Signs and Symptoms of Sports Injuries and What to Do

 

If you are reading this article, chances are that you are experiencing some kind of pain in your body due to playing sports and are trying to figure out what kind of injury you might have. Orthopaedics covers a wide range of sports injuries but the most common types are:

1. Knee injuries
2. Muscle swelling
3. Achilles’ tendon
4. Dislocations
5. Fractures
6. Shin bone pain
7. Sprains
8. Strains

Let’s go over some symptoms and see if anything matches you might be feeling.

Dislocations
Dislocations are pretty painful. The most common type of dislocation is a shoulder. This is when the humerus bone is pulled out of the socket and causes muscles and other tissues to be stretched or even worse, torn. If your shoulder is dislocated, you will be able to move your arm but you will definitely not want to because of the excruciating pain. You will be able to see that it is offset and it will appear sort of square. You may also see or feel a bulge in front of the shoulder.

Fractures or Breaks
There are various types of fractures.
A complete fracture is when the bone breaks cleanly into two pieces.
A green stick fracture is when the bone is broken on one side only but is still connected on the other side.
A single fracture is when the bone has only one place where it is broken.
An open fracture will present with the bone piercing through the skin.
A comminuted fracture is when the bone has been crushed.

It is hard to tell without an x-ray exactly what kind of break you have but the pain is always the same for each one although different people experience different kinds of pains. It may be a deep ache like a headache or it may be more of a sharp pain.

Sprains
The muscle is considered strained when it has been stretched too much or toward. For a sports injury this is usually because of being overused. If you have strained a muscle you will feel sudden pain followed by a knotted up feeling and possible bruising as well as swelling. You will only have a limited range of motion due to the pain and muscle spasm’s can also incur. Later, stiffness and weakness will join your symptoms. ACL repair falls under the category of severe sprains. In very serious cases, ACL reconstruction will be needed during the ACL surgery. Orthopaedics can determine how serious the sprain is.

Strains
The most common type of sprain is an ankle sprain. It is a very common problem for every kind of athlete. This is when one of the ligaments in your ankle becomes injured. When you sprain your ankle it will hurt but the pain level will depend on how bad the sprain is. You may hear a popping sound when the injury happens and then the ankle will swell and bruised up and you will have difficulty moving it. Depending on how bad the spring is you may not be able to walk properly.

If you think that you have injured yourself in someway you will need to see an orthopaedics doctor in order to be diagnosed and treated.

If you are an athlete orthopaedics is not a welcome term to you as it is something you hope to never need. However, should the worst happen and you find yourself in need of an orthopedic surgeon, know that you were doing the right thing in taking care of yourself no matter what happens afterwards. You may feel like it is the end of your life and you are devastated but do not lose hope. It is medically proven that the mental and emotional state of a person can largely affect the physical outcome of their healing. Keep the faith, have hope and maybe, just maybe, your sports playing days are not over yet! Lastly, don’t diagnose yourself, you will probably be wrong!