Musculoskeletal Injuries including sprains and strains can often be self managed with the advice below.

In the first 24 to 48 hours

• Elevate your injured area to improve swelling.
• Ice may help to ease the pain. Do not apply ice directly to the skin.
• Over the counter medication can be helpful. Please discuss options with your local pharmacist who will likely recommend paracetamol as first line pain relief. (Always check the label before use.) See your GP if you require alternative pain medication.
• A tubigrip or support may help relieve pain in the short term.
• Short term rest and using a walking aid may help reduce pain with a lower limb injury.
• Avoid any unnecessary treatment or investigations.

Longer Term Management

• An active approach including movement and exercise is beneficial.
• Return to normal activities as quickly as pain allows.
• Fear can cause a barrier to recovery. Being positive improves quality of life and can improve outcome!
• General exercise will improve blood flow to the injured area. This will improve function, encourage recovery and reduce the need for pain medication. Try to continue regular exercise such as walking, swimming or cycling as you are able.
• There is strong evidence supporting the use of exercises. This will help improve movement, strength and balance which is commonly reduced after an injury.

It is common for soft tissue injuries to take 6 – 8 weeks to recover.

If you feel you are not recovering and wish further advice, please contact your local GP practice.

Resources

• For more advice on sprains and strains, please visit NHS UK.

Flare ups of pain are common. Some people have recurrent flare ups of pain so it is important to know how best to manage these flare ups. In most cases a pain flare-up will settle within 6 weeks.

Top Tips

• You will likely find it helpful to rest a bit more but it is still important to keep active. This will help to avoid becoming stiff and your muscles becoming weak.
• If you aim to get a balance between rest and activity it should help your pain to settle down. You may be sore at first, however, start slowly and gradually increase the amount you do.
• Reduce movements or tasks that aggravate your symptoms. This can help especially in the early days.
• Adopting positions or movements that reduce your pain can be useful.

Analgesia

• Analgesia also known as pain relief can be an important part in helping you manage your symptoms and allow you to stay active.
• Taking suitable pain relief regularly allows you to move more normally and continue your usual activities without causing any damage. It is unlikely that medication alone will resolve your pain totally. For this reason we are using the term pain relief (A 30-50% reduction in pain would be deemed to be a good success).

Paracetamol

• Paracetamol is a good general pain management medication. It is used to help manage lots of different types of pain.
• Sometimes people believe they need something ‘stronger’ than paracetamol when in fact, taking a regular dose rather than a one-off dose is more effective.
• Spreading the doses of the paracetamol evenly out over a day will help you control your pain. Visit NHS Inform for more detailed information on paracetamol.

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS)

• NSAIDs are medications that can reduce swelling around joints and nerve endings to give pain relief. They are particularly useful
  in treating inflammatory type pain. Two commonly prescribed NSAIDs are ibuprofen and naproxen.
• Although NSAIDs can be very useful they are not suitable for everyone. Visit NHS inform for further information related to NSAIDs.

There are other forms of pain relievers available. If you feel your current pain relievers are not helping your pain or you are
experiencing any side effects from your medication, please seek advice from your GP or pharmacist.

For general information on medication visit NHS Inform.

We know that staying in work or returning to work as soon as possible is good for your mental and physical health.

If you have problems with activities at work, it may be helpful to ask for a workstation/workplace assessment or talk with your manager or Occupational Health Department. This can help with alterations or provision of equipment or altering your working day or tasks.

We encourage and promote the benefits of exercise and movement to maintain a healthy living and wellbeing.

Returning to fitness after suffering from an MSK condition can be daunting, but our high experienced qualified physiotherapists have made a series of videos designed to help you return to fitness. Our physiotherapists demonstrate a number of exercises you can do easily at home to improve your fitness levels.

• View the whole playlist on YouTube here

The NHS also has a dedicated webpage with exercise information and classes for all patients looking to become more active.

• Fitness Studio exercise videos

Keeping healthy and active

Within the Forth Valley area there are multiple ways to keep you healthy and active. Please see the links below on information and exercise classes available within your area.

You can also visit Getting Active In Your Area for more help and advice on getting active in Forth Valley.

People who are overweight tend to have more prolonged pain and poorer tissue healing due to increased levels of inflammation in the body. Reducing your weight can generally help improve the healing process.

A good indicator of whether you need to lose weight is your body mass index (BMI), which you can calculate with the NHS BMI calculator.

If your BMI states you are overweight or obese it is likely that losing weight will reduce your symptoms. Carrying extra fat also increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. Reducing your portion sizes and eating a balanced diet can be helpful in reducing weight. NHS informs provides a free online 12-week weight management programme to get you started right away.

Find out more about NHS Forth Valley’s weight management services.

Smoking can affect how your body recovers from musculoskeletal problems. If you smoke then the good news is that by stopping smoking it can improve your health in many different ways. Giving up smoking is not something you have to do on your own. You’re twice as likely to stop smoking successfully if you get the right support from the NHS. There is a free NHS stop smoking service available in Forth Valley to help you succeed.

Some people will have pain which persists beyond the expected time frame for their condition. For further information on this and how best to manage it please visit our Pain Management Service webpage.

Pain Association Scotland is a national charity that delivers professionally led self-management pain education in the community.

It is very important to look after your own mental wellbeing. This can have an influence on your recovery or management of your Musculoskeletal problem. Visit our mental wellbeing page for more information.