Weeks 1–2
Pain
Settle the swelling first.
Swelling and pain control come first, with gentle motion and scar care that respects exactly what your surgeon asked for.
What We Treat
Post-operative rehabilitation in Reseda.
The surgery fixed the structure. Getting your motion, your strength and your confidence back is the other half of the job, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- A folder of hospital exercises, and nobody watching whether you do them right
- Motion that stalled a couple of weeks in and has not moved since
- Swelling that comes back every time you do slightly more than yesterday
- A scar that pulls, or feels stuck to whatever is underneath it
- Family telling you to take it easy, while you quietly wonder if you are behind
- Not knowing what counts as normal soreness and what counts as a problem
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Surgery repairs the part. Recovery is a separate job.
Recovery stalls for reasons that have nothing to do with how the surgery went. Swelling shuts a joint down, and quietly switches off the muscle around it. Tissue that does not move lays down scar in whatever position you leave it. Muscles you could not use for a few weeks are weaker than they feel. And guarding, which was smart at week one, becomes a habit by week four.
Which of those is holding you up decides what should happen next. That is a cause-first evaluation: your motion, your swelling, your scar and the way you are moving all get checked, then the plan gets loaded accordingly. Resting until it feels ready usually costs you motion you then have to fight to get back. A printed handout cannot tell you which day to push and which day to back off.
The Honest Truth
The recovery window does not stay open.
If you keep waiting
- Scar tissue sets in the position you leave it, and it gets harder to change from there
- The joint stiffens while the muscle around it stays switched off
- The other side takes over, and the limp or the one-handed habit outlasts the surgery
If you start this week
- You find out where you actually are, next to where your protocol expects you to be
- Somebody watches your form, so the exercises finally do what they were meant to do
- You get a plan with an endpoint, built around your surgeon’s instructions
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for post-operative rehab.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent look like after surgery.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Win the motion back while it is winnable.
Hands-on work and daily range drills take the stiffness out before it becomes your new normal.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Rebuild the strength you lost.
Progressive loading rebuilds the muscle around the repair, and retrains the side that has been doing all the work.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Return to your real life, not a modified one.
Your job, your stairs, your hobby, tested under real load before you are cleared: that’s the endpoint, not another appointment.
The physical therapy staff here is excellent!… By far, the best therapy I’ve ever received. I had two surgeries and both times they helped me get better.
Shared by Azniv A. · Google review
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for post-operative rehab.
Sooner than most people expect, and your surgeon sets the floor. Some protocols start within days, others wait for a specific milestone, and we work inside whatever you were given. Bring your discharge paperwork to the evaluation and a licensed physical therapist will line the plan up with it. If your protocol says wait, you will leave knowing what to do until then.
The repair is sturdier than it feels, and controlled movement is part of how it heals. Everything we do stays inside the limits your surgeon set, and you will know what those limits are so you can hold the line at home. Soreness that settles is expected. Sharp pain, new swelling, or anything that will not settle is information, and the plan changes around it.
You get a plan with an endpoint, not an open tab of appointments. Post-surgical plans run through the four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent, and the length depends on your procedure and where you are starting from. At your evaluation you will hear what your plan looks like and what has to be true to finish it. We also verify your insurance benefits before your first visit, so the cost is not a surprise later.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back during business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed
- (818) 341-3791 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- Saturday appointments, 8:00am to 12:00pm
20+ 5-star reviews on Google
A real person calls you back, not a robot
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time, and we’ll answer your insurance questions on that same call.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Suite 200, on Sherman Way between Reseda and Northridge. Street and lot parking are both there, though the lot is a little tight for a large vehicle.
Jewel Physical Therapy
- 17750 Sherman Way, Suite 200, Reseda, CA 91335 (opens in a new tab)
- (818) 341-3791
- Fax: (818) 341-3794
- admin@jewelptinc.com
- Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed