Starve A Cold, Feed A Fever, Move An Injury

By Shane Sauer

I wanted to continue my recovery story with you this week. In my last blog, I introduced you to some new ideas about nutrition and icing for injury recovery. In this email, we’ll dig a little deeper into what to do after the initial insult.

First things first, please go to the doctor. When it comes to nagging tweaks that might come and go, I usually give them a couple of weeks. But when there is a clear injury from a specific event, see the doctor right away.

Going to the doctor offers a lot of benefits:

• Mentally - You’ll learn what the problem is so you don’t have to worry.

• Physically - You can pursue the correct course of action from the very beginning.

• Expectations - You’ll get a better idea of how long you should be dealing with the injury.

Even if there is no specific treatment that can be offered, I still believe these benefits outweigh the challenge that getting to the doctor might present.

The day after my ankle injury I got an appointment at the orthopedic urgent care. They took X-rays to confirm it wasn’t broken and were able to provide me with a walking boot. I learned recovery could take 4-6 weeks and the swelling could last for months.

Here is an important side note. Typically, when a doctor gives a recovery time, that’s not for getting back to normal. Recovery time is for the bulk of healing to fully take place so rehab can begin at full intensity.

For me, having the walking boot was crucial. The compression it provided helped to manage the swelling and its support let the injured tissues recover. But I did recognize that movement would be essential for recovery as well. So I had my boot off as often as possible.

Movement during injury recovery needs to be done appropriately. And this is why therapy is so helpful. You want to maximize the amount of movement done without causing further damage because early movement has many benefits:

• Movement stimulates fibroblasts which are major repair mechanisms.

• Movement creates the lines of force that the fibroblasts use to lay tissue in the proper direction.

• Movement is the lymphatic system pump (next week’s email) that helps move the waste from the area.

Even from the first day of my injury, I was testing my range of pain-free movement. Creating that movement without having any weight on my ankle kept it safe and effective. Over time, the size of the movement grew and I was able to add load pretty quickly.

In my next blog, I’ll introduce you to some different therapies that you may not have heard of before. But for now, remember these critical points for managing an acute injury:

1. Early healing is when interventions are most effective so...

2. See a doctor ASAP and...

3. Introduce pain-free movement.

Please let me know if you have any questions. And if you’re dealing with an injury, reach out to me as soon as you get off the phone with your doctor. I’d be happy to help you identify the correct next steps for you.