Dear all,
A non patient (clerical staff) lady was found by me to be heating a microwavable gel wrap to warm it to put on an ankle that was 'twisted and sprained' last week. She said she had pulled some ligaments. (Isn't this self diagnosis brilliant - we could save so much NHS money if more patients did this and treated themselves ;)) She was not consulting me for an opinion, or for treatment, but was just going ahead with her own regime.
I said 'I suppose you didn't ice, strap, elevate, and rest it last week do you?' to which she began a tirade of lecturing about why nowadys you shouldn't ice things because it encourages bruising, whilst heat keeps the blood away more from the injury therefore reducing bruising. She said this was the lastest findings, and when was the last time that I was retrained.
Now, after our discussions about science,and increasing knowledge and putting wrong theories behind us, I am just a little hesitant to say 'what a load of rubbish' to her. Could it be possible that in her reading of Womans Weekly Medical column she has stumbled on some truth?
I put it to your combined minds - does anyone know of any research that changes our established practice in this matter?
Andrew
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