Hitting the Slopes? Diagnosing and Treating Common Winter Sports Injuries
Are you hitting the slopes this winter? As you plan your weekend getaways to the mountains for some fun skiing, snowboarding or sledding, you may be nervous about suffering an injury, especially if you're not an experience winter sports player.
EvergreenHealth Orthopedic & Sports Care physician, John Manning, MD, sat down with KING 5's New Day Northwest to discuss his experience treating many weekend warriors for some major and some minor injuries sustained on the mountain.
Common Winter Sports Injuries
More than half of the injuries Dr. Manning sees coming off of the slopes involve the legs and feet. Among these, the most common area for an injury is the knee.
If you are out on the mountain and experience persistent knee pain or pain in another area of your body related to things like falls, odd landings or simple wear-and-tear, you'll likely fall into either the minor or major injury category.
Minor injuries may involve things like a pulled muscle or a strained ligament or tendon. These can often be treated through a course with the physical therapist and rest.
Major injuries can include things like an ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear, which is the most common knee injury that Dr. Manning sees.
Diagnosing Your injury
Typically, you'll head to your primary care provider if you have pain that has appeared over the course of time. If that pain continues and interferes with your daily life, your next step is to get a referral or schedule an appointment directly to see an orthopedic specialist.
Our orthopedic team has the experience and tools to quickly understand your pain and get started on a diagnosis.
"We have a really empathetic and welcoming staff here and they're going to treat every patient as a unique case," Dr. Manning says.
Whether you're being referred from your primary care doctor or have set up an appointment directly, you'll find staff attentively listen to your story about how the injury occurred and what kind of pain you're experiencing.
Following this initial conversation, staff will schedule you for any necessary exams and imaging studies to confirm that you're receiving the most accurate diagnoses and are aware of all of your treatment options.
Treating Your Injury
Treatments and recovery times are as unique as the injury. However, the orthopedic specialists at EvergreenHealth ensure you have options and know upfront what sort of recovery experience you'll have.
The good news is that our expert surgeons can calculate your recovery time fairly accurately. Plus, even if you're a weekend warrior skier or snowboarder, you will likely be recovered in significantly less time than a professional athlete who is prone to be more demanding on their body.
For instance, with reconstructive surgery to repair an ACL tear, Dr. Manning says you'll realistically be able to return to the slopes next season.
"When we look at our studies of high-level athletes, like collegiate football, basketball or soccer players, they're usually back in around 11-12 months. But we're not quite as demanding of our extremities as those athletes," he says. "So, realistically six to eight months of recovery can happen."
Treatment from a Weekend Warrior
During his time playing collegiate sports, Dr. Manning suffered an ACL tear himself and saw how orthopedic surgeons helped him and his teammates.
"I saw injuries, and I saw excellent recoveries. Then I sustained an ACL tear. I had a great experience with the surgical reconstruction and was able to get back to playing recreational sports within the year," he said.
Schedule An Appointment
EvergreenHealth Orthopedic & Sports Care offers advanced diagnosis and treatment options to get you back to the activities you love as quickly as possible. Call (425) 899-4810 in Kirkland or (360) 794-3300 in Monroe to make an appointment with our expert orthopedic team.
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