Life is unpredictable, and it’s not common for anyone to make their way through it completely unscathed. Injuries happen, and it’s up to us to determine how we react and manage the fallout.
A broken bone or a torn ligament might not be difficult to handle individually, but when you combine multiple injuries, the pain, potential complications, and added stress all compound to make coping and healing seem impossible.
That’s why we’ve outlined 5 Tips for Managing Multiple Injuries below, so your healing process can be as painless as possible.
1. Allow yourself to feel
It’s understandable to want to avoid feeling anything, especially when everything feels like it hurts, but the first step in making life easier for yourself is allowing yourself to feel.
That doesn’t mean stop taking your prescribed medications completely, but instead use them only when the pain becomes unbearable and prevents you from functioning regularly.
The sensation of pain is what tells us that something is wrong. Pain is another way our body communicates to us that we need to pay close attention to what we’re doing. If you’re feeling pain, you’re on the right track, but should continue to be mindful.
Don’t only focus on your physical pain though. When you sustain an injury (or multiple injuries), you’ll likely feel a lot of emotions as well. You might feel sad, depressed, or angry. It’s possible that you’ll even go through parts of the grieving process: denial, bargaining, depression, anger, and acceptance.
That last bit is ultimately what’s going to make your healing process the most effective: acceptance.
2. Be your own best coach
When managing multiple injuries, there will be plenty of days where you don’t want to get out of bed, don’t have the strength to go anywhere, or simply can’t stand to face your current reality.
The best thing you can do is to be your own best coach. A good coach will always push you to achieve your best, and then a little bit more. A good coach will drag you out of bed regardless of how you’re feeling. If you’re being your best coach, then you’ll allow yourself to try, fail, try again, and repeat.
Part of being your own best coach means that on those difficult mornings when all of your injuries are screaming at you, you’ll be accepting of them and still do what you need to do. Successfully managing multiple injuries means managing them -not being managed by them!
Keep track of your attitude by remembering that you are not your injuries. Remind yourself of all of the good things about yourself and your life. Your injuries are only a temporary season, despite how it may feel.
3. Divide and conquer
The sum of all of your injuries might make you feel overwhelmed and caught in a tidal wave of pain. Avoid this helpless feeling by treating your injuries individually, since they’re individual injuries after all.
If you’ve got bad knees that only stretching helps with, take the time each day to stretch them. If ice is the only thing to soothe your rotator cuff, you’d better keep that bag of ice in your freezer ready to go at a moment’s notice.
It’s easy to just take a few pills and expect them to do all of the healing work, but actively treating your injuries yourself will go much further.
4. Adjust expectations
Your doctor might tell you it could take up to 18 weeks for a full recovery, but possibly less if everything goes well. Don’t expect the best case scenario.
Make sure your expectations for recovery are optimistic, but realistic.
Yes, there’s a great chance you’ll make a full recovery in less time than what your doctor tells you, but it would be wise of you to expect the worst while doing everything in your power to produce the results you want.
Being realistic is challenging because it takes humility, but you’ll be better for it in the end!
5. Make sure you’re covered
Whether you were injured in a car accident, at work, or through medical malpractice, you need to make sure that you speak with legal counsel in order to keep yourself protected from liability suits.
There are nuances to every personal injury case, and there are plenty of resources available online for you to learn more about them, like this article on JT Legal Group.
Conclusion
Managing multiple injuries can be incredibly difficult, but if you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to a quick recovery!
