the Price of Physical Therapy

The price is for one hour of rehabilitation of an injured joint with a licensed physical therapist under the supervision of a nurse practitioner. Medical supplies such as bandages and splints were at additional cost.

Other services include a wide variety of physical therapy, from massage to re-development of motor skills (think teaching patients with spinal damage to walk again), with costs varying on the nature and complexity of the procedures.

My insurance covered the entire cost of my rehabilitation work, though costs are on a sliding scale for those of limited income or without insurance.

A few months ago I sprained my wrist quite badly. Bad enough to rupture a ligament and require surgery. Once I was out of the cast, my surgeon sent me for rehab. I was nervous about the process and waited a couple weeks before going in and my wrist gradually got stiffer and harder to use.

When I finally went, I felt I was right to be nervous, the physical therapist was gruff and demanding and spent a great deal of time ignoring the pain he was inflicting on me while he worked on improving my wrist's range of motion. After the physical therapist found out I'd shirked my appointments for a few weeks, I was chastised and told I'd set myself back more than the weeks I'd missed in rehab by babying my wrist for that much longer.

His demeanor calmed when I pointed out that his acting like a twerp wasn't doing anything but reinforcing my poor perception of physical therapists. The bullying may have been an act, but it wasn't especially appreciated.

While I certainly don't enjoy going through the weekly sessions, or the daily work I do on my own, my wrist is certainly improving.

Rehab involves returning the body as close to "normal" function, motor control, and range of motion as possible. it is time-consuming, difficult, and painful, and there isn't really any way around dealing with those caveats. The good news is that when it works, it works beautifully, and the alternative is resigning yourself to a potential lifetime of limited mobility.

The bad news is that there's no definite time frame for when you'll know it's working. However, because of advances in surgical and rehabilitation techniques, even formerly permanently disabling injuries can be recovered from, at least in part.

One last thing, since it only works someone up to "normal" function, returning the kind of function an athlete enjoys is beyond a physical therapist's scope of practice. In other words, if you need help returning to peak performance, you need another specialty entirely, one steeped in the vagaries of human performance, like a coach or trainer.