wish as and when it occurs to you!

From discussions once I have formulated an idea of what I believe the injury to be we then use the physical assessment to confirm or deny our subjective (discussion) findings.

The physical or objective examination consists of different tests and movements to assess the injured area. This may include any number of the following

• range of motion testing - (how far you can move) measured in degrees

• strength testing - utilising accurate isometric testing equipment to give you an measurement of your strength measured in newtons

• special tests - a number of clinically evidenced tests that assess particular structures of the body to see if they are the cause of issues.

• palpation - assessing the area by feeling the structures involved

• movement testing - looking at certain functional movements such as walking, bending, sitting, standing, single leg stability to review the affected areas are completing these tasks.

• neurological testing - if it is deemed there is a nerve component to your injury testing the reflex, sensation and power or the neural system.

I will give you a copy of any testing results so that as you progress we can refer back to these initial findings. Obviously the most important factor is you feeling better and returning to activity but that should also match up with the data! I may also ask you to fill out some a relevant questionnaire on your injury which is another way to track progress.

From a combination of both the subjective and objective assessment a diagnosis will be suggested and a treatment plan formulated. The treatment plan will be discussed with you on what treatments you feel comfortable with. We will also discuss how many sessions and at what frequency would be best for these sessions.

If I feel that further investigation is needed such as imaging to confirm diagnosis or that I would like to get a second opinion before starting treatment I will relay this to you after the assessment. I have partnered with a private service in Winchester that can provide most services required with easy, quick and most important elite standard healthcare options.

Similarly if I feel my expertise is not the right fit for your condition I will endeavour to refer you to a health professional that would be able to address the issue. However in the vast majority of cases Physiotherapy is indeed the best route forward.

I will nearly always begin some form of treatment within the initial session, this is why we have longer for this first appointment. There are rare cases where treatment may not be appropriate straight away but this will be discussed with you if it is the case.

Any exercises (or "homework" as some of my patients like to call it) that I prescribe you will we demonstrate within the studio and I will either print or send you easy to follow instructions and/or pictures and videos. You will have the ability to track these by commenting each time you do them if you wish or just use them as a reference. I will explain how often and how many of each exercise I would like you to do.

Hopefully this post helps you to understand what the process will look like but feel free to ask me any questions or look at the FAQ's on the website to find out more.

Tom