3. I Hate Physio-Terrorists

It was also during my first stay in hospital that I developed my fear of physiotherapists (or physio-terrorists as I prefer to call them).

Them

I know they’re supposed to help

I’m really not a fool

But I’m often left wondering

Do they need to be so cruel?

One even told me something

That I can’t forget you see.

‘PAIN NEVER KILLED ANYONE.’

Is what she said to me.

I hate their short white jackets.

With coloured piping on the hem.

I really start to shake with fear.

When I see just one of them.

The hospital I was in taught student physios, therefore, I had one student for my morning sessions and a different one for the afternoons. One afternoon the student suggested I watch myself walk in a mirror to see why I was limping. Whilst doing this her supervisor came in and said ‘This is no good bring her in here.’

I was taken to a side room and ordered to lie on my side on a couch and then she grabbed my ankle and proceeded to yank my leg straight and bend it up to my bottom as quickly as she could a number of times.

The pain this caused meant I was in tears and I’d suffered a bit of shock so that I was shaking quite a lot. After this torture she stood up and addressed me for the first time saying ‘Pain never killed anyone. It may make them cry it may even make them pass out but it never kills them.’ At this point she left taking the student with her and leaving me a quivering wreck.

I made my way back to the ward and my bed. I was unable to tell the other patients and nurses why I looked so terrible but I vowed if she ever came near me again, I would test her theory out by inflicting as much pain on her as I could with my bare hands.

After all this the operation failed to help and over the following years, Mr. M kept increasing the time it would take for my knee to get better.