Getting a significant injury is a stressful experience for anyone, and recovery might involve a lengthy rehabilitation process and time out from your usual activities.
Expect lots of rest, relaxation and help from a professional. It is important not to get too frustrated or stressed by the time it might take to recover from an injury – it isn’t something you can rush. The best thing you can do is give your body the time it needs to return to normal.
You just need to trust that if you follow these steps, you’ll eventually feel better than ever!
Consult a Professional
The first and most important thing to do is to talk to a doctor.
Even if you think you can treat your injury fine at home, a doctor will be able to properly examine the extent of the injury. They’ll also be able to give you practical advice on how best to self-treat at home as well as prescribe any necessary medication to help the process along. They could also refer you to a physiotherapist, especially if you plan on getting back to sports or work as soon as you can.
A medical consultation is also useful because they’ll be able to answer any questions you may have – and they are a lot more reliable than Google! It’s much safer to get properly diagnosed with an issue. If you guess what’s wrong, you could underestimate your injury and make it worse due to not receiving proper treatment.
You should stay in contact with them throughout the recovery process to ensure things are progressing the way they should be.
Furthermore, if your injury is serious and requires specialist care, your doctor will be the first port of call. They’ll be the ones to refer you to specialist doctors if necessary, to ensure you get the highest quality of care and make a full recovery.
Rehabilitation
Rehab is single-handedly the most important part of recovery. Even if the rehab exercise plan seems unimportant, trivial and more trouble than it’s worth, you shouldn’t underestimate it.
Your doctor and/or physiotherapist specifically designs your rehab plan to cure your injury. The exercises they request you do help to build up the muscles surrounding the area affected, not only protecting the injury but helping to ensure you don’t hurt yourself again in the future. If you don’t make time for your rehab, the recovery time might be extended.
There are many different ways to approach rehab depending on your needs and budget.
- One way to approach rehabilitation is to visit an in-house physical therapist. Although this might be expensive, it’s the best thing to do for severe injuries. it combines professional guidance with high-quality equipment!
- An alternative approach is to bring the physiotherapy to you! There are plenty of websites, such as Jameson Medical that offer a range of industry-standard physiotherapy equipment. Some examples include hi-low work tables, training stairs and floor-mounted bars. Contact us to get started.
Rest
Sometimes, it can be frustrating to be resting when there’s so much out there you could be doing. If you have a sports injury, you might even think that you’re fine to train other, non-injured parts of your body with no impact on your recovery.
However, when you try to push your body as you normally would if you were healthy, you actually risk doing yourself even more harm. You could end up delaying recovery time (and therefore having to rest for longer) or make existing injuries even worse.
The best thing to do is to listen to whatever medical advice the doctor gives you. If they say you need bed rest for a week, they are using that timeframe for a reason, even if you feel fine after a few days. Make sure you don’t cut any resting time short – you’ll be glad for it in the future.
If you are permitted to do a limited amount of physical activity, it is important that you listen to your body. If you feel tired or in pain, see that as a sign your body is telling you to stop, and cease all physical activity immediately.
Bottom Line
When it comes time to recover from getting hurt, it’s important that you listen to your body and your doctor’s advice. The more you rest, the faster you’ll be back on your feet and back into the sports and activities you love. Your bones and muscles need time to rebuild – let them.
