No matter where you live in the Palm Beaches, if you are in school or have a child in school, you know it’s time for fall sports. In Florida, students can sign up for bowling, golf, cross country, football, volleyball or swimming and diving. With more and more students specializing in one sport year-round, doctors across the Palm Beaches are seeing repetitive use injuries as well as more serious ones.
What are some common fall sports injuries and how can you avoid or treat them? We tell you in this article.
Tendinitis can strike wherever there’s a tendon - and that means that pretty much every athlete is susceptible. For golfers and bowlers, tendinitis - or inflammation of the tendon - is most common in the wrist and elbow (despite it being called “tennis elbow,” it can occur in any sport!), while swimmers are most likely to experience it in their biceps and runners in their Achilles (ankle). Tendinitis mostly arises from overuse and from muscle imbalance. If you already have symptoms, then your best bet is to take an anti-inflammatory medicine and rest or visit our urgent care in Palm Springs to get it looked at. If you are just beginning to suspect you might have it, hit the weight room and solve your muscle imbalances. Strengthening the muscles around the joint will ensure your tendon doesn’t have to work so hard to provide stability.
Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) are among the most common injuries affecting fall sports athletes, whether they are volleyball players, football players, runners or even bowlers and golfers. All it takes is a wrong step, a bad twist or a hard hit to dislocate the knee from it’s normal orientation and tear the knee ligaments in the process. Although it’s hard to avoid entirely unless you quit the sport, the risk of ACL and MCL injuries can be reduced through weight training, especially in the gluteal region. Get that butt in gear and make it your strongest, most stable body part. Doing a lot of core work will help you, as well. If you think you have already torn your ACL or MCL, avoid the ER and head to your urgent care center in Palm Springs for diagnosis and any necessary referrals.
Outside of broken bones, concussion is the gravest injury facing football players this fall. The signs and symptoms can be subtle but the impact of even a couple bad concussions can be long-lasting, according to doctors from Harvard Medical School. That’s because a concussion comes as a result of a severe blow to the head which shifts the brain quickly in one direction before crashing to a stop and resulting in its impact with the inside of your head. This impact results in nerve cells being stretched and the connections between them coming loose - which is why some of the symptoms of concussion include dizziness, confusion, headache and sometimes loss of consciousness. If you suspect you have a concussion or that your child has had one, it is critical to come to our urgent care in Palm Springs. Although you can’t prevent the effects once the damage has occurred, you will receive a diagnosis and treatment.
Any injury that impacts your ability to do daily tasks should be checked by a doctor, whether it’s a jammed finger from playing volleyball or a twisted ankle from a bad stop on the cross-country course. Our urgent care center in Palm Springs accepts you 7 days a week with no appointment necessary, meaning it can be quick and easy to get diagnosed and back on the road to health.
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