I have never been big on going to the doctor. If I was in pain or sick and didn't think I was getting worse, I would just tough it out. When my shoulder started giving me pain, I thought I would just ride it out and wait for it to get better.
So I stopped doing activity with the arm and waited. This part was hard, because I love a lot of overhand activities such as volleyball and surfing. Except instead of getting better, it just kept getting worse. When it finally got so bad that it hurt just to turn my steering wheel, I decided to see the doctor. After getting an MRI, it turns out that I had a torn labrum. The ortho told me that it's not something that heals on its own, and that I had a 50/50 chance of needing surgery.
This is where M3 physical therapy comes in to the picture. Besides one-off visits for small things, I had never went through a physical therapy program before so I didn't know what to expect. My insurance recommended M3, so I called them and scheduled an appointment with the PT who had an opening that fit my schedule, which was Cindy Choi.
When I was talking to my friend about my upcoming appointment, he told me to make sure that I find a good PT. He had done PT before for a similar injury, and he said that he went to two different PTs who didn't help much before finally finding one who was actually good. Given that I had never been through a PT program before, I asked him how I would know if the PT was good or not. He said, oh, you'll know. Some PT's will just show you an exercise and have you do it while they go do other things. But a good one will really watch you and make sure that you're doing the motions properly, correct your form, etc.
After getting treatment from Cindy, I KNOW that she's good. Cindy was incredibly attentive every time I arrived, and was constantly giving me feedback and corrections on the exercises. Even later on in the program when I already knew the routines, she would still keep an eye on me and make sure that I was doing it properly and targeting the muscles I needed to target. Cindy is really sweet and caring, and you can tell that she's not just there doing her job, but she personally really cares for her patients.
Like I said earlier, when I started I couldn't even lift my arm above shoulder length without pain. On my first visit, Cindy looked at my charts from the MRI and put me through a series of tests to diagnose my symptoms, She then charted out a program for me so that over the course of the 7 or 8 weeks I was being treated, I would progress. Each visit, she would look at my strength and mobility and give me new exercises to do depending on my progress. For all you self diagnosing webmd internet doctors like myself out there, this was CRITICAL to getting better. Prior to going to physical therapy, I had done a ton of internet self-research on my symptoms and the different exercises I could do at home, with the belief that all information is available online thus I could skip the going to doctor. But with all the research I did, I only saw what exercises are out there that could theoretically be done. Nothing that was tailored specifically to my own muscles and my own progress. To everyone thinking they don't need a PT (like I did for all of my life until now), go find a professional. I think a lot of my sports injuries I've had in my life would have healed a lot faster if I had went to a good PT like Cindy. Happy to say that after going through treatment, I went from struggling to open doors to being able to surf and play volleyball again.
For anyone who is about to go through PT though, make sure you do your exercises at home. I was very good about doing all of the exercises that she told me to do. If your PT tells you to do exercises at home, do what they tell you. Don't show up twice a week and expect to get better without putting in some work.
The other great thing about Cindy is that not only did I NOT dread going to every visit like I dread going to the doctor, I actually really enjoyed it. It wasn't so much that doing the exercises was super fun, but I actually found myself looking forward to the appointments because Cindy is easy to talk to and a great listener. Like even though it was technically physical therapy, it felt like regular therapy as well and I always left in good spirits feeling like my mental health was better as well as my physical health.
All of the other staff at M3 were very friendly and helpful, and the facilities are great. It's not huge, but it has everything you need and there's never more than a few patients there at a time. There's validated parking in the garage which is on the bottom floor of the building, so no need to wander around any medical complex. read more