When Should You Go To The Doctor For A Hand Injury
Hand injuries are very common, especially in people who play a lot of sports or work with their hands a lot. Here are some signs you should be looking out for in your hand if the injury gets worse and you need to see a hand injury doctor.
There Is Noticeable Swelling
If your hand is injured by a falling object or there was a heavy impact on your hand, then you will see noticeable swelling on the hand after some days. This might not be sudden and you won’t even feel pain of any sort, but after some time, bruises will start to form and you will see a good chunk of your hand is swollen and red. When you touch it, it will be tender and it will be painful. This is where you should be alarmed and have a doctor run an x-ray on your hand to look at the severity of the injury.
You Can’t Move Your Hand
Restrictions in movements of the hand can be caused by several injuries. It can be due to muscle swelling, a hand fracture, or the poking of bones against the muscles which can be quite painful. This will cause you to stop moving your hand because it hurts too much even to move it just a tad bit. This is quite alarming and you need to have a doctor check your hand to make sure that your bones are not shattered or fractured.
You Feel Radiating Pain In The Wrist And Up
Pain in the area which is injured is normal. What’s not normal is the pain radiating up from your palm to your wrist and arm. Radiating pain means that the injury is not localized to your hand or palm only. You need to get this checked to see whether the injury is serious or not.
If you see that your arm movements are being restricted, then it is an alarming sign and you need to get to the bottom of this. This will save you from a prolonged injury and your nerves will not be affected.
General Pain In The Hand
When you hit your hand really hard on some surface, it will be painful. Hand injuries are generally painful, but small injuries can be treated with normal pain medication and proper rest and you don’t need to see a doctor for that.
What’s alarming is the fact that you are not getting the relief you need from pain medication and the pain won’t subside even after taking a lot of pain-relieving medications. This is not normal and it needs to be checked out by a doctor. You need to get to the root of the problem and see what’s preventing the pain from getting subsided.
You Have Difficulty In Holding Things
Hand grip is a great way to tell whether your injuries are serious or not. If you can handle things with a good grip even after your hand has been injured, then this is a good sign and you don’t need to have your hand checked. But if you can’t handle things with a strong grip and you feel immense pain whenever you try to squeeze your hand tight around anything, then this is a bad sign and you need to see a doctor immediately to find out the problem with your hand.
Numbness
his is the last resort for most hand injuries and it means that the injury has gone far enough that the nerves are severed and damaged. Numbness and tingling in your hands is felt when the nerve endings are exposed to the injuries and the nerves start to die down. You will lose sensation in your hand and you will not feel certain things on your injured hand like touches, caresses, and even pressing of the hand. This is bad and you need to have the injury checked out as soon as possible.
Conclusion
There you have it! These things will help you in identifying the severity of your hand injury. It’s better not to wait it out and have a hand injury physician Woodbridge check out your injury so he/she can prescribe medication or other treatment. This may result in quick relief.
Categories: Health