farmer1

Was playing football today and whet in to hard for a tackle, no shin pads.

I have rubbed some pain killer Gel in and tried a soak in the bath, but it still aches like hell. Should I go for a Jog or something or just rest it?

fitzscoob

if you are sure you havent fractured a bone or anything then i suggest, you rest - before you go to sleep, put some frozen peas or something frozen on the area for 10 minutes or so, then a little while after a hot water bottle (be carefull not to burn the area), the combination of hot and cold should help bring the bruising out quicker and enable you to heal faster

next time wear shinpads or make sure you tackle from the knee up so they come off worse

farmer1

I am assuming I haven't fractured anything, I have very strong bones. Lol

Surely you would know if you had broken/fractured something?

milo

rest it. if in doubt, rest it. always.

yoza

Big girl.

fitzscoob

lol you would be surprised :P

after playing football a couple of years ago, i limped off in pain thinking i had pulled a muscle at worse, went home rested etc, 3 weeks later im still in a bit of pain, i had been walking around with a partially torn quadracep muscle.

farmer1

Sounds very painful.

fitzscoob

yeah hurt and took ages to heal, teach me for being an assmonkey and not getting it sorted immediately

+Doc+

Get an x ray, i fractured mine playin footie without knowing :/ it just hurt like hell but could bare weight on it.

farmer1

The aching is seaming to ease off now, but could be the pain killers. Will see how I feel tomorrow morning.

ChrisB

Is RICE still applicable these days?

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

ozzy

Certainly is.

You shouldn't put ANY form of heat near a new injury within the first 24/48 hours. A hot bath was the worst thing to do (bar running around some more on it). What you want is plenty of ICE.

Keep the ice on for a max 15 mins to avoid ice burns, but reapply the cold treatment ever hour or two. Do this for the first day or so (depending on how sore it is) and then you can apply some heat to get the blood circulating and start repairing any tissue/muscle damage.

A fracture should be very painful, so it's probably just very bad bruising.

Golden rule for tackling; hurt them more than they hurt you

Stefan

Sith

When I was younger I was running down a damp field, fell and slid shin first into a post. It swelled up like a ballon, hurt for weeks, had an x-ray and had bruised the bone. I was convinced it was fractured.

unclebuck

Stop whining, ye great jesse. Play are real game like Rugby.

UB

Brendan Hughes

ozzy, for us non-doctors/biologists, why cold and not heat? Cold makes blood rush to it, heat makes blood rush away from it?

ozzy

Brendan,

I'm no doctor either, but over the years every sports physio and PTI has told me the same thing - for an immediate injury, the best option is ICE.

It's blood (as well as other fluids) that produce swelling, so to keep this down in the first day or so, you need to apply cold therapy. It also helps reduce some stiffness if it's a joint injury.

After that, you should start to promote extra blood flow (to aid repair) by keeping the injury warm.

That's just from experience of pulled muscles, shin splints, twisted knees, etc. over the past few years and it's has worked much better than putting heat on it from the get-go.

Also why some recommend taking an anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen at the same time.

Stefan

douglasb

Three weeks ago, I slipped and fell at home using the back step to break my fall. I thought I'd just twisted my ankle, so I quite happily drove 350 miles the next day for work. I was hobbling around the customer's site for a few days and then drove the 350 miles home later in the week. At the weekend, I thought that my leg was hurting a bit more than I'd expect, so I drove to the local A&E.

The doctor showed me the X-ray and said, "That explains why it still hurts" as he pointed to a fractured fibula. I've been on crutches for the last couple of weeks and will be for another three weeks, or so.

So, it is definitely possible to crack a bone and not realise the damage you have done.

Doug