Dealing with a Shoulder Injury
You still played through it despite the pain. But this time around, it looks like your going to be on the sidelines. It probably happened during the previous game when you went up for a rebound hard, and a much stronger opposing player locked arms with you midair. He hooked the ball hard with one arm slamming it into his other hand, tangling and twisting your arm. The next thing was pain and lots of icepacks.
There have been a few injuries for the past 13 years of your professional basketball career. Now you’re suddenly thinking of the time when you’ll walk away from the game for good when it is all but necessary to go for treatment for neuropathy in Layton, Utah, because of your injuries and other rehab therapy. But not just yet. Your focus now is to get your shoulders back in order. Here’s how doctors can help you recover from your shoulder injury:
The Top Ten Injuries
It isn’t surprising that you suffered a shoulder injury while playing basketball. Shoulder injuries, typically a rotator cuff injury, lands on the number two spot of the most common injuries of athletes. Taking first place is knee injury or patellofemoral syndrome.
Resting and Rehabbing
You’re a basketball player, so you will likely get injured. But people may suffer shoulder injury even if they’re not an athlete. You can get injured from a fall or by just doing work extensively without rest, like scrubbing, lifting weights, or painting. Here are a few ideas to take note of when you’ve had a shoulder injury:
- Immediate remedy. Applying lots of icepacks will help alleviate the pain immediately after the injury happened. Make sure that you take some rest and avoid doing stuff that might re-injure your shoulder.
- Find out what you have. Immediately see a doctor who can make a proper diagnosis. Your shoulder could be injured in several ways. It could be a dislocation, fracture, impingement, frozen shoulder, or bursitis.
- Rehabilitation. Getting a doctor’s diagnosis is part of the two-step process of getting better. The next step would be to rest and to do conditioning workout. Depending on the gravity of your injury or if you’ve had to undergo surgery, expect the recovery to be at least for a few weeks up to several months. Physical therapists recommend that you follow a weekly routine of stretches for your different muscle groups. Exercises may include the supraspinatus stretch, triceps stretch, and scapular squeezes. Your PT will likely prescribe a routine that’s suitable for your injury.
- Altering daily routines. You’re probably not going to be able to raise your arm if you undergo surgery. So prepare a few items before the surgery to help you go through your daily routines more efficiently. Get a detachable showerhead to rinse your entire body while showering, but not wetting your wound from the surgery. Get a shower chair so that you don’t strain yourself too much showering in a standing position. Use pumps for soap. These items and others will help you go through with your daily routine with one arm.
- Medicines. Your wound needs to heal if you’ve had surgery, and you need to manage the pain. Your doctor will provide you medication, including opioids. Take only the necessary dosage and visit your doctor regularly.
Whether you will require surgery or not, rest is the most critical thing you need to do for your body on your way to full recovery.
