need advice on injury
 

I've recently had an injury because of incorrect ukemi. my left shoulder hit the mattress first so it had to sustain my whole weight, and it made 3 (yes, exactly 3) cracking sound. I've been treating it with ice packs for the first 4 days, and hot packs for the next 3 days, and I've been applying analgesic balm on my shoulder for the last 2 days. I feel better now but when I tried to come training today I still can't even do ukemi without feeling pain and I can't put forth more than 50% strength from my left shoulder.

can anyone give me an advice on how to heal my shoulder faster? I'm supposed to take a yudansha exam this january and I don't want to mess it up because I can't give my best...

Re: need advice on injury
 

First get a correct diagnosis. Go to an osteopath or someone you know in the relevant field. Once you have that I could get you some nutritional advice to help speed up healing.

Regards.G.

Re: need advice on injury
 

If you heard cracking sounds during ukemi and afterwards have had pain and loss of function for if I count correctly 9 days, what you really need to do is go see a doctor as soon as you can! It's possible you have broken or torn something, and it won't necessarily get better on it's own.

Pauliina

Re: need advice on injury
 

Shoulder injuries are common and range from trivial to "it'll never heal on it's own" or "it'll never be the same again" bad. So, yeah, get it looked at.

Meanwhile, don't do anything that hurts. Gritting your way through a tendon tear is likely to turn the first kind of injury into the second. Stay off the mat entirely until you know what's wrong in there.

I like alternating hot & cold for tendon, ligament, and joint strains. The theory is that since they get little blood flow, they're hard to heal. Alternating hot and cold pumps blood through the area.

Re: need advice on injury
 

Severe shoulder separation (of clavicle from scapula) is common when falling on the top of the shoulder. A minor one that is allowed to heal, as in 6-8 weeks of rest, may heal 100% or may leave minor residual aches longterm. A major one is a serious issue requiring evaluation and possibly surgery.
And rule of thumb on soft tissue injuries is even when you do everything right they take many weeks to heal. Reinjure during that time, you both reset the clock to zero and increase risk of a reversible acute injury becoming a lifelong chronic one.
Not worth it.

Re: need advice on injury
 

1. Get to a doctor and get examined.

2. Do what he tells you to do, including

3. Postponing that yudansha exam if necessary.

Bad fall followed by cracking noises followed by pain and lack of function is probably bad news. Better to get the news up front and start treating it than ignore it while it fails to go away.

Katherine

Re: need advice on injury
 

As everyone else said, go and see a doctor.

I have seen people injured in exactly this way twice before, and in both cases it was a dislocated collarbone. It is a very nasty injury and takes months to recover from, if at all. I hope that yours is not so severe, but please get it looked at and don't treat it lightly.

Re: need advice on injury
 

I agree, time to see a doctor.

Re: need advice on injury
 

You can't "heal your shoulder faster". All you can do is avoid adding time to the healing process, and step one is knowing what you're dealing with...so, yeah, like everyone else says, get a diagnosis.

I'll also add one thought: getting an injury like this, at a time like this, is in a way a test of character. Right now your impulse is probably to think that this injury is an impediment to your practice. In a sense it is, of course -- but in another sense it is a test that will show you how your practice will proceed through life. I'm not saying this very well, but what I'm trying to get at is: eventually, for all of us, something comes along that seriously interferes with our plans. What we do when that happens is an indicator of how we'll go forward -- in our practice, in our lives. The way forward isn't despite your injury, and it isn't because of your injury. It's with your injury, because that's just part of what you've got to deal with.

Re: need advice on injury
 

VERY well said, Mary.

Re: need advice on injury
 

Yeah, sometimes it's not so much about speeding up the healing process as avoiding adding to it... Figure out what's actually wrong (i.e., doctor) and do whatever is needed for it to heal properly (rest, special exercises, whatever). If it does turn out that means postponing your exam, well, that's better than trying to plow through with the exam but in the process turning your injury into something much bigger or more chronic -- that would harm your training and ability to keep learning and practicing a lot worse.

Try to think long term, basically.

Re: need advice on injury
 

Just one more quick point. I have a permanent deformity in my left hand because an injury was misdiagnosed and therefore went untreated for a while. If it had been treated immediately, it would have been fixable, but as it is, I am stuck with it for life. Please get a good diagnosis as quickly as possible so you don't end up like me.

Re: need advice on injury
 

If I would've heard 3 bones cracking in my shoulder, no advice needed. I'd be off to the hospital---or at least to see a doctor. Your shoulder needs to be seen by medical personnel and then go from there. "Self treating" will just make it worse.

Re: need advice on injury
 

thanks for all the response, guys (and girls). I went to get an x-ray last night and sent it to my sister, who is a physician.. so I'm still waiting to hear a (hopefully) good news soon.

Re: need advice on injury
 

After xrays and all that I would go to a Tit Da Sifu and some good Tit Da Jaw. No ice. Thats my 2 cents.

Re: need advice on injury
 

?????????????Joe

Re: need advice on injury
 

Tit Da Jaw

I use it once in a while to quicken recovery time, works well if you find the real kind.