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Comment by causality0 | Hacker News Reader

I have to cautiously agree with you, with the caveat that many physios don't seem to know what they're doing either and the effectiveness of therapy can differ wildly based on which therapist and what regimen they use. Speaking as someone with a herniated disc that went through a discectomy which re-herniated immediately following surgery. Frankly I've only just now started getting relief by reducing the amount of weight pushing on the disc by way of treatment with semaglutide. Could've saved myself thousands of dollars in medical costs and rehab if I'd just done this a year ago.

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> Speaking as someone with a herniated disc that went through a discectomy which re-herniated immediately following surgery.

Sorry to hear about re-herniation. Thats what I am concerned about. I have multiple disc herniations, one with cauda equina. Multiple neurosurgeons have recommended surgery, but each is going to do a different procedure. I understood as they don't fully understand whats the root cause, everyone wants to do the procedure they are comfortable with and what they've been doing. One wants to cut the disc, another remove lamina, another fusion and something else. I decided its not worth taking the risk when they don't know what they are doing. There are so many reports of failed back syndrome, revision surgeries, cascading failures (because it increases pressure on adjacent discs).

> with the caveat that many physios don't seem to know what they're doing either

Yes, this is true of nearly any profession. We just have to spend significant time researching and troubleshooting with an engineering mindset.

While I have no medical opinion to back this up, I place a significant portion of blame on the mechanics of being released. I was upright in a wheelchair, then forced to stand up to get into my wife's car, then had to drive home upright, then had to stand up again to get into a wheelchair to get into my house. I believe the fact that my back was forced to take weight immediately following surgery did a lot of damage. If I could do it over again I would have insisted on remaining prone for at least the first 24 hours.

Indeed, most physiotherapists (and people in any profession) are completely useless. They don't have any understanding of the body as a system, don't investigate, and just give you some cookie cutter exercises from some app that they have.

But there are some good ones. I had one 15 years ago - a lady from Japan who was an absolute wizard. She changed my life completely - not by "doing" anything, but instead teaching me how the body actually works and helping me to awaken many dormant muscles. The closest I've found since then is moveu.com - weird guy, but he knows his stuff and has the right approach (that only we can fix ourselves, and he can only educate us on how to do so).

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