Rehab important for athletic injuries

BY KEVIN WOODRUFF

While it isn’t always possible to completely prevent sports related injuries, there are ways to limit them and minimize their impact on an athlete.

Dr. David Ross, Director of Geisinger Sports Medicine Fellowship program, said that following the rules of the game, using the correct equipment and conditioning all play a big role in keeping athletes healthy.

“Conditioning is very important,” Ross said. “But some younger athletes don’t always do it, and that can lead to injuries.”

He said the older athletes get, they will begin to condition.

“High school is where the majority of athletes start to do conditioning,” Ross said. “And they realize once they get to college how important it is.”

In addition to conditioning before the start of the season, Ross recommends that athletes not compete in the same sport year-round.

“It is not good to do the same sport all the time,” Ross said. “Because athletes begin to overwork particular areas of their body. I recommend to patients that they work at different sports at different times of the year.”

However, some injuries just happen, such is the case with Elk Lake senior Emily Mowry.

Mowry, 18, of Auburn Township, who has been with Elk Lake’s basketball cheerleading squad for four years, suffered an eight-foot fall this past season, causing her to have a concussion, neck and back injuries.

“I was in a ‘liberty’ stance where you are held up in the air and stand on one leg,” Mowry said. “And there was a miscommunication about my landing. I ended up falling flat on my back and hit my head off the floor.”

She was taken to the hospital, where Mowry ended up in a neck brace, and was sidelined for a few weeks.

“Nothing like it has ever happened to me, and I’ve been doing that move for a long time,” Mowry said.

Mowry was instructed to do some physical therapy exercises to get herself back in healthy shape to continue cheering.

“I had to do some stretching exercises, they helped my neck and my upper and lower back,” Mowry said.

After Mowry got back on her feet, she said she was skeptical about doing the ‘liberty’ again.

“I didn’t want to go back up at all, but I finally did,” Mowry said.

With concussions, Ross said that there is a protocol that doctors follow in order to determine the time in which an athlete can return to his/her sport.

When a concussion happens, Ross said that it is not a structural injury, but rather a jarring of the brain that causes a malfunction of brain cells and neurons.

“It is all dependent on each athlete,” Ross said. “We have to wait until all symptoms are resolved at rest, and then get them back to their activity slowly.”

After the symptoms are gone at rest, an athlete will start with some non-contact light activity, followed by non-contact intense activity.

If all is still going well, the athlete will then participate in light contact activity, and then integrate back into the sport.

Ross said that rehabilitation is an important part of treatment.

“If an athlete wants to get back to their sport as quick as possible, it’s important to rehabilitate,” Ross said. “Because going back soon puts athletes at risk.”