You suddenly feel a pull in the back of the leg. You have a few weeks to go until your goal event. It goes without saying this isn’t the best timing.

Getting the first 48 hours right sets you up for recovery success. So rather than down a bottle of wine to drown your sorrows try this instead, because with the right care you can still get to the start line. 

First things first, best to remember there's a new acronym for injury recovery. It isn’t R.I.C.E anymore, it’s the P.O.L.I.C.E (Protect Optimal Loading Ice Compression Elevation)
So rest is removed and replaced by the following 

Protection and Optimal Loading

Rest is most definitely helpful for the first 48 hours. The reason being you haven’t generally laid down new tissue yet so walking around on it isn’t a great idea. Work from home or take a day off. Using the protection of crutches, boots, taping or bracing can help protect the area as it heals in the first couple of days. After the first two days then come into the clinic. You can book HERE 

However continued rest after the first 48 hours is a really bad idea. It actually slows your recovery down with too much rest. New tissue needs load to heal and be of good quality. There are numerous studies to show those that started their rehab later took longer to get back to their goal. 

The other bonus is starting to move earlier gets your calf muscles working stimulating your lymphatic system to get rid of swelling faster. Less swelling equals less pain and better function. 

Optimal simply means don’t do anything stupid. Start to walk as pain allows and don’t go for a 3 hour walk. Listen to your injury and don’t push through pain.

This also includes gentle Physio exercises to load the joint. We have all sorts of tricks such as taping and dry needling to get your pain under control quicker. But the exercises are designed to promote healing and get you loading it quickly. 

If you simply can’t mobilise and you are worried. See someone asap to get imaging to see what is going on. Book HERE

Ice

Strangely ice is a controversial subject. Some people think it is crazy if you apply ice and the evidence is mixed at best. However after having shoulder surgery, ice was a far better pain reliever than tramadol and the other opioids without the nasty side effects. So if it is painful i’d recommend ice. Use a damp towel underneath for 10 minutes at a time.  

Compression

Again there is average evidence for this but clinically over 23 years I can always tell if someone has compressed the injury for the first 48 hours. If there is less swelling, we can begin rehab quicker, so for me it is a no brainer. Particularly if you have to sit at your desk to work all day! It seriously swells. Don’t over think it. Old school bandages are fine or tubigrip from your local pharmacy.

Elevation

Again elevation clinically is extremely effective in that first week of injury. The more you can drain the leg the better. The one mistake I see often is people putting it on a chair in front of them and wondering why it isn’t doing anything. Your limb needs to be above your heart. So think leg on a couple of cushions above your heart on the couch. Feel free to add some gentle toe pointing and extending to help pump swelling out. 

So call the POLICE if you have just injured yourself. Share this with anyone that has just been injured. If you live in Sydney you can make an appointment at our Bondi or Sydney CBD clinics. Send us a message here for more info.