Suffering an injury is never a positive experience no matter how you look at it. Dealing with pain can affect every area of your life from your sleep to your productivity, to even affecting your emotional well-being.
In order to make a recovery and move past the injury, it’s important to take the right measures. By following the correct methods, you can hopefully give your body the tools that it needs to make a full recovery. Here are some of the best ways to do so.
Determine Where the Problem Is
If you’re feeling pain, but you aren’t sure exactly what’s going on, try to listen to your body and be present with where the pain is coming from. Pay close attention to whether it hurts when you make a certain movement, or perhaps you can’t move a part of your body at all.
When determining where the problem is, move slowly and gently so as to avoid further injuries.
Once you have an idea of where your pain is originating from, it’s important to receive professional medical attention.
A professional will be able to determine exactly what occurred and what kind of plan they propose to get you back on your feet.
If your injury happened gradually rather than in one sudden blow, your doctor will be able to decipher whether you’ve been making a habitual improper movement which caused your pain.
Ice Properly
Experts recommend the acronym CBAN for handling injuries, which stands for cold, burn, ache and then numb. The process involves placing ice over the affected area, protected by a cloth. Hold it there for approximately 5 minutes until you feel a burning sensation, followed by an ache, followed by numbness. Once the affected area feels numb, remove the ice.
It’s important that you remove the ice before you experience damage from the ice. Pushing it too far could result in further injury, which is the opposite of what you want to happen.
Allow Yourself Time To Rest
It’s essential that you ease back into your normal activities slowly. Your body needs the time to come back and rebuild itself.
There will be times when you feel frustrated and desperate to get back to a full recovery. However, it’s important that you not give in to your impatience and rest for as long as possible.
The only way that you’re going to make a full recovery is by discontinuing use of the affected area and following the treatment program recommended to you by your doctor.
Rushing too quickly into your previous routine risks delaying recovery and potentially causing additional damage.
When the time comes that your doctor gives you clearance to engage back to your normal activities, take it slowly rather than going too hard too soon.