One of the worst things to do when you are an
athlete or anyone rehabbing, for that matter, is ICING! Now I don't mean the
frosting type icing.... because compared to swelling control, well... it's
cake. (No pun intended.)
What sucks most about icing a knee, back, or
forehead is:
1) How cold it is. The initial shock of placing it
on the needed body part is jolting. It is seriously uncomfortably cold.
2) The redness and frostbite you get from the
fifteen plus minutes you are required to leave it on for. Feel the burn!
3) The loss of feeling you get to that particular
body part. You seriously go numb. Say goodbye to figuring out if you still have
a headache or not.
4) The way you feel after. You, no matter if you
are in a sauna, can not, for the life of you, get warm and back to normal body
temperature. Kiss your homeostasis feature goodbye.
Yes, I know that icing is a great medical technique
used by trainers, doctors, and anyone with common sense to reduce the blood
flow to a certain area. When you injure yourself your body wants to send
healing blood cells to that area to heal it immediately. In order to protect
it, the body overdoes it in terms of the number of blood cells: thus, the
"swelling" and increased size. That being said icing is used to numb
the injured body part and decrease swelling. Icing to create numbness decreases
pain.
So whether you have a ice gel pack, a lunch box
fridge box, or a package of veggies such as: peas, carrots, or corn, icing is
the painful price to be beautiful as they say! If you want to heal faster and
rehab the correct way, you must ice... Even though you get the chills! :) (306)
I think you should keep blogging about your injury and the process to recovery.
ReplyDeleteGood idea! Thanks, Boomer!
ReplyDeleteOMG! Morgan i serioulsy laughed out loud the whole time i was reading this post and not to mention how big of a loser i looked like when everyone in my class just turned and stared at me!!! keep blogging about your injury it is funny:)
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I remember this from my sister's knee surgery. She had this machine that would compress and ice her leg. That thing would get ridiculously cold to the point you could barely touch parts of it. Sis couldn't even wear the thing longer than 20 minutes if I remember correctly. Otherwise it would seriously have damaged her skin. She had to have a towel around the unwrapped parts of her leg to prevent frost burn. She used to complain about the cold a LOT.
ReplyDeleteAlthooooough, I must admit she did actually advocate for it too. The ice really helped her with the pain and swelling, and there were times she counted down the seconds until she could get it back on. I suppose it's mainly about how much pain you're currently in. A give and take eh? :)
-BlackFox