Post Surgery Rehabilitation

For many illnesses and injuries, surgery is often a necessary solution and, depending on the severity of the illness or injury in question, is almost always nerve-wracking. But physical therapy can actually help the recovery and healing process after a major surgery! This is known as postoperative, or post-surgery, recovery or rehabilitation. There are typically three stages in postoperative rehabilitation..

• Immediately following surgery, the first stage is when the body is ultimately immobilized as the body goes through a basic healing process. Here, swelling will go down and the initial pain of surgery will subside
• Here the work begins! The patient's physical therapist will work with him or her to design a plan involving progressive exercises that will begin to strengthen the body, restoring the patient's range of motion and overall stability.
• With time, the patient will be able to return to their normal, pre-surgery level of physical activity, whatever that may have been for them. This is the ultimate goal of postoperative rehabilitation, and physical therapy as a whole.