All medical or rehab professionals - from physicians to physical therapists, are the people who guide you through your injury and help you manage it better! But as a patient knowing a couple things will help your caretaker form a better guideline for you.
Know your injury: The first step towards solving a problem, is actually knowing it! Most of us know now better anatomy of our bodies than before, thanks to the Internet! This will help you develop basic understanding of the condition you have, and make it easier to work towards rehabilitate it.(Warning not to overdo it!) But internet is not the only source, Educate yourself! Ask your doctor and your physical therapist for an explanation of your condition! Read about it!
Keep your records handy: If you are been seen by multidisciplinary team (physician, or surgeon along with physical therapist) for medical advise for your problem, Be sure to have any kind of relevant information- Referrals, blood test reports, X-rays, MRI or CT scans along with the reports handy. This helps a therapist understand your situation better and form a better treatment plan to manage your condition!
Compliance: There are a lot of grey areas in medical treatments. Even with same human anatomy, every body can behave differently. Some exercises can work better for some bodies than others. Once explained what to do, make sure to do it religiously before concluding its ineffectiveness! Be regular with your visits! Follow ‘to do’ and ‘not to do’ lists!
Honesty: It’s rightfully said, honesty is the best policy! True with medical treatments too! If you haven’t done a particular exercise at home, say so, before it’s completely thrown out of the box. Because otherwise, it's hard to judge, if that was even working for your body!
No excuses: ‘Be better than your excuses’- love this phrase! Yes, life is too busy for self care but if you wanna continue to stay busy and do what you like to do, take care of your body first! Excuses to not being able to do things will only impact your treatment and push it further! Take care of it for once and get it completely out of your way!
Medical profession has been designed to help people understand and solve their medical ailments ! Professionals just feels better when a patient feels better. Take charge of your health and do what it takes to help your provider, help you better!