Your body can heal a bone by itself. The only problem is that the damaged bone may heal in the incorrect position, which may cause more problems in the future. To alleviate this potential problem, broken bones are almost always supported with casts, splits or even cement. This reduces movement, while still allowing the patient to stay mobile. Inside your body, those first responders come from the immune system , which kicks into high gear as soon as it registers the injury.
Your immune system uses a complex network of cells, hormones, and signals to create inflammation at the site of an injury. Because an injury needs blood, which carries oxygen, nutrients, and specialized cells from the immune system that can begin to heal the damage right away.
Pain from a broken bone comes in three phases:. Acute pain is that sudden, intense, oh-no-something-is-really-wrong kind of pain you get right after the fracture or any kind of trauma. When you go to the hospital, you'll likely be given strong painkillers to help get you through the worst of it. Inside your body, the break has caused damage to sensitive nerves that send rapid, sharp pain signals to the brain.
Over the next few hours, the cells at the fracture site release healing chemicals and signals that cause new nerves to sprout. These new nerves are what cause sharp pain when you move the broken bone and a dull, aching pain while it's resting. Think of the ache as a reminder not to use the injured part and the sharp pain as an alarm system for when you're harming yourself.
Once you've moved past the acute pain, if it returns, it could be a signal that something is wrong. Perhaps you bumped the bone or moved it in a way that hurt, or maybe it's not healing properly. You should let your healthcare provider know about any unexplained return to the acute pain phase. Your pain level should decline to the sub-acute level once the break is treated and begins to heal, and it'll likely stay there for a few weeks.
You may still be on pain medication, but it may be a lower dosage or a weaker drug. The source of sub-acute pain is partly from the break—especially from scarring and any inflammation you may still have—but much of it stems from the immobility that's needed for your bones to heal properly. The connective tissues get stiff and the muscles lose strength. You may also lose bone mass. All of those factors can contribute to your feeling weak when you first try to use the broken part.
If it's your leg, you may feel like it won't support you. If it's your arm or wrist, you may not be able to lift or grip something tightly.
At some point during this phase, your healthcare provider will likely encourage you to start moving and stretching and may have you start physical therapy. Be sure to follow directions about what types of movements are safe for you as well as how much activity is okay.
If all goes well, your bone will heal and your soft tissues will recover. Remember those nerves that sprouted during the acute phase? After a proper recovery, they should stop sending those signals and the lingering pain will go away. However, that doesn't happen in all cases. A physical therapist can teach you the proper movements to use at each stage of the healing process so you don't do further damage.
By helping you properly rehabilitate your muscles and connective tissues, they can reduce your pain, increase your strength, and help you heal as fast as possible. When pain continues beyond the sub-acute phase, it's called chronic pain. Many people never get to this phase, but for those who do, the pain continues for long after the injury is healed. It may be caused by:. Central sensitization is a change in how your central nervous system brain and nerves of the spinal column perceives a particular type of stimulus.
This condition tends to be most common in children during growth spurts, and they quite easily break bones with even the slightest of injuries.
A child with brittle bone syndrome who has a broken bone must be carefully monitored and protected from activities that could cause another break. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel. Tricia Christensen. The surgeon may offer advice on diet and nutritional supplements that are essential to bone growth.
Smoking cessation and adequate control of blood sugar levels in people living with diabetes are important. Smoking and high glucose levels interfere with bone healing. For all patients with fractured bones, immobilization is a critical part of treatment because any movement of bone fragments slows down the initial healing process.
During the immobilization period, weightbearing is restricted as instructed by the surgeon. Once the bone is adequately healed, physical therapy often plays a key role in rehabilitation. An exercise program designed for the patient can help in regaining strength and balance and can assist in returning to normal activities. If the bone is not healing as well as expected or fails to heal, the foot and ankle surgeon can choose from a variety of treatment options to enhance bone growth, such as continued immobilization for a longer period, bone stimulation or surgery with bone grafting or use of bone growth proteins.
Foot and ankle surgeons are the leading experts in foot and ankle care today.
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