Tigergymnast,

I am glad to hear from a fellow PT enthusiast! I want to warn you however that you should check carefully into colleges when you start looking at them because Some schools will not accept the 50+ hours that you have because they are before you started college. I had over 100 hours before I got to college and can't use any of them. I am starting from scratch! Where do you live? If you are anywhere close to Minnesota and would consider going to school in Minnesota I can reccomend some good colleges here with some GREAT PT schools and programs!

Hermit,

My suggestion to you is to think about what it is doing for you.  I know PT is really hard! I have to perform exercises daily to keep my joints in check. If I don't my joints will pop out place, and become really hypermobile.  I used to not want to do my exercises either. I knew I should and that I felt better after doing them but it wasn't enough motivation for me either, then I thought about the consequences of not them. For me I learned about what was happening in my body and what the exercises where doing to help stop it.  I didn't want to damage my body anymore than it already was by not doing my exercises.  This was motivation for me.  I don't know if that would apply to you, so if it doesn't try this: Try rewarding yourself for doing your exercises by doing something you like.  Or maybe try scheduling in a set time to do your exercises everyday, maybe put on a favorite movie or TV show to watch while you do it.  This way you won't pay as much attention to the pain and fatigue that you feel. Also you will have a set time.  I found too that if I do my exercises as part of a execise routine that I will consitently do them because I feel like I am doing something to better my health. Anyways I hope this helps. I know people say PT stands for Pain and Torture, really it doesn't PT is so much more it is about health and wellness and rehabilitation.

Cheers and I welcome anymore questions or comments!

Brianna

I hate physical therapy but I love whhat it does for me. I have degeneritive (spelling may be wrong) joint desease in my left shoulder. Caused by years of carrying banquet, food, & bar trays. If I would do the exercises like I should I have no to little pain. Just wanted to say those of you doing that work are God sends. Now if I would just go do them. Any suggestions on how to stay motivated other than how I feel after doing them? Thanks, Elaine    

I want to become a PT after high school! In high school now I am taking a health careers class and i have had the opportunity to shadow a PT for 50+ hours now. I have so much fun when I go there and shadow, I went to visit them today and got to see some of the patients that came in the last day I was in a few months ago.  I cant belive what progress they have had! I love how physical therapists get to work one on one with patients, and get to know their life stories! The best day of job shadowing tho was when my mentor hooked me up to the electrical stim machine and contracted my arm into a fist! That was really cool. My mentor also makes sure that i know exactly what he is telling me and it has helped a lot now that I have taken a technical college med term class. I know what he says when he is saying all the medical terms to patients b4 he puts them in english. lol but I definatly know after all those hours of job shadowing that that is the profession that I want to strive for in college!!