Welcome to another edition of Chris' Corner. This week I've decided to talk about one of the most essential principles in Athletic Training and one that I find quite interesting (then again I'm a medical geek so I find all this stuff interesting). What is this nugget of knowledge you ask? The injury response process. Knowing this process dictates how you take an athlete from injury to return to play. As I've mentioned before (see previous discussion on "Why ice?") with any injury there will be an associated inflammatory response. This inflammation represents the first phase of the injury response process. Basically the body tries to isolate the injury and clean up dead and damaged tissue. This phase lasts for about a week depending on the severity of the injury. The most important thing to remember during this phase is to not cause further harm. The focus is on protecting the injured tissue, application of therapeutic modalities (ice and electrical stimulation for example) and use of anti-inflammatory medication (ibuprofen) to limit swelling and pain. The next phase is called the proliferation phase. During this phase the body is laying down new tissue to repair the injury. Here the focus is on helping the body help itself. Again, therapeutic modalities (non-thermal ultrasound, massage) come into play, helping stimulate the repair process. Early therapeutic exercise is important here. Restoring range of motion and light strengthening exercise should be implemented. The proliferation phase lasts for about 3-4 weeks. The final phase in the injury response process is the maturation phase. This phase can last a year or more depending on the injury and the type of tissue involved. A really nifty thing occurs during this phase. As you place stress on the affected tissue through therapeutic exercise and athletic activity the body remodels the tissue to more closely resemble the original tissue! What an amazing thing our bodies are. Basically, when you boil it down as long as we don't get in the way of our own bodies (think doing too much too soon thereby returning to the inflammatory phase) our body heals itself. Incredible! Something to keep in mind during this process is that the time frames for each phase are not set in stone. The injury response process is very fluid and the phases tend to overlap. A skilled Certified Athletic Trainer recognizes this and plans an activity progression accordingly.
This week on the court saw the team get through the first round of conference play undefeated! Not too shabby. If you haven't gotten to a match or watched the web cast you need to do so, if for no other reason than to see #7 play. Quite simply Emily is just one heck of an athlete! In back-to-back matches over the weekend yours truly had a front row seat to two of the most amazing, athletic plays I've ever seen at a live sporting event. Truly SportsCenter specials. Like I need another reason to love working with this team.
In other news the rivalry with LP is back on! Between drills at practice LP wanted to test her considerable basketball prowess in a shooting contest with yours truly. Shooting volleyballs from downtown LP thought she had me licked until I drained one with the pressure on. Nothing but net. Score one for the has-been.
The injury report is still at zero, we're living large in conference play and I got to meet the Frickers (Mr. Fricker is a dedicated follower of Chris' Corner). Another pretty good week here in Shangri-La.
Ice, ice, ice, remember your phases of healing and we'll see you next week on Chris' Corner.
P.S. As I am writing 60 Minutes is doing a spot on MTBI (see last week's Chris' Corner). Maybe they follow the blog too!?
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I wasn't watching 60 minutes, but maybe they were watching the #1 football team in the land with the MTBI thing. Nah....they follow the blog.
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