From April 27th to May 1st, I had a week of physiotherapy dedicated to working around Chronic Pain and how to manage it in the long term. As someone who lives with Fibromyalgia, this was another path I needed to take to try to help me live in the best way possible with a condition like this.
The aim of the program is that they work with you for one week, send you home for a month, and then repeat the cycle twice more, giving you the tools you require to then implement at home while on the break, you then come back to give feedback on how you got on, and changes are made if required.
The week included a range of different things:
Tuesday: was an introduction day, we got to introduce ourselves to each other, we were shown around the rehab center and went to the gym to do our physical test, so they knew our baseline.
Wednesday: introduced us to the workshop and showed us different ways to relax. Due to being epileptic, I wasn’t allowed into the workshop for safety reasons, so I worked on a collaboration piece and did some painting. We talked about pacing and the importance of it, as well as timetables, finishing with a gentle gym session.
Thursday: we talked about what values and goals we had and wanted to work towards, our second gym session was next, then we had talks on relaxation and mood disorder, plus pain.
Friday: our last day of the week started with a workshop, while everyone else was in there, I sat and did some writing, then we had a pain talk, followed by our last gym session before a talk on managing our break.
We were also given a one-to-one session with a physiotherapist, each to talk about our goals for the break, each setting small aims that would be achievable on our pain levels, and if we were able to fit into our daily routine. In my meeting, we discussed that over the next four weeks, I would do 15 minutes of exercise each week and then walk my dog for an hour in the evening. We were encouraged to never push past our limits.
With week one over and a new bunch of friends made, we decided to set up a WhatsApp group to support each other over the next month. We named the group The Crippled but Committed Club. We laughed as the group name appeared on our phones. It’s down to us now to implement the aims we have set ourselves so we can reach the goals we want by the end of the three weeks. We have each other, as well as our friends and family. Let’s see how the next four weeks go, before week two of chronic pain physiotherapy starts, with new tests, more learning, and new aims to walk away.
This was written by our contributing writer, Leah Palmer.
Image Source: Pexels, www.kaboompics.com
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