Physiotherapy after surgery: how should you prepare?
Prepare for post-operative rehabilitation with the right documents, useful questions and a plan that respects your surgeon's instructions.
The most important thing to bring to a first physiotherapy visit after surgery is the plan from your surgical team. The operation, healing stage and any limits on movement or weight-bearing matter more than a generic online timeline. A physiotherapist can help interpret your goals and work within those instructions, but should not replace them with a standard programme.
What documents and details are useful?
Bring the discharge letter, operation or procedure name, any referral, imaging report and the written advice you were given about movement, weight-bearing, wound care, equipment and follow-up. If you use crutches, a brace or another aid, mention it. Make a short note of the questions you forgot to ask at discharge. The NHS guide to the period after surgery explains why discharge advice and individual physiotherapy instructions matter.
Tell the clinician what you can do now, what is difficult at home and what you want to regain: stairs, work, a daily walk or sport. Describe pain or swelling and how these change after activity. If the written instructions are missing or unclear, ask the surgical team to clarify them; do not guess from someone else’s recovery story.
What can the first appointment clarify?
The assessment can establish which movements are permitted, which goals are realistic now, and what should be reviewed before progressing. The plan will differ after knee, shoulder, abdominal, jaw or other surgery. Some people need help with ordinary movement first; others are preparing for higher physical demands. There is no universal exercise series, visit count or recovery deadline.
A general and sports physiotherapist such as Mattéo Cattez can discuss a relevant movement goal within the instructions from your surgeon. Zoé Debaize’s profile is another option for general and sports rehabilitation. For jaw surgery, see the separate jaw rehabilitation guide and Sophie Carlier’s maxillofacial profile. A practitioner profile does not promise that every procedure can be followed in the same way.
When should you pause and seek medical advice?
Use the warning signs on your discharge sheet. Contact the surgical team if pain, swelling or wound symptoms worsen unexpectedly, or if you develop a fever. New shortness of breath, chest pain or other severe symptoms require urgent assessment; call 112 in Belgium for an emergency. Do not treat new symptoms as a normal sign that rehabilitation is “working”. The NHS recovery guidance describes why post-operative warnings and individual instructions should be followed.
Ask: What can I safely do between appointments? Which symptoms should I report? Who changes the restrictions, and when? What milestones matter for my own work or sport? Those answers make a follow-up plan useful without promising a fixed result.
Sources
- NHS, “After surgery”: discharge advice, equipment and individual rehabilitation.
- NHS, “Getting back to normal”: following wound instructions and recognising problems.
Updated .