SPRAINS & BROKEN BONES

When you get a sprain by making a sudden or extreme movement, such as twisting your ankle, wrist, knee, or shoulder, you’ve actually stretched or torn one or more ligaments. Ligaments are cordlike tissue that holds your bones together. Simple sprains typically heal on their own within a few days and shouldn’t interfere with your daily activities. However, extreme sprains mean that you’ve completely torn the ligament in half or that it has separated from the bone. The worse case with those types of injuries is that you might need surgery to repair it.

The Temecula 24-Hour Urgent Care medical team understands that you might want to dismiss a sprain and not seek medical treatment. However, what you think is a sprain could be a number of other, more serious types of injuries, including a hairline fracture.

The following are reasons you should visit our 24 hour walk-in clinic any time of day if you think you have a sprain:

1. You need to be 100% sure it's not broken.
If you need to use your injured foot, leg, hand, or arm for your job or sports commitments then getting seen at our Walk-in Urgent Care will give you the answers you need. What you think is a simple sprain could actually be a hairline fracture or other type of bone injury, a complex sprain, or a strain (damaged tendons or muscles).

Although you could heal within days from a simple sprain, even a moderate sprain can put pressure on your joint and make movement difficult.

A severe sprain can actually dislocate your joint. When you come to Temecula 24 Hour Urgent Care, we can X-ray your injury in-house to evaluate the extent of your damage and make sure you get the right treatment. If needed, we will refer you to our Orthopedic Surgeon to help further.

2. It hurts to put weight on or move the injured body part.
Even simple sprains tend to bruise, swell, and feel painful. But if you can’t put weight on your foot or knee, or if moving your shoulder or elbow hurts enough to interfere with your activities, you should seek medical care at our walk-in clinic, Temecula 24 Hour Urgent Care. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

After ruling out other causes of your pain, we may prescribe devices to help support your joint and your injured ligaments so they can repair themselves over time and so you don't cause more damage to the ligament.

Whether you need a walking boot or crutches, we can help get you some relief and more mobile. We may recommend physical therapy exercises that help stretch and strengthen your ligaments to accelerate healing and minimize re-injury risk.

3. Your joint pops or cracks.
After a sprain, you may notice that your wrist cracks or your knee pops when you move it. These are signs that you may have a severe sprain and that the ligaments are no longer holding your joint in place.

When your ligament has completely torn or detached, you need to give your joint support so that it can function without becoming damaged or causing arthritis. Compression bandages, braces, splints, or crutches help keep your joints stable and increase your mobility without worsening your injury. We may refer you to our Orthopedic as well.

4. You’ve sprained that area before.
If you tend to continually sprain your ankles, wrist, or other body parts, your ligaments, tendons and muscles could be weak. Spraining the same body part over and over puts stress on the join and can eventually lead to arthritis and possible tendon damage. In addition to treating your sprain, we may recommend you for physical therapy. 

5. You don’t get better after a few days from injury.

A few days of the RICE protocol should help your sprain feel better and improve mobility. The RICE protocol consists of:

Rest — as soon as you have hurt yourself, rest for the first couple days and avoid putting weight on the injured body part.

Icing — apply an ice pack (covered with a light absorbant towel to avoid frostbite) to the injury for 15-20 minutes every couple hours for the first 48 hours.

Compression — wrap the injured area with something like an ACE bandage or other compression device to reduce swelling. Be sure it's not too tight.

Elevation — raise the sore body part to above your heart to reduce swelling and bruising even when you're not icing it.

You can also use anti-inflammatory medications to control pain but be sure to follow the specific directions.

If you’re still in pain or have difficulty moving after a few days of self-care, definitely come into Temecula 24 Hour Urgent Care for evaluation and treatment.

Whether you have a simple sprain, moderate sprain, or severe sprain, you should really limit your activities until your injury heals. It could take up to 8 weeks to feel better after a sprain.

To make sure your sprain heals well and fully, walk-in 24/7, call, or book an appointment online.