For banning Dd from going to physio

[Comefromaway]

Dd is training tobe a professional dancer. About a month ago she picked up an injury (shoulder dislocation) & was referred to a specialist clinic in Birmingham for professional dancers & sportspeople. Her first appointment is Monday. She phoned them yesterday expecting to be told it’s cancelled but no,the appointment is still on and they told her precautions would be taken (masks etc). She would normally go by train but will have to drive about 60 miles to get there and enter the main hospital to get to the dept.

I think she should cancel, it’s too high risk and isn’t essential. She wants to go as the staff there are specialists and it’s her career on the line.

She’s 18 so I can’t actually ban her but AIBU in asking her not to go.

Yabu. This is a hospital appointment and the hospital involved would have done a detailed risk assessment.

Is she in pain? Will not going impact her long term recovery? If yes to either then I would go but take precautions.

Not hospital - medical!

She’s not in pain. It’s a clinic that recognised the physio needs of professional sportpeople etc are different. She would be assessed and given exercises to build up strength/prevent future injury that wouldn’t matter for you & I.

Our local hospital has cancelled all but essential face to face appointments eg fils cancer investigations are going ahead but a 90 year old who isn’t eating properly who was supposed to have an appointment with a dietician and various other appointments have been cancelled.

I think it has to be a personal decision. But i understand that's harder because its your daughter.

My friend and I both had a scan on Wednesday booked in many months ago.
Mine an abdominal scan. Her's a CAT scan.
We both believed ours would be cancelled but they weren't as they weren't urgent.
She chose to go ahead which i think was the right thing to do as her situation is more serious.
I decided to cancel. I have 3 asthmatics in the house and have been isolating as much as possible.
We both feel we made the right decison (and support each other on the decisions we made).

Partly my decision was made out of being anxious about being at the hospital. And hers was made about being anxious about not getting checked out.

18 is such a hard age. The place where you have to give them space to make their own decision but still want to wrap them up and tell them what to do.

I’m asthmatic, only mild but colds, hay fever etc make it worse.

She only passed her test about 6 weeks ago but has driven on the motorway quite a bit coming back from college but she’s never driven into Birmingham. The West Mids is a covid hot spot apparently.

I would ask if she can have a video consultation where they can assess advice exercises. All types of manual therapist have been advised by their associations to only see emergency patients in very acute pain but the government hasn't actually "banned" them from treating so some are continuing regardless but others within the profession view this as very irresponsible

*assess and advise exercises that should say

I had a dislocation in my shoulder that didnt get appropriate attention 30 years ago.... I still get pain and have reduced mobility in that shoulder....
The hospital will have considered these things as well as Covid19 risk, together with the career implications...
They are postponing cancer treatment and serious operations due to risk.... if they say it can go ahead, I would take them at their word.... they look at individual cases etc

If they didn't think it was a very good idea for her to attend they appointment they wouldn't be carrying on with it.

Of course the COVID-19 is scary and serious but we can't sacrifice peoples future long term health against what is still a relatively small risk.

They told her the initial assessment has to be in person. All future can be video.

She should go.
Driving - the roads are safer at the moment as there are far fewer cars.
She'd be going there in a car (not exposed on the journey). Sitting in a waiting room at social distancing distances. The waiting room will have far fewer people in it than normal (no-one symptomatic will be in it, and lots of appointments will have been cancelled or on the phone). She'll have an appointment with her physio then come back.
Yes there is a risk, but that will be minimised.

This will end, it sound's like she needs this appointment for her future. Longterm the risks to her from not going will be bigger than the risks from going.

It's essential medical treatment/assessment.

It's her body.

It's her livelihood.

The hospital has kept the appointment open because they are happy that this is an essential medical appointment (my appointment for similar in the biggest hotspot in the UK was cancelled with no idea when or if it will ever be rebooked).

Of course she should go.

YABU.

YABVU.

From the sounds of it, it seems like they will be teaching her how to aid her shoulder herself, as in a first appointment to go over personalised massages/techniques etc. I think it’s reasonable for her to attend the first one, she may find that she doesn’t need to attend as frequently afterwards because she has been taught what to do herself.

The West Midlands on a whole is fine. There may be more covid cases compared to a random village but what do you expect with a higher population? I don’t feel like my life is in imminent threat at all.

Is it Birmingham city hospital? If so, physiotherapy isn’t in the main hospital building so she won’t have to go through the main entrance

I cancelled the physiotherapy booked in for my DD last week. She has Perthes disease and has monthly physio/assessment at the hospital as well as daily physio with me. I won’t be taking her for the foreseeable future, as I feel the risk of contracting the virus trumps all else right now. Of course it is a slightly different situation as I know the exercises that she needs to be doing at home. However she still really needs to be assessed monthly at the hospital due to degenerative nature of her hip disease.

Got to be her decision Obviously

It’s QE. she was treated there previously for an ankle injury that countless normal physio didn’t address.

She’s training to be a professional dancer - an injury that she doesn’t get the proper rehab for could derail her whole career. She should attend - roads are quiet at the moment and hospitals have precautions in place.

QE’s safe in my opinion. They are stringent about who is allowed inside the hospital, security guards will check where people are heading. Hand sanitiser is prominent and you’re expected to use it, particularly when entering (staff are nearby) and as she gets further in she may encounter temperature checks. On the whole she will find the hospital quieter than the last time she visited. They have a dedicated “COVID pod” so she won’t be inadvertently “crossing paths” by going to her appointment.

I would still go to the appointment especially as standard physiotherapists couldn’t help her.

Also you never know when they may completely cancel physio appointments in this climate, staff redeployment has already been discussed at QE.

Outside of that QE have long waiting lists. If she doesn’t attend this appointment, when will she be able to get another appointment? You’ll have to balance your worries with the long term impact waiting may have on her career.

Oddly enough this particular clinic has a waiting list of less than 3 weeks. But that could change in the future and they did abolish a similar clinic in London.

I might offer to drive her (I’m confident of doing it all in one run whereas she tends to stop off at the services on journeys of this length), pre children I lived and worked in the area. But I’ll obviously wait in the car for her and not go in.

Frankly I think the situation at QE would be much more dire in 3 weeks! On a national level we will have many more cases by then, we haven’t reached peak yet.

If you drive, she should certainly go.