DOC TALK WITH DR. GIRLING AND DR. PALOMERA: WHEN SHOULD YOU SEE A DOCTOR?
DOC TALK is a series where our Sports Medicine Physicians discuss YOUR questions. Our patients and community ask questions then our group of physicians sit down to answer them. Have a question you want to submit? DM us on Facebook or Instagram!
BELOW DR. GIRLING AND DR. PALOMERA ANSWER:
WHEN SHOULD YOU SEE A DOCTOR?
Dr. Girling: Alright Doc, so I get this one a lot. When do I need to come see you? I've had an injury, something happened, swelling, pain, whatever. And, maybe I've lived with it for a while, when's the right time to come in and see SMASA?
Dr. Palomera: That's an easier question answered for kids, and by kids I mean college age and younger. The general rule is that if an injury or pain has lasted two weeks or longer, especially with the spine, something's going on. Something bad could be happening because they should heal. With adults, it's much more much more nebulous. As we were joking earlier, someone told me it hurts their back when they play golf, well so does mine. But with adults, I think a good rule of thumb is persistent, not going away pain. I could see waiting a few weeks—whether three weeks is appropriate or six weeks is appropriate is a little bit of a guess. I tell everybody, no matter what injury it is, if it's affecting your life or you're really struggling to get dressed, to cook, to feed yourself, you're really changing what you do because you don't want to leave because your spine or your knee hurts, it's probably a good time to come in. Definitely if you've been treating it and you failed different things, like medicines, ice, and heat and massage, it's a good time.
Dr. Girling: Just like when just like when you said, kids versus adults, for me it's going to be surgical—patients who have already had surgery or patients who haven't had surgery. So, if you’ve never had surgery before and you've got new onset pain or a major injury, if you felt a pop, immediate swelling, difficulty weight bearing, you can't go to work, you can't sleep, it affects your, what we call ADLs activities of daily living, so anything that impairs your daily activities, that's the time to be seen pretty quickly. If you've got nagging injuries that have been going on, coming and going, and you've been trying the easy things at home rest, ice, anti-inflammatories, and it keeps coming back, come get seen there's no reason to live with that and not get an opinion on what's going on. There might be something we can do to help those things.
But if you're surgical, and I tell my patients all the time, I've only got one major rule, for the love of God please don't fall. Falls are the enemy of implants because you can damage a ligament, a muscle, and tendon, you can fracture something, you can damage things that we put back together. If you can't weight bear—you need to be seen right away. If it doesn't feel right please be seen right away. There's no reason to sit at home after you've had a major injury and not be seen.
Dr. Palomera: And I would add nerve pain to that. Numbness, shooting pains. Don't let it drag out too long, so...
Dr. Girling: No and if it's emergent certainly go to the hospital. We're not saying that you should sit at home and wait through the weekend. That's what the ERs are there for. And for the most part as long, as you let them know that we're treating you or we've seen you, they're going to call me anyway. All the hospitals have my cell (phone number) and believe me I get blown up whether I'm on call or not, doesn't bother me at all. I would much rather find out right when it happened than a week later and you've been living at home with an injury. It's not worth it.