Rehabilitation – Regaining Lost Function

This question highlights several problems.

One of the most important is the lack of proper patient information. This is the fault of the doctor, the physiotherapist and the hospital physical therapist. They discharged their patient from the hospital without making it clear: to recover your "original condition" after the accident, you must undertake a long journey and work a lot for your recovery. The treatments and physiotherapy you received in the hospital are not sufficient to regain your former strength and fitness.

The purpose of inpatient physiotherapy is to teach you the exercises that you then have to repeat at home at least 3–4 times a day. More and more, and increasingly intensively. If you do an exercise only once it will have no effect; if you do it many times you will get tired, but in a few weeks you will regain your strength.

Treatments performed by the physical therapist are of the same nature. They speed up recovery and increase the effectiveness of the exercises. Although your wound closes within days, its final strength is only reached after 90–110 days. Your muscles need 2–3 months to regain their strength. The screws also reach their maximum holding capacity only after a few months. However, you cannot be kept in hospital until then. Therefore the treatments should be continued at home until you fully recover — that is, for weeks or months (in some conditions even years!).

It is the doctor’s and the physical therapist’s fault that they do not recommend these devices to you. Magnetotherapy helps the formation of a strong bone-screw connection. The soft laser makes the scar stronger and more aesthetic. A muscle stimulator speeds up the recovery of muscle strength, etc.

You can read about what home medical devices are for in this article of mine.

The healthcare system is also at fault, because most of these devices cannot be prescribed, so you or your family must obtain them yourself. Compared to Hungarian pensions and wages, modern and truly effective devices can be expensive. A better electrotherapy device can cost HUF 60–100 thousand. However, it is much, much more costly if you cannot work for months and your job and livelihood are at risk. The sick pay paid for your 3–4 months of convalescence can exceed many times the amount that one or a few devices would cost.

As a patient you are partly to blame as well, because you blindly believed that you didn’t have to do anything. You believed that the treatment received in the hospital was enough, that the wound would heal by itself, that your muscles would regain their strength and that there was nothing else to do but sit in an armchair.

Three years after the accident and surgery it is much, much harder to improve your condition than if you had started right away. The success of rehabilitation depends 99% on the initial period. Whether you do the exercises and treatments or not?

Because without them, how would you improve?

What does rehabilitation mean?

Rehabilitation is a complex and lengthy process aimed at restoring or compensating for a function lost due to illness (paralysis, movement limitation, speech disorder, reduced performance, loss of muscle strength, unsteady movement, etc.), or developing a new compensatory ability.

With properly conducted rehabilitation, in the vast majority of cases full function can be recovered.

There are certain conditions (e.g. after a stroke) where realistic improvement is the expected result, but a 100% restoration may not be possible.

Rehabilitation can help in any condition, but the extent of improvement cannot be predicted in advance, because it depends on countless factors.

Some examples

During a stroke, an area of your brain is damaged or destroyed. Symptoms depend on which brain area is affected. If your speech center is damaged, either speech comprehension or word formation may be impaired. In such cases the goal of rehabilitation is to restore the ability to communicate so that you can make yourself understood by others.

If the motor area of the brain is affected, one of your arms or even the muscles on one side of your body can become paralyzed. You then become almost completely unable to care for yourself; even drinking a glass of water can be difficult. The goal of rehabilitation in such cases is to restore your arm’s ability to move so that you can, without help, drink a glass of water or spoon food into your mouth.

It is usually achievable that you become able to grasp a glass and raise it to drink. Regaining the fine movements necessary for embroidery is much less likely; that would be considered a great success.

Rehabilitation is also necessary after a broken arm. During 12–14 weeks in a cast the arm muscles weaken and the tendons stiffen. When the fixation is finally removed, the elbow may not be extendable and the arm’s movements may be limited. If this is not rehabilitated (physiotherapy, ultrasound therapy, muscle stimulation, etc.), the arm may remain fixed in this stiff position and will hinder movements for the rest of your life, even causing constant complaints.

For an athlete, rehabilitation helps you recover as quickly as possible from the loss of muscle strength and movement precision caused by the enforced rest after an injury. Without appropriate treatments this recovery is prolonged or may not happen at all.

Many other examples can be listed, such as urinary and fecal incontinence, herniated discs, or peripheral paralysis and radicular symptoms due to accidents, but this is enough as a "taste" for now.

Article recommendation: Shortcomings of rehabilitation services

In our country the capacities of rehabilitation services are limited. The system needs development so that everyone has a fair chance to restore their health. This is not a luxury, but a basic right (or should be).

Click and read! →

What should you do to get proper rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation is a complex process. It may require the coordinated work of several specialists. The broader the range of therapeutic options used to promote improvement, the better the possible outcome.

However, it is important that you request rehabilitation services! These may be necessary for you to regain your health to the greatest possible extent.

• After an accident, serious illness or surgery, ask your doctor to inform you about rehabilitation options.
• Don’t accept it if they tell you: “There is nothing to be done.”
• Find a physiotherapist and a physical therapist, ask for help and information!
• They will help you determine how you can improve the condition of your body. (Nobody can do the exercises for you).
• Sometimes a few weeks of attention are enough for recovery. Often 2–3 months, and in some cases even 1–2 years may be necessary.
• Learn what the physiotherapist shows you and repeat it more and more.
  On the first day exercise for only 5 minutes, but as soon as you are able, repeat it. Even up to 10 times a day.
  No one has ever died from moving their muscles and joints! Over time you can increase the duration of the exercises.
  Remember: regaining strength takes time.
• Ask the physical therapist whether the treatment you receive can be done at home.
  Most of them can.
  Electrical treatments, the soft laser, magnetotherapy, massage and many others can help when used regularly (not just 1–2 sessions in total).
  Obtain those devices that you can afford.
• Persistently carry out self-rehabilitation, but consult your physiotherapist, physical therapist and doctor every few weeks.
  As your rehabilitation progresses, it may be necessary to modify the exercises and treatments.
  You will get the best guidance from a specialist on this.