Recovering From Multiple Orthopedic Trauma Injuries

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Compassion and the effects of long-term recovery on physical and mental wellbeing.

Having multiple orthopedic injuries occur in one instance is considered trauma and requires immediate medical treatment.

There are several methods trauma can occur, and our patient care provides for a full range of treatment plans for any circumstance. However, we often see multiple traumas occur during a motor vehicle collision.

There is typically a long road to recovery associated with trauma injuries and requires the support of others, physical and mental strength, and compassion. There is fatigue associated with all three factors, but there is no set time that the fatigue will take effect.

Once the patient journeys through their trauma recovery, they always have a story of survival to share with others.

Here, we will discuss the factors of trauma and the physical and mental effects on the patient’s road to recovery.

 

Orthopedic Trauma and Common Causes

Broken bones, trauma to the organs, internal bleeding, and brain injuries are all considered traumatic injuries. However, we are explicitly discussing orthopedic issues in this article, which consist of:

• Strained muscles
• Torn or stained tissues surrounding the joints
• Broken bones
• Severe injury to the musculoskeletal system and one or more organs or tissue.

 

Multiple trauma injuries can be sustained during a number of circumstances, such as:

• Falling
• Motor Vehicle or Motorcycle Accident
• At Work and Home
• Playing Sports
• An Attack
• And more

 

Treatment Course

Patients will go through a trauma course as an in-patient at a hospital where they will receive intensive trauma care. Treatment will begin with imaging of their extremities, head, abdomen, and pelvis. The results will reveal any broken bones, affected organs, and any degenerative changes to the spine, hips, ankles, knees, and other extremities to be considered during the recovery process.

 

What is Considered Long-Term

Injuries that take an excessive amount of time to recover from are considered long-term. Chronic pain is often associated with the recovery process from any long-term injury. These injuries are severe and have a longer healing process than others. For example, breaking your ankle would take weeks, if not months, longer to recover from than spraining your ankle.

Long-term injuries acquired through trauma could even mean an impairment that lasts throughout your lifetime. Such injuries as a fractured limb that requires surgical repair with hardware implementation, like screws, metal rods, pins, and complete replacements of joints, can cause a limp or the inability to extend your arm or leg to a full range of motion.

The lasting effect of pain, stiffness, unsteady gait, and the need for prolonged use of a hand help assistive device like a cane, crutches, or walker are possible for some patients. Though these devices are required while healing, as a person ages and joint tissues, wear down, these old injuries will produce pain.

 

Compassion Fatigue

There are mental health factors to be aware of that are often associated with long-term injuries. Not only is the patient struggling to maintain a positive attitude while accepting they have severe injuries they will need to work hard to recover from, but the caregiver working alongside you may experience compassion fatigue.

The effort your caregiver has put into your recovery may result in emotional and physical exhaustion.
Unfortunately, this also means the caregiver has experienced diminished compassion toward you and your recovery. Not only are you affected, but others who are associated with the caregiver will also be affected.

 

Symptoms can include:

• Exhaustion- both physically and mentally
• A change in worldviews or spirituality
• Ruminating thoughts
• Emotional instability
• Increased depression

 

Compassion fatigue can happen with both professional caregivers and amongst family and friends. Be aware of the warning signs and work to surround yourself with those who have positive views and mindsets while you are recovering. Take care to notice if someone close to you is suffering from compassion fatigue and encourage that they take a step back while you continue to work on your progress.

 

If you are suffering from any pain, you can be confident that you can find relief with the help of Jaffe Sports Medicine. Our highly skilled staff specializes in a range of pain management techniques and welcomes patients from Naples, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and the surrounding areas of Florida. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.

TEXT BY M. HIATT

Excellence in Care: Types of Pain

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How to determine your pain level and when it’s time to begin seeking treatment.

 

Let’s talk about the most common reason most people see a doctor—pain.

Almost everyone experiences some pain in their lives, and most of us have a different way to cope. At times, your pain may begin from the moment you awake, and other times, with changes in the weather.

Of course, there is pain after a fall, sports injuries—new and old, and repetitive movement injuries that produce intermittent nagging pain.

These are just some examples of the types of joint pains we treat daily. We classify various kinds of pains as Acute, Chronic, Inflammatory, Functional, Neuropathic, and Nociceptive.

 

Acute vs. Chronic

Acute pain is temporary is not expected to last. With acute pain, there is a known treatment. The most common examples of acute pain can stem from a simple paper cut to a broken bone. There is an available treatment for both—one may require a bandage and the other a cast or air splint.

Chronic means the pain is lasting and persistent. When the acute injury becomes more persistent in pain and has lasting physical effects, the acute injury or pain then becomes chronic.

Any injury that produces chronic pain requires a treatment plan that is beyond primary care.

Excellence in care for Jaffe Sports Medicine means that we design a treatment plan specifically for you that reaches beyond essential treatment. We have an excellent physical therapist team, technology-applied treatments, and hands-on therapy with our patient’s recovery in mind.

 

Neuropathic vs. Nociceptive

Neuropathic pain, unfortunately, is chronic most of the time because the pain is often associated with a malfunction in your nervous system. The pain is described as burning, shooting pain that is severe at times but can be controlled with medication.

We often hear from our patients with carpal tunnel syndrome, a nerve entrapment, that they experience shooting pains in the wrist, whole hand, and affected arm. This symptom is not unusual. Common reasons for neuropathic pain are herniated disc, arthritis affecting the spinal cord, spinal surgery, diabetes, amputations with phantom limb disorder, chemotherapy, and multiple sclerosis.

Nociceptive pain is the signal that pain is active.

Nociceptive are the receptors that feel pain and occur when damage or injuries to the nerves happen. The impact sends a pain message from the brain to the spinal cord. The message is then sent to the skin and muscles in the body.

Examples of nociceptive pain are arthritis, bruises, sprains, repetitive use damage. This type of pain can be acute or acute, on chronic.

 

Inflammatory Pain

Inflammation is associated with almost any type of injury, arthritis, gout, degenerative diseases, and abdominal diseases. However, inflammatory pain is sometimes associated with healing and is not the same as inflammation.

If you have ever undergone any surgery, have had a sports injury, or any injury affected the spine or joints, you have likely experienced inflammatory pain.

Inflammatory pain is the sensitivity to an affected area with soreness felt after surgery or treatment such as physical therapy. The pain felt is in direct response to the tissue damage.

This type of pain is not chronic and resolves along with healing. For best healing practices, it’s always best to comply with wearing a brace or splint, and any additional regime’s prescribed by your doctor.

 

Functional Pain

Function pain is also pain with no determined origin or apparent reason for the pain. You could consider widespread body pain, such as musculoskeletal pain or fibromyalgia, to be in the category of functional pain. There are additional medical terms associated, such as a pain scale.

Did you know that there are methods to measure your pain?

Your physician may sometimes ask from a scale from 1-10 to measure your pain, with a ten being the worst.

Your answer will help your physician to establish a baseline for your ongoing pain management treatment. This scale is referred to as a functional pain scale.

 

Find Your Pain Relief

Now that you have more information on pain, you may better understand how we treat and evaluate our patients.

If you are suffering from any pain, you can be confident that you will find relief with the help of Jaffe Sports Medicine. Our excellence in care is provided by a highly skilled staff that specializes in a range of pain management techniques. We welcome patients from Naples, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and the surrounding areas of Florida. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.

TEXT BY M. HIATT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Body in Motion

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Treating for Better Flexibility and Range of Motion in the Upper Extremities

Part 1-Upper Extremities- Range of motion is an important topic, so we will focus on the upper extremities this month and move to the lower extremities next month, so look for that article to come soon.

Movement, flexibility, and motion work together so our body can perform at an optimal level. Pain and discomfort will sound the warning alarm to alert you that something is off. Perhaps you notice stiffness in your knee while walking, or you cannot write with a pen or pencil for more than a few minutes due to cramping hand and wrist pain.

Aside from typical aches and pains, you may be experiencing loss of motion and flexibility, which prevent movements that are natural to your body. Maybe your elbow will not bend properly, or you’re not able to fully extend your arm while reaching, causing a sharp pain in your neck or back.

Pain with motion and loss of movement that worsens over time are critical indicators that there may be something more serious going on with the affected area. So, there’s a reasonable concern when our bodies are not moving the way they should.

To better understand your pain, you need to know how your body is designed to perform. For this, we look to the proper range of motion guides to help in understanding more about your limitations.

 

Upper Extremities

The upper extremities consist of both left and right wrists, elbows, shoulders, and hands. Decreased motion can occur after an injury, impact sports, a fall, working out too hard, or wear and tear on your joints over time from repetitive movements.

Repetitive motions can occur in various settings and are commonly referred to as Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI). Some examples of this include:

  • Work-related movements that cause you to reach throughout the day
  • Assembly line work
  • Grocery store checkout clerk, bagger, or stocking shelves
  • Construction or labor type work
  • Using a computer mouse, typing
  • Exercising and sports training–boxing, weight training, football, basketball, gymnastics, etc.

 

Elbows & Shoulders 

Your shoulders are the least stable and often least moved joint on your body. If you are sitting at a desk all day at work, consider stopping your work for a few minutes each hour to perform flexibility exercises. By improving your passive range of motion, you will find the stiffness and pain in your neck, back, and shoulders will significantly improve.

To test your range of motion in your shoulders, you will first need to stand straight, without arching your back; or you can lie flat on the floor if standing straight produces back pain.

From this position, relax and inhale.

While exhaling, begin to slowly raise your arms, reaching above your head and past your ears.

To test your shoulders, you should be able to raise your arms 180◦ flexion and hyperextend your arms slightly behind the ears, abduction to raise and lower. To test your elbows, follow the diagram of outward and inward rotation and flex inward and outward as you would if you were holding a barbell performing bicep curls. You will also feel this motion in your shoulders.

To increase your motion and obtain maximum motion, remember to work on your flexibility with upper extremity stretches throughout your workday and before and after workouts.

To reduce the risk of injury, use proper techniques while stretching and move slowly.

Wrists & Hands-

The wrist moves along two axes and can move by extension, flexion, adduction, and abduction.

There can be pain in the wrist for a host of reasons, and a diagnosis strongly depends on the symptoms you are experiencing with the loss of motion.

 

Rest your forearm on a table.

With your hand hanging down, follow the graphic to test the range of motion of each wrist.

If you are experiencing loss of motion, tingling, sharp pain, or swelling in the joint, contact Jaffe Sports Medicine for an evaluation.

 

 

Hands-

To test your hands, open and close each hand as you see in the abduction and adduction graphic below.

 

 

You should also periodically perform this exercise and stretch your fingers with opposing thumbs throughout the day. If you cannot touch your thumb to the base of your fifth finger (pinky finger), there may be an underlying cause.

 

If you have a loss of motion in your fingers or thumbs, this information is a helpful start in our determining the cause.

 

Treatment Options

If you cannot complete any of the exercises above or are experiencing pain that prevents the movement of any joint, we consider you to have a limited range of motion.

Jaffe Sports Medicine understands a good range of motion includes decreased pain, better flexibility, strength, better blood flow, more vital movements, and bodily actions, and lower potential for injury.

Jaffe Sports Medicine works individually with each patient to ensure that their health and wellness goals are met. We focus on all aspects of the body, including alignment, movement, and postural habits.

With a blend of physical therapy, interventional pain management, and additional sports medicine strategies, we will help you protect your body and prevent further injury.

At Jaffe Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, we help our patients recover quickly, regain strength, and improve their range of motion while avoiding painful, expensive surgery.

To schedule an appointment at one of our many locations, contact Jaffe Sports Medicine today.

TEXT BY M. HIATT