The majority of the referrals I get for physical therapy are sub-acute or chronic injuries. For a muscle, that means the injury is generally four or more days old. Three days may seem like a small amount of time, but a lot can happen in the tissues in 72 hours! In this brief post, I’ll go over the most common mistakes I see when self-treating a minor injury.
- NOT treating. If I had a dollar for every patient that told me “It wasn’t a big deal, so I just thought it would go away…” That may have worked when they were young, but as we age, our body’s ability to repair is slowed. When combined with other medical complications we develop in adulthood, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, healing can be further impaired. It’s important to treat an acute (new) injury immediately, even if you think it’s minor.
- Treating it incorrectly. Heat immediately after some injuries could increase swelling and make your problem worse. The rule of thumb for selecting ice or heat is: ice for the first 48 hours, heat after that. Ice is applied for 10-20 minutes at a time, no more no less. It should be cold enough to cause numbness. That’s pretty cold. This is why it’s important to stop after 20 minutes to prevent frostbite. Falling asleep in an ice bath is NOT a good idea. Just ask Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown.
- Misplaced prudence. Another common report I hear from patients is they “don’t like to make medicine.” Yet all of them will take medicine if the problem intensifies. At the point when they can no longer stand it, it’s likely they will need much stronger medicines or higher dosages. Why not take a short round of over the counter anti-inflammatories EARLY ON to avoid an escalation of the problem? A healthy adversity to medicine is a good thing. Choose when to have that adversity: early in the healing phase when the medicines are relatively harmless and of short duration OR later, when they are more powerful, stronger, and possibly addictive.
