You Are Not Fragile
Good news! Most injuries do not have to become lifelong struggles. Our bones rebuild, our cells regrow, our neurons learn new pathways. Human bodies are designed to be highly adaptable.
Our softness is sometimes purely mental. Driven by the fear of re-injury, an internal dialogue we tell ourselves plays on repeat based on our Dr. Google searches or incomplete conversations with our doctors.
Repeat after me: I am not a chocolate souffle’. You have order, structure and the ability to move forward. This is why it’s important to have a conversation with your doctor about your injury and the healing process.
We all have our dings and dents.
We are surrounded by stories of strength and adaptivity. A man jumped over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard with two broken ankles. A woman runs ultra marathons after being told she had arthritic knees and should restrict herself to walking. A man moved a 1000 pounds off the ground after a disc injury to his back years before. Ask any person who has been pregnant and given birth about adaptivity and they will no doubt have a good chuckle.
How do injuries happen?
Injuries are the body's response to overload. There are 2 types of overload: acute and chronic.
Acute load is when you take a tumble on your skis and reach out to break the fall, thus breaking your wrist. It’s a quick insult to the tissues that pushes past the threshold of structural integrity rebuilding.
Chronic load is when you spend 8 hours a day sitting like a banana in your desk chair. This is multiple insults to the tissue that will eventually cause pain because the body can’t keep up.
What does healing tissue look like?
Healing time is based on 4 main things:
Age
Degree of injury
Amount of load to tissues
Overall health of person
Younger people tend to heal faster. The degree or grade of injury may require more time to heal. For example: An athlete with a Grade 1 (ligament irritation) ankle sprain will take less time to heal than a person of similar age and lifestyle who has a Grade 3 (full ligament rupture) ankle sprain.
Ligamentous injuries like sprained ankles take as little as 6 weeks to heal. Muscular injuries like groin strains take as little as 3 weeks to heal. Bone injuries like stress fractures take approximately 6 to 12 weeks to heal. Neuromuscular injuries like disc herniations take approximately 12 weeks to heal.
But my doctor said my scoliosis will always give me back pain.
Injuries are not the only thing that can make us feel fragile. Sometimes we are told that our anatomy or structure predisposes us to further injury down the line. Many people are told that things like scoliosis, spinal alignment and osteoarthritis may make life more difficult for them down the road. This is not often the case. Structure does not dictate function. I plant my flag firmly in this ground.
One study of 230 knees on 115 pain-free adults (mean age of 44 years old) showed abnormalities (meniscus tearing, cartilage damage or bone marrow legions) in at least one knee in every patient.
It’s important to have a conversion with your doctor or chiropractor or physiotherapist about your concerns around your injury.
Things to ask your doc:
How long will it take for this injury to fully heal?
What can I do to ensure this process doesn’t take longer?
Is there any reason I should believe this may be a long term struggle for me in my activities I enjoy doing?
How do I build strength around this injury?
Bottom line: You are not merely a meat bag moving in three planes. Your injury should not make you feel fragile. We all get ego checks but it shouldn’t keep us from doing what we love. Have a conversation with your doc today about how you can feel stronger around your injuries.
Author: Dr Sam Krieg, Chiropractor and Co-Founder at Base Camp Sport and Spine in Vernon, BC.
Contact: drkrieg@basecampclinic.com
Disclaimer: This blog is intended for general informational purposes only and is not intended for the delivery of medical advice. No doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this blog or materials linked from this blog is at the user's own risk. The content of this blog and website is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice.
References:
Horga LM, Hirschmann AC, Henckel J, Fotiadou A, Di Laura A, Torlasco C, D'Silva A, Sharma S, Moon JC, Hart AJ. Prevalence of abnormal findings in 230 knees of asymptomatic adults using 3.0 T MRI. Skeletal Radiol. 2020 Jul;49(7):1099-1107. doi: 10.1007/s00256-020-03394-z. Epub 2020 Feb 14. PMID: 32060622; PMCID: PMC7237395.
Written by: Sam Krieg DC in Vernon, British Columbia at Base Camp Sport and Spine