Going through an event such as an illness, trauma, or even a surgical procedure can often feel like a never-ending journey, but it doesn’t have to. Our bodies move through three phases of healing (Inflammatory, Proliferative, and Maturation), and understanding why and how this process works is vital to forming a plan to help manage a quick recovery. Here is an overview of the phases, some quick tips, and then we’ll dive into what we can do to help speed up your recovery time.
Inflammatory Phase
The first phase of healing is the Inflammatory Phase, and it’s your body’s natural response to an illness, trauma, or even surgical procedure. This phase can last several days from the original event. Symptoms seen during this phase are swelling, bruising, and pain.
Quick Tip: This phase is best managed with ice, elevation, and occasionally even medication. When managing surgical inflammation, the more you follow this advice the better you’ll do with later phases of healing.
Proliferative Phase
Next is the Proliferative phase and is the time your body takes to “rebuild” or stitch itself back together internally. This phase can last between 4 and 21 days following an injury or procedure. Sensation through tissue in this phase can vary from zaps/zings to crawling, or feeling as if the area is swollen, hot, or even cold. These sensations typically come and go and shouldn’t last very long.
Many forms of therapy exist to help patients manage and speed the recovery process. Some include:
· Traditional medications such as pain relievers or injectables, topical creams
· Physical Therapy
· Photobiomodulation (laser therapy): an alternative form of physical therapy that can help patients both manage inflammation, pain, and speedup recovery by 40%.
Patients should always consult their managing doctor to find the option which is right for their condition.
Quick Tip: If you experience unrelenting burning pain or pressure that makes you feel like you have a fever, this could be a sign of infection and your doctor should be consulted. This is usually the point where most doctors will offer different forms of therapies to help relieve symptoms or speed up the recovery process.
Maturation Phase
Finally, the Maturation Phase is an important and often overlooked phase of healing. Although you may appear to be healed on the outside, internally your body is still coping with getting back to “normal”. This phase can range from day 22 all the way up to a year out from a surgery or injury! In fact, the exact time you’ll be recovering in this phase often depends on the type of injury, illness, or surgery you’ve suffered.
Quick Tip: Experiencing some swelling, stiffness, numbness, and previously mentioned sensations during this phase of healing is normal. These symptoms and sensations should become less severe over time. Don’t despair, there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Recovery Strategies
Unfortunately, there is no one right way to make sure your body has everything it needs to move through these phases. BUT here are those juicy tips we promised to make the process easier for you.
1. Ensure your body has enough energy to heal. This means drinking plenty of water and eating appropriate foods. Your body is a machine and needs fuel to convert into the energy your tissue will use to heal itself.
2. Rest. This probably seems like a no-brainer, but when you don’t adequately rest your body utilizes the energy it normally would for healing during other processes, and by not resting you might be making it harder for yourself to heal by stressing the injury site.
3. Follow directions. Your doctor has years of experience which has taught him/her the best practices to follow when dealing with an injury, trauma, or surgery. Follow their instructions.
4. Ask questions. Ultimately your recovery is up to you, and if something isn’t clear, or you’re not 100% sure about something, you might do more harm than good by assuming something is ok instead of just asking your doctor. Most doctors agree, the only silly question is the one not asked.
As always, we hope this post helps some of you navigate your own healing journey. For more information about MLS laser therapy and its role in speeding recovery click here. Or if you feel like laser therapy might be right for you give our office a call to schedule a consult.