I feel guilty about cheating on my physiotherapist.
June 5, 2011 6:13 PM   Subscribe

I feel guilty about cheating on my physiotherapist.

There is a star physiotherapist in town, popular enough with climbers (and others?) that to obtain an appointment with him might take as long as two months. Often I want to see one on shorter notice, so I started going to a different physio at the same office. He and I are on friendly terms, and have climbed together once.

An appointment for the star physio just came up, which I would like to take.

My question is as follows: Will this is anyway be taken poorly by the second one? I like the guy, but I am under the impression that the star physio is the better physiotherapist, and since my fingers are bothering me, I don't really want to miss this chance.
posted by vernondalhart to Health & Fitness (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I did this with my chiropractor. My usual chiro wasn't available, so I booked with a different one in the same office. I liked him better, so I started booking all my future appointments with him. I never mentioned it to chiro 1, and he seemed to take it in stride. My guess would be that it happens reasonably often.

Take the appointment. You have the right to choose whichever service providers suit you best.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:20 PM on June 5, 2011


He's a professional. He shouldn't and almost certainly won't take it personally.

If you're not worried about disrupting a particular course of physical therapy by doing something different, go for it.
posted by J. Wilson at 6:26 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ego really shouldn't play a part in medical treatment, so you don't have any reason to feel guilty about your choices for care. How he responds might be a different question, if you are worried about keeping the peace or something. But if he's a good guy, he'll want what is best for you, and he should trust you to play a part in those decisions; including, but not limited to, needing to be seen by someone on shorter notice.
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:59 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


I would suggest that waiting two months for an appointment is going to be far worse for you than the star's allegedly better care will be. IMHO, good doctors don't make people wait like that.

But no, he won't be professionally upset. OTOH, I wouldn't expect any climbing invitations to be forthcoming either.
posted by gjc at 7:11 PM on June 5, 2011


I am a PT. This would not bother me at all. We are often aware when our colleagues have considerably more education or experience than us, and I would support any of my patients in going to a PT they thought might help them better, because my primary concern is that they get better. I might give your current PT a heads up, though - something like "Hey, an appointment became available with PT X and I thought I might give them a try - I'm not unhappy with your work, I just thought I'd get another set of eyes on my problem."
posted by jennyjenny at 7:26 PM on June 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Well, I've already seen star physio a few times before seeing my current one, and he does know that. So it's not a question of new eyes, it's more... getting a second opinion in this particular case.

How should I give him a heads-up? I mean, I have his cell number so in principle I could call him, but I got the appointment today, and it's for tomorrow, so there really isn't a lot of time between now and then.
posted by vernondalhart at 7:33 PM on June 5, 2011


Presumably he's aware of the other guy's rep, I'm also willing to bet that you're not the first patient to see the other guy whenever they can get an appointment. He may not like it and it might be a dent to his ego but I'm sure he's used to it.
posted by missmagenta at 12:20 AM on June 6, 2011


Their primary concern should be for your well being, so don't worry about "cheating" by going to multiple therapists. You should only be concerned if they're giving you contradictory exercises/advice, in which case, you should probably let them know what exercises you are doing from the other, so they can take that into account.

Otherwise, there's really no pressure to say anything, either way.
posted by yeloson at 9:05 AM on June 6, 2011


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