When I adopted a pair of twins, one of the first things that struck me was how many doctor's appointments they needed to go to. As we took them to all of their baby well-checks, I realised that these appointments were designed to find and address issues early before they caused other problems. Fortunately, our family paediatrician found a few critical problems that we were able to resolve head-on, and it was immensely helpful. Check out this blog for information about health care, preventative care, and helping your child to enjoy a better life. I know that some of these tips helped me, and I know that they can help you too.
A sports injury can be painful, especially if it includes an ankle or wrist sprain. Here are some steps for dealing with the pain and making sure that your injury heals properly.
Rest the Injury
The first step is to rest your injury and avoid causing strain. In the initial days after your injury, you can follow the rule that anything that causes pain is probably something you shouldn't be doing with your injured area. Although you will eventually need to challenge the sprained area to avoid scar tissue developing, the first phase should incorporate staying off of your injury as much as possible until you are ready to do rehabilitation with a trained professional.
Use Ice to Reduce Swelling
Ice is your friend for reducing swelling, which can inhibit the healing of your injury. While you're resting your injury, you might want to keep it elevated above the level of your heart and apply ice several times per day for about 20 minutes. Ask for specific details for your injury when you visit an orthopedist, general physician, or physiotherapist.
Wrap Your Injury
You might need to wrap your injury to compress it and prevent swelling. Wraps also help to keep your injury from moving around a lot in daily life. Ace bandages sometimes work for a sprain, but your doctor may also give you a prescription for a brace.
Get Proper Rehabilitation
It's always a good idea to see a physical therapy specialist for a sprain. This is especially true if you are an athlete. There is no guarantee that your sprained area will return back to its full strength and elasticity without the help of a professional rehabilitation specialist, and even then, it will take a lot of effort. Your physiotherapist can use massage to release scar tissue and flex the injured area, heat or cold to control swelling and pain as you work through the injury, and exercise equipment to help you work on regaining certain movements.
Part of your rehabilitation will occur at home, where you need to do specific stretches and strengthening exercises each week; your doctor will then measure whether those helped in your rehabilitation. Once you have basic movements and skills down, you will do some functional training, where you regain the ability to complete tasks that you use your injured ankle or wrist for. Finally, you may go through a specific sports rehabilitation program if there are specific movements unique to your sport that you need to be able to do at top capacity.
Share27 January 2017
