How does a physical therapist assess my condition?

How does a physical therapist assess my condition?

Jerry Pryde, MD, MPH, CIME (Clinical Chief, Department of Rehabilitation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) gives expert video advice on: Can physical therapy decrease my need for pain medication? and more...

A physical therapist, when they're evaluating you and diagnosing your particular issue, they're going to ask you a lot of questions about what you're physically able to do, or what you were able to do before a particular event happened to you. If you were injured in a car accident and you're having difficulty walking, they're going to want to know what you were able to do before the car accident happened.Then they're going to do a physical examination on you, and take a look at your particular individual limitations. If you're not able to move your arm because of a broken bone in your arm, they're going to evaluate what you can do with that arm, and what you're not able to do with that arm. Then they can formulate a pain management and an exercise program to help restore your limitations in that arm, or teach you how to do things in a new way as long as you're going to have that particular limitation.