Use it or lose it

Over the handlebars the rider flew. Extending his hands before him to try and break his fall, the rider collided with the harsh ground below. Sharp rocks dug into the leather biking gloves and the flesh of his forearms. There was a snap. An odd sound that emitted from deep within his right hand, a sound that he immediately knew would cause pain in the seconds to follow.

Three hours later, the rider had become a patient. He sat within the doctor’s office awaiting results from the X-ray films. A few moments later, the doctor arrived, films in hand, and they were placed upon the illuminated view box; the image was quite revealing. The patient presented with a clean break of the bone that resides at the base of the thumb (first metacarpal bone), and between the actual wrist bones. The patient was then given a splint for the fracture and issued instructions regarding the proper care of the fracture. These included to remove the splint on a daily basis and to mobilize the joint that was just distal to the break, and to return to the doctor’s office on a weekly basis to monitor healing and to administer therapy in the involved tissues.

Four weeks later, the patient returned to the office. An X-ray image was taken of the break revealing that it had healed nicely. However, upon examination of the area, the joint next to the break had no motion in it, meaning he could not bend it, nor could it be flexed whatsoever. When the patient was asked where he had been and if he had been doing the exercises prescribed by the doctor, the patient replied that he couldn’t make it into the office and he had not been doing the exercises. This was obvious, especially since the joint was frozen in place.

What has been described here is a worse case scenario. The rider fractured a bone in his hand. When the fracture healed, scar tissue formed in the nearby joint because he did not seek continued therapy and treatment, and did not move the joint for four weeks. Therefore, the joint froze up and the patient will never be able to flex that joint again.

With every injury you acquire you also gain scar tissue within joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons. This scar tissue restricts motion, is more painful, and doesn’t go away unless you seek proper treatment to resolve the injury. This includes, but is not limited to, a minor or major fall, sprain of a joint (ankle, wrist, elbow), broken bone(s), strain or torn muscle. Any injury results in scar tissue formation.

The moral of the story is get yourself fixed with every injury. Otherwise, in a few years, you’ll say something along the lines of, “I sure can’t move like I used to.”

— Dr Hardwick is a chiropractor in the Irving/Dallas area, and a North Lake student. He can be reached in his office at 972-255-6700.