If you are an athlete, you can relate to this. This was her final training run before the Moab trail 1/2 Marathon in less than 2 weeks. Also, to add to the urgency, her sister is flying in to run the race with her.
She could now barely walk. That darker circle on the inside of her knee is a deep puncture wound, so we were worried about almost certain patellar tendon damage and possibly deeper knee problems. Her dreams of running this race, through the Moab desert, with her sister, were disappearing, quick. It's now 13 days to the race.
So what did we do. Hopefully you'll never need this info, but just in case.
1. Cleaned the wound immediately, it was filled with dirt. Soap, water, hydrogen peroxide, wound wash saline, antibiotic ointment, and Manuka honey under the bandage. Our first concern was containing any infection.
2. Prayed for fast healing and no need for the ER. Looking at the big, thick, flap of skin, by the puncture, I thought she might need stitches. This is the stuff hospitals are good for. We played the wait and see game.
3. She started taking Congaplex from Standard Process that night to crank up her immune system.
4. She started taking many, many Cataplex ACP supplements from Standard Process to accelerate healing. Natural, whole food vitamin C is essential for collagen formation. If your supplements say more than 50 mg vitamin C, that's not natural, no matter what your front label says. Most Vitamin C supplements say 500 or 1000 mg's.
5. She also took Boswellia Complex from Mediherb to reduce inflammation.
6. The next morning I adjusted her. Her knee obviously took a trauma and the faster it gets aligned the less stress on it and the less long term problems. I know her patellar tendon will heal faster if the misalignments aren't creating more stress on it.
7. She iced it down, daily.
8. She wiped the area around the wounds with our new Chinese martial artist bruise juice to speed healing and decrease inflammation. You can pick up a free bottle of this in the office.
Once, we realized it was under control, the focus was only on healing.
1. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. She immediately went out and bought a whole chicken and made bone broth (Miracle elixir for healing). She ate the meat for proteins and amino acids We also added MSM powder for pain, inflammation, and healing. Lots of veggie smoothies as well. You can't heal well of you don't have good building blocks.
2. No stress to the knee. If it hurt she didn't do it.
3. She got adjusted every day, to every other day, to maintain alignment, which was a challenge because she limped around.
4. She stayed on the Congaplex, ACP, Boswellia complex, and all her normal, every day vitamins.
5. She rested it as much as possible with 3 kids.
After 7 days she was barely limping. Which was pretty amazing, because for the first 3 days she could barely walk.
This is a picture after 7 days
Things are looking up. After 10 days, she did a very nervous, very slow 1 mile run on the streets by our house. She did surprisingly well. No pain. She felt she had a chance to do the race. So the next day she did a 3 mile trail run, with no residual problems. Her knee is still banged up, but it's functional. So here we are, 13 days after her worst running injury, in Moab, Ut. She just finished the 1/2 marathon with gnarly trails and even stream crossings, thigh deep. She finished upbeat, and not limping. It was an inspiring day. |
Here she is finishing with her sister.
This is after 14 days! | She's not done healing, but she's made incredible progress in very little time. Remember, healing comes from the inside out. I wrote this up to give you ideas, in case you need to heal quicker. You may not have some of these things, but you can easily acquire them to have around. If you aren't a good healer or If you have questions, just reply to the emails, or email me directly, docaltman (at) gmail [dot] com |