“Your body has an incredible ability to heal itself after an injury.  It follows a predictable pattern of healing passing through 3 distinct stages of tissue repair.  One leads into the other & each stage must be completed before the next begins.  You cannot speed this process up, but you can certainly slow it down.  It’s very much like undertaking a kitchen remodel.  Your body is the Experienced Contractor who coordinates all the events & activities of the remodel all while trying to work around The Homeowner (who often gets in the way by trying to lend a misguided, but well-intentioned ‘helping hand’).  Your body has been programmed through eons of evolution & experience to heal itself from injuries.  So, if & when you get injured, you just need to let the body construction begin!

Stage 1:

Watch any HGTV home remodeling show & you’ll learn that the first thing you do before building a beautiful new dream kitchen is to have DEMO DAY!  This is where the crew breaks down the old, outdated counters and, depending on the extent of the damage, may need to break things down all the way to the studs.  The demolition process is always the fastest stage of the remodel.

When you experience an injury, the body immediately responds with an inflammatory response (DEMO DAY!) which usually lasts for 1-4 days.  Inflammation is good!  ‘Inflammation’ is not a 4-lettered naughty word!  During this very natural Inflammatory Stage, the body sends in the demo-crew with a soup of fluid, chemicals (cytokines) & immune system cells (macrophages) to stop the bleeding (if present), stabilize the area & begin breaking down the injured tissue.  These complicated processes cause swelling & an increase in tissue temperature.  You must first complete this stage before moving into the next stage, the Building Stage.

Stage 2:

Now that the kitchen has been stripped down to the floorboards & studs, it’s time to bring in the building crews to install new plumbing, electrical, dry wall, new hand-scraped wood flooring & cabinets.  This stage of the remodel will take several weeks to complete.  (Doesn’t a remodel always take longer than you expect?!)

This stage of tissue remodeling is called the Proliferative Stage.  As the inflammatory stage (demo crew) finishes up, the body sends a signal to bring in the building crews.  These crews come ready with cells called fibroblasts that specialize in laying down new fibers to rebuild the infrastructure of the tissue.  This stage takes about 3 months to complete at which point in time the tissues are essentially ‘healed’.  When this stage of the remodel is wrapping up, the contractor calls in the Finishing Crew.

Stage 3:

With the new infrastructure now in place, the finishing crew puts on the finishing touches of paint, wallpaper, trendy lighting, swanky tile mosaics, and the best part, the staging.  This part of the remodel always takes the longest…all those little details tend to slow things down.

This stage of tissue remodeling is called the Maturation or Strengthening Stage.  In this stage, the body spends the next 6-12 months strengthening the new collagen fibers & putting final touches on the healing process so you can function at a high level.

As noted earlier, you, The Homeowner, can interfere with the remodel process.  If you try to jump stages too quickly or you don’t do your part to help, the remodel process slows way down.  The key is to understand the body’s remodeling process as best you can so that you’ll be better prepared to work with it.  If you’re new to the remodel game, then it’s often in your best interest to call in a Consultant, your Physical Therapist.  A PT can guide you safely through the healing processes with specific techniques to ease pain & exercises/activities designed to successfully progress you back to high-performance functioning.”

For more info about Corey and/or his mobile physical therapy options, please email or call him at 208.570.3004.