Its  quite obvious that when you break your leg or got a very deep cut, you are heading straight for the emergency room. The question then comes, what would happen if you sprained your ankle or have a stinging pain in your joints? Would ice, bandaids and rest be enough to get you up and running?

Dr Bradley Sandella the program director of sports at the Christian Care Center spoke to Lifehacker on common Injuries you can try handling on your own and when its time to see a doctor. The signs below would enable you to know when its time to see a doctor concerning your injuries.

When Shii Gets Real!

A sure sign to show you that its time to see a doctor, is when you know the exact time when you injured yourself. You were climbing a staircase and you felt your ankle shift painfully or you were in a gym and lifting that heavy 250lb weights in front of your friends and you hear a joint a pop, Dr Sandella says its, its more likely you have torn or broken something that a pain that developed over time.

You Cant Walk

If after you sprain an ankle and can’t walk a few steps, its time to head straight for the emergency room. This inability to walk signifies that you may have broken/fractured a bone. Laboratory technicians in the emergency room would take your inability to put weight on the particularly leg as criteria when checking the xray.

If after the xray it turns out that nothing was broken, prevention is better than cure. Not going to see a doctor, can make you aggravate the situation and cause more problems as you might start limping or tying to compensate for your injury.

When A Joints Feels Uncomfortable Or Stiffs Up

When a joint doesn’t sounds right or feels wobbly, this is sign that something is up. You don’t necessarily have to feel pain. A good example is when you tear an ACL , you might not feel pain, but when you turn a corner it might feel wobbly and out of its socket. Dr Sandella says that is normal for ligament tears, The joint might give way, making you fall, but even a weirdly unstable feeling is a big red flag.

Its not also normal or either a good sign when a joint stiffs or locks up when you try to move it. That can mean that there is a piece of torn cartilage that is getting in the way of the joint when you try to move it, just like when a doorstop prevents a door from closing. To show you the gravity of the situation, your physician can decide to do surgery depending on the gravity of the tear or your physical situation, so take no chances.

A Muscle Pull That Comes With A Bruise

A Muscle pull rightly called a strain, literally tears a muscle tissue. If its just a few muscle fibers that tears, you would just feel soreness, this is a microscopic injury that can easily heal on its own. But sometimes, it possible to pull the muscles so much that you would even need surgery and physical rehabilitation by a trained professional.

A sure way to know when a muscle is seriously strained is when there is a deformity in the muscle- a divot at the spots that hurts. Bleeding from the muscle can also cause a very big bruise, a sure sign that the strain is pretty severe.

Getting Symptoms After A Head Injury

You might have gotten head injuries in the past and probably shrugged it off, know that this is a very terrible decision. Concussions are a much more serious. Any pain that follows a head injury is a sign that your brain might be injured.

The signs include dizziness, confusion, nausea, seeing double or fainting spells. Even headaches is enough reason to show its time to see a doctor.

Diagnosing a concussion is especially important for athletes and for kids, because you really don’t want to get a second concussion before you’re fully recovered from the first. Management may be as simple as resting and waiting out the symptoms, but more sophisticated treatments are also becoming available.

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When Soreness Gets Worse Over Time

Athletes and runners use their muscles a lot and feel pains when using them. These overuse injuries are usually not a cause for concern, if you are only hurt when you are using the muscles. Dr Sandella recommends rests and strengthening exercises. If you have a form of tendinitis, for example tearing your Achilles tendon, its more advisable not to take anti-inflammatory drugs for two or three days to improve healing.

The injury begins to give a cause for concern when they get worse over time, or when you when to feel pain when not only using the muscle but it huts afterwards. This can indicate a stress fracture, more especially when the tear is near a bone.

Tendinitis is supposed to be a short term injury, but it can become much worse when the pain become more acute and continues for a longer period of time leading to tendiniosis, which would need a more specialized treatment. You would need a physical therapist who can help with exercises to help the tendon heal or in severe cases, surgery.

How To Get The Best Help

Most of the injuries described here aren’t emergencies. As long as you don’t signs of fracture like inability to move the area, injuries can usually wait a few days before you decide its time to see a doctor.

A week should be the limit for shoulder and elbow injuries, Dr. Sandella says, because you can develop adhesive capsulitis, better known as “frozen shoulder,” if you stop moving your shoulder around. Elbows can develop a similar problem.

When you are seeking for help, let it be a doctor you are very comfortable with. Your primary care physical is a god choice but if you don’t have one, an urgent care clinic is the next choice. If you feel the injury might be a serious one, you might have to go and see a specialist like a  like a sports medicine physician.

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