Will Your Shoulder Injury Heal Properly?

While it is only one particular part of the body, treating a shoulder injury isn’t a one size fits all solution. Given the wide variety of potential injuries just in that part of the body, it can be a challenging and complex process to get back to normal or something that heals on its own after a couple of weeks. 

Depending on how intense the injury is, the healing process can vary from taking weeks, months, or even years. Although there isn’t an easy answer as to whether your shoulder injury will heal properly or not, here’s a way to help you understand what the process of your recovery will look like.

Understand The Injury

Above all else, figuring out what kind of injury you’ve sustained and the severity of it will determine the likelihood of a successful recovery. This is serious, even if you feel like you’ve only had a minor loss in mobility, so don’t hesitate to see a professional. It’ll always be better to hear that you’ll need to take it easy for a week, opposed to getting asked why you didn’t come in months ago, when the injury actually happened. 

Likely, a shoulder injury comes down to something like a tear in your rotator cuff, bursitis, or tendinitis and will be determined by methods such as the rotator cuff injury test. Different injuries require different methods of rehabilitation, so it is important to ask the doctor what type of medicine or care is best, and if seeing a physical therapist is the proper course of action for what happened to you.

How Serious Is It? 

Potentially, the severity of the injury could be more of an important matter than the type itself. When it’s something minor, think of a sprain for example, resting and placing ice on it may be all you’ll need to do. On the other hand, when things are more intense, now think of something like  fracture, more invasive treatments, along with physical therapy, may be needed. 

Regardless of what it is, and if you’ll recover in a week or something you’ll deal with for the rest of your days, follow your doctor or physical therapist’s advice exactly as they recommend. For as long as they mention you’ll need to be taking it easy with plenty of ice on the injury. Also, follow the stretching that you’ll be asked to do as that could be the difference between fully recovering or having a new normal without your former mobility.

Time Has To Pass

The length of time it takes to heal properly can vary greatly depending on how serious the injury is and type of injury itself. With this, you’ll just have to be patient and let your body heal at the rate it does. Improvement is the key thing to pay attention to here. Things won’t be better overnight, but if your pain isn’t improving after a few weeks, don’t ignore it. 

Let your doctor know if things don’t seem quite right. Throughout this time, it’s extremely important to pay attention to your body and keep a journal of your daily condition. Note it when there is increased pain or swelling and also keep a record of when you are having a good day when it comes to pains and aches in your shoulder.