Millions of people experience sports injuries each year. Recovery is important, but what if you don’t know that you have sustained an injury in the first place? If you get back on the field after a sustaining a major sports injury, you could make it worse – far worse. If you are a professional athlete, this could affect your entire career. There are a number of things you should look out for when it comes to knowing what kind of injury you sustained.
Keeping a close watch for these signs is important, because then you can confer with your physician about the best course of action for surgery or recovery.
Here are five common sports injury warning signs.
- Unusual inflammation or swelling. If you notice that anyone of your extremities is swollen or inflamed, there is a good chance that whatever impact you sustained has gone deep – really deep. If you don’t suspect anything is broken, you could put ice on the inflamed or swollen area. However, if the pain is severe and doesn’t subside – or if the swelling doesn’t go down – you will most likely need to see a doctor for x-rays.
- Prolonged or chronic pain. Another sign that you have probably sustained a sports injury is if you are experiencing chronic pain that is either dull and long lasting, or comes back in waves. This is a warning sign that you have either pulled a muscle or tendon – you may have even broken a bone. If this is the case, you want to visit a clinic to talk to a physician about your symptoms. If you are feeling this pain in your spine, you may want to visit a specialized clinic for spinal injuries.
- Inability to move or to flex a certain muscle. If you are experiencing lack of mobility or if you wake up and have trouble moving a certain part of your body, there is a good chance that you have some kind of sports related injury. Most commonly, people experience this lack of mobility in the neck and back, but it can also happen in the arms and other parts of the body. If this happens, you definitely want to seek medical advice.
- Acute numbness. Sometimes it can be difficult if you are experiencing numbness, but there are some self tests that you can administer. For instance, you want to feel your muscles and place your hand on the tendon group where you may have sustained impact. If you notice an area that feels numb and tingling, there is a good chance that you have some kind of nerve damage.
- Loss of vision or blurriness. One of the most dangerous sports related injuries is a brain injury. If you are experiencing confusion, loss of vision or blurriness in either your right or left eye, you want to visit the emergency room right away. This is a sign that you may have internal brain hemorrhaging. Visiting the ER may just save your life.
