The Armour Archive

Greetings all,

Last night I attended a fighter practice, and pretty early on, I was injured. Not from another fighter but from myself. I injured my sword arm, near the middle of the Ulna (outside forearm bone) I must have over extended my wrist turning it to far when attempting an off-body shot and missing the target. This pulled the muscle or tenden (or both) causing pain. I fought thru some of the pain thanks to adrenaline, and tryed to fight a few more bouts, but the pain level was going up and not down. So I stopped practicing.

So when I get home I get a closer inspection, I have a lump (not swollen mind you, just a painful lump) on the outside of the bone,in the middle of my ulna, and it hurts to twist my hand ( if starting a car turning on the ignition THAT HURT!)
I put some ICE on it, then some Tiger Balm and a wrist brace for now.
Of course the wife(bless her heart), wants me to see the Doc, but I want to wait a day or too to see if the swelling/pain will go down.

So my questions are many...
What do I do to care for the injury until it has healed? continue doing what I am doing? Ice, Tiger Balm, immobilizing the injury in a wrist brace? Ibuprofen for pain?
When do you see the doctor? I am treating this like a sprain so far, take it easy and hope it calms down soon.
What to do for preventing this type of injury, and other strains in the future. Yes stretching is needed! but how do you stretch out your arm? forearm? wrist? etc...
and YES I FAILED TO STRETCH! My fault completely I understand, lesson learned. I wont let it happen again, and in fact want to tell my fighter brothers and sisters before begining fighting to remember to stretch. I will make a mental note to do this at each practice.

Also fighters and Marshals, remind your fighter group/family to stretch out before fighting.

Thanks for listening to me rattle on.

Not knowing the specifics of the injury, I'd say follow RICE:

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

note that sometimes a bad sprain could be worse than a broken bone in terms of time it takes to heal properly. As it could be a number of different things per your description, I'd go see an orthopedist (sports medicine doctor) sooner than later.

As Oswynn indicated RICE is always a good idea.

For stretching you can stretch your forearms out through the wrist (it also stretches the wrist). Hold your arm out in front of you with the palm up. Take the other palm, put your other palm over those fingers and slowly bend your wrist backwards (hold, don't bounce). Do the same thing with the palm down. Then do some wrist rolls while holding the forearm flexed.

You mentioned a lump. Is it hard or soft? Is it warm (significantly) to the touch or cold?

Hubert wrote:You mentioned a lump. Is it hard or soft? Is it warm (significantly) to the touch or cold?

Lump is softish, body temp, not warm or cold.

A lump like that could be a detached or completely torn muscle. When muscles tear they ball up and while you have other muscles that make your arm work the one that is torn or detached will not heal on it's own. I would take the wifes advice and go see the doctor just in case.

Strains and sprains don't cause the muscle tissue underneath to ball up like that in my experience.

I am not a doctor so for that kind of injury have a proffessional look at it.

Johhny Unitas was playing football one day and felt a strange pain in his forearm. He ignored it because it was just pain but he could still move his arm and throw passes so he just continued to play through the pain. He never had a doctor look at it and never got treatment for it. Many years later his arm started failing to function. Eventually in older age his right arm from elbow to hand was basically useless.

Just be on the safe side and get it checked out. Fighting injuries especially muscle tears can last a lifetime.

I agree with Johno. Could also be a torn/detached tendon or ligament. Go see an ortho doctor asap.

Could be a ligament issue. That's why I asked about heat. If it's a muscle tear you should feel heat radiating off of it (noticeably above body temperature). Get it looked at.

Thanks all, I will go seek out medical diagnosis, and treatment.

Moral of the story :

A) Stretch out before you fight or engage in strenuous physical activity
and maybe...
B) don't play thru the pain, if it hurts, there is something wrong, stop and get it checked out/fixed!

Time to put on the big boy pants and do the right thing.

Peace
Gavin