Long-standing pain
Some pain has been there so long it stops being news. The hip that has ached for four years. The back that means you no longer carry anything upstairs. People adapt around it quietly, do less, and often decide nothing can be done because a scan was normal or somebody once said it was just wear and tear.
That is usually not the end of the story. Long-standing pain rarely disappears on command, but what you can do with it changes a great deal once someone looks at how you are actually moving.
What we work on
Being straight about it
Reeflex will not tell you that a few sessions will make years of pain vanish. Anyone who does is selling something. What tends to happen is more modest and more useful: people get stronger, flare up less often, and get back some of the things they had stopped doing.
If Reef thinks the problem needs a GP, a scan or a specialist rather than physiotherapy, he will say so at the assessment rather than book you a block of visits.
What happens
How long it has gone on, what has already been tried, and what you want to be able to do again.
Movement, strength and what provokes it, measured properly so we are working from evidence rather than impressions.
Built around a goal you actually care about, and paced so it does not flare you up in week one.
A real example
One of our written case studies follows a client with a long-standing Achilles problem back to walking further, with the assessment findings, the plan and the outcome measures set out in full.
Questions
No. A normal scan is good news about the serious things, and it tells you very little about strength, movement or how you are loading the joint. Those are the things a physiotherapist assesses.
Changes on a scan are extremely common in people with no pain at all, and plenty of people with those changes get back to walking, gardening and stairs. Age is a reason to take it seriously, not a reason to accept it.
Badly chosen or badly paced exercise can flare things up, which is exactly why the pacing matters and why it is worth having someone set the level. Doing nothing has its own cost.
It varies, and Reef will give you an honest view at the assessment rather than a number now. Long-standing problems usually take weeks rather than days.
Reeflex travels out from South Woodham Ferrers and covers Essex, and further afield when the diary allows. Chelmsford, Maldon, Danbury, Billericay, Wickford, Rayleigh, Basildon, Southend-on-Sea, Brentwood, Braintree and Colchester are all regular. If you are not sure, ring and ask.
Get in touch
The first phone call is free and there is no obligation afterwards. If Reeflex is not the right fit, Reef will tell you what is.
