Dear diary,

Let me write some facts about my neurological physical therapy in Istanbul:

1. I obviously had no idea what should be done in therapy at first, so I accepted whatever my family brought to the house 🫣
2. I discovered that splints should be taken when the body is flusky ( meaning no spasticity, involuntary contraction) as soon as I got access to my laptop😅 so 1 year’s worth of treatment went down the drain just because doctors/ therapists played God . 🤷🏼‍♂️( actually this was sadly valid in the CZ too)
3. Okay, my lovely family have not given up on me. Still, we have faced a whole other problem that I think is on a national scale in Turkey: physiotherapists are legally classified as FREELANCERS! You may say, “So?” But it affected my recovery deeply 😤: – physical therapy is essential for people of all ages and must be performed by qualified therapists under the supervision of the DoH of the country, sounds rational, right? That’s not the case here in Turkey🙃. I assume that is not the case for some developing countries either. Here, we search for therapists on an app, and the legitimacy of the therapists is up to your experience as a “ patient “. The app is not the problem, since we happened to interview a so-called therapist who suggested that we do ridiculous remedies a couple of years ago. The problem is that scammers don’t care about getting caught because there’s no legislation regarding the occupation 🤨. I hope the government will take the necessary actions and realise that the therapists are just as crucial as any health professionals asap😒- and I hope people who abuse this will need to work with a physical therapist at some point in their lives in Turkey
4. I’m aware that I am not the ideal “ patient” to work with, because I am not a patient at all since the beginning, and I am more than grateful🙏🏻. On top of that, I’m a detail-oriented person. When the detail is my body and limbs, I want to control everything in therapy because I know that therapists work with dozens of people every day, so they don’t care about what happens to tiny details like how well-positioned your fingers and toes are. Still, I want to live independently and healthily, which matters to me. I don’t care whether or not you have occupational deformation; your job requires you to care about human life, so I felt the need to explain myself because I have been told that a couple of my previous therapists quit working with me. After all, they can’t handle the mental pressure of working with me🤯😲. No further comment…🤨😌
5. Right now, I don’t work with any physical therapist because Istanbul simply doesn’t have any physical therapist who understands what full body spasticity and abnormal synergy patterns are, as well as I do 😒.+ the ones that are somewhat qualified for the job finds me mentally challenging 😒. Tbc…
6. Another significant issue is with Turkey’s workforce 😒. Not gonna dive into the details but explain the part that affected me in the recent past: the paid caregivers are consists of the people from the Turkic nations who usually don’t have a valid passport, aka illegals 🫣, the problem is not their labels but their moral obligation, compassion and financial ambition to earn as much as possible so these factors caused two of my previous caregivers to quit job without prior notice because they are not responsible for their actions in the country, since they are legally not present in the country 🤷🏼‍♂️😒😒. Let’s say we pay them xTL, the legal ones demand 3- 4xTL. 🤯. Nevertheless, I’m not judging anyone or any authority because apparently the world is in survival mode and my survival is not the same as the majority 😅😤 nonetheless, I see a physically gorgeous country with a marvellous history and I want its citizens to improve their lives physically intellectually emotionally mentally and all the good -llys😂🧠
7. Tbc…