Mid Cycle Injury:Heat or Ice???

[tzan]

I'm in week six of my eq/var cutting cycle and F'ed up my knee pretty good. I got an X-ray and there doesn't appear to be any bone damage. I was diving for a ball and landed on it, and the thing just blew up. From my ankle to all the way up my calf is a real nice bruise(and I don't usually bruise easilly), which I'm sure the steroids have helped cause. The doc told me that there was an unusual amount of blood and fluid in my knee which was whu it was so swolen. Should I ice or heat??? I know what the doc told me, but I want to see what you guys think. I really hope this injury doesn't turn out to be serious, the cycle was just really starting to kick in.

 

[Mavy]

Fuck dood ... that is the biggest pain in the ass in the world! INjurued right in the middle of your cycle. I mean it sucks either way ... but in your cycle is even worse. I am not a doc, but I was always under the impression that for any type of swelling, you want to ice it. Not for to long, and only until the swelling stops.

 

[CLOMIDCLOWN]

Follow the advice of Dr. Mirkin who invented the term RICE
Rest/Ice/Compression/Elevation \
ALTHOUGH you could alternate heat and ice over 20 minute intervals if it makes you feel better!

 

[tzan]

Fuck dood ... that is the biggest pain in the ass in the world! INjurued right in the middle of your cycle. I mean it sucks either way ... but in your cycle is even worse. I am not a doc, but I was always under the impression that for any type of swelling, you want to ice it. Not for to long, and only until the swelling stops.

Tell me about it bud. I was planning on upping the cardio this week. See, this is what I always thought to, but the doc said use a heating pad. The reason I'm asking this question here is because everyone I've talked to(besides the doc) has told me to keep ice on it. Of course I currently don't have insurance, so it was a new doc and I don't know how good of he is(didn't come across very good, but who knows). I've been heating it for the past 5 days and it's still pretty swolen. I'm going back tommorow to get it drained again(fun stuff) and looked at, but I was thinking about icing it today. He said something along the lines of major blood hemeraging and that I had an unusual amount in my knee(probably from the AAS right?).

 

[Bulldog_10]

Heating it is better for healing. It brings blood to the injured area, which will help clear out the garbage and repair damaged tissue, etc, etc...

Icing it is good for directly after the injury, if you want to continue whatever activity it was you were doing. Like say if you were playing basketball and wanted to stay in the game...it's not easy to do when your knee swells up to the size of the basketball.

So ice is good directly after the injury...heat after that.

 

[tzan]

Follow the advice of Dr. Mirkin who invented the term RICE
Rest/Ice/Compression/Elevation \
ALTHOUGH you could alternate heat and ice over 20 minute intervals if it makes you feel better!

Yea, gonna ice today. F'N Bullshit man. I already had to take 2 days off from the gym and miss a round of golf. I'm only 24 and feel like I'm going on 40 this summer.

 

[tzan]

Heating it is better for healing. It brings blood to the injured area, which will help clear out the garbage and repair damaged tissue, etc, etc...
QUOTE]

Whats up bud. They already drained it last week when I first went in there, and they are probabaly going to drain it again tommorow. Since there is major blood hemeraging in there, shouldn't I want to stay away from bringing more blood into that area?? I know this question is probabaly impossible to answer that acurately, but how much would you link my current use if AAS to this injury(as far as blood flow and build up goes)?

 

[Bulldog_10]

Heating it is better for healing. It brings blood to the injured area, which will help clear out the garbage and repair damaged tissue, etc, etc...
QUOTE]

Whats up bud. They already drained it last week when I first went in there, and they are probabaly going to drain it again tommorow. Since there is major blood hemeraging in there, shouldn't I want to stay away from bringing more blood into that area?? I know this question is probabaly impossible to answer that acurately, but how much would you link my current use if AAS to this injury(as far as blood flow and build up goes)?

Honestly...I doubt steroids had much to do with it. Did they say what the injury was? Or just that there was alot of blood in the area? No torn ligaments or anything?

One thing that steroids might have had to do with it is a decrease in platelet activity...juice can suppress the immune system...which could effect platelet activity and slow healing. When you have a broken blood vessel (hemorrage) this is obviously a bad thing.

But the fact that the doctor actually examined you and told you to put heat on it makes me think that this is not the problem, and the body is just trying to get blood to the area to help with healing...which is a good thing.

One thing that throws me off a bit is that he's telling you to heat it...AND he's draining it.

I'd just do what he tells you...because as much as the people on here know their shit about injuries, none of us have actually examined you...so it's all just speculation on our end.

Either way...good luck with this shit bro...hopefully you'll have a quick recovery. Any new news?

 

[trenfan2]

as a general rule of thumb, most basic first aid courses teach you to apply ice for the first 24hrs to reduce swelling, then heat to promote circulation as Bulldog mentioned.