A lot of clients with sports injuries hobble in the door at Tulsa Spine and Rehab. They range from professional to high level all the way down to weekend warrior and young athlete types. The most important thing to do is to recognize what type of athletic person you are dealing with. Professional athletes are just a small portion of the clients while the majority are men in their late 40s who play some recreation football and walk in the door with an acute low back injury or have a problem with a knee or ankle.
Different types of athletes are going to respond differently not only to treatment but also with what you recommend. Professional athletes do this for a living. They are going to be very, very compliant. They will do exactly what you tell them because it’s their livelihood and they want to heal as quickly as they possibly can and they want to get back after it.
But “Jimmy Bob” that played football with his pals over the weekend, that’s a different story. He’s not used to an injury and he doesn’t recognize what limitations that he may have. He might be able to bend or lift or do some things differently so his compliance level may be different. It’s important to recognize and handle each case individually and don’t’ get wrapped up when you see an ankle and automatically assume it cold be an ankle sprain. Just because two people may present with the same type of complaint it could be two different things all together.
The most common things will be general sprains and strains. Acute, repetitive type injuries related to whatever sport they are playing. Ankle sprains, knee problems, even low back and neck sprains. Unfortunately you can even get into some more significant injuries with fractures, dislocations, meniscus, and ligament injuries in the knees and shoulders and even disc injuries in the low back and spine. So it’s important to assess each patient individually. Make a good determination of the problem and how to treat it accordingly.
Treatment options for general sprain and strain injuries make them feel better and get the inflammation down and reduce the pain. That is achieved through ultrasound, e-stem, cold laser therapy, ice and by instructing them. Let them know what they should be doing and what they shouldn’t be doing.
Other treatments may include chiropractic therapy by providing joint mobilization, reducing soft tissue adhesions working on the soft tissues through clinical massage. A personal fitness trainer is able to work with these patients a little more in-depth for some stability issues. If its a little more of a detailed problem, physical therapist, Ryan Smith, is really good with knees, shoulders, ligaments, meniscus type injuries. We work closely with a lot of surgeons as well. We’ve even gone on to add acupuncture and naturopathic medicine. Acupuncture has been shown to be very effective for acute types of situations and conditions and pain relief as well.
If you’ve tweaked something while being physically active, the pain doesn’t need to keep you out of the game. Contact Dr. Riley and his team of specialists at Tulsa Spine and Rehab, (918) 743-3737.
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