Stages of Injury and Recovery

Posted on December 2, 2018 by Dr. Thomas Ball

As a Doctor of Chiropractic it is my job to help patients move and function better, and to help them recover from injuries they may be dealing with.  There is more than just the physical healing that occurs with an injury.  These injuries do not have to be life threatening, maybe just enough to prevent you for doing the things you love to do or maybe even prevent you from doing your normal activities of daily living.  There is also the psychological aspect of getting injured- which is what I wanted to focus on in this Blog.  When we lose someone we love or even a family pet, we usually go through the 5 stages of grief, well that also happens (to a lesser degree) when we lose our ability to do the things we love to do.  I wanted to highlight those 5 stages here in respect to getting injured to help lead you towards recovery.  It doesn’t matter if you are a professional athlete or just someone who likes to work in their garden, when what we love to do is taken away from us, we often go through these 5 stages of injury and recovery.

Denial

When you first experience the shock of an injury, you immediately begin an internal dialogue in which you try to convince yourself that it’s not that bad. You probably try to run, lift or garden just like you normally do, a typical form of denial that often makes matters worse. Another common thought is that the injury will ease off in a couple of days. If you continue to do your activity of choice you may aggravate the injury. In extreme cases, some people pretend there is no injury. (Read More)

An Interesting Take on “R.A.”, aka- Rheumatoid Arthritis!

Posted on December 2, 2018 by Dr. Victoria VanNederynen

I was just visiting at home over this past Thanksgiving break, helping out, and doing Active Release Techniques®  (ART) on the hands of my highly active grandmother of 85 years young, and chatting about her issues with Rheumatoid Arthritis, commonly called, “R.A.”.  For those of you who are not aware, R.A. is an autoimmune condition.  Unfortunately the immune system goes after and attacks its own tissues, and in regards to this condition, the joints.  The immune system recognizes the cells and tissue as an invader, and is constantly attacking certain joints of the body more then others.  In the long run this ends of triggering chronic inflammation in the body, which equals pain surrounding the joints usually.

The most common form of “standard medical treatment”, our nemesis, is prednisone, BOO…  In the short run this drug can definitely reduce pain, but acts more like a bandage.  There are also many bad side affects in regards to using prednisone for the long run as well.  Many of those side affects have been made very well aware of to the general public over the past few years, including weakening the immune system. (Read More)