How long does it really take to recover?

One of the most common issues I encounter when helping people recover from an injury or from surgery is the healing time of various tissues.

Everyone wants to be better yesterday, but this is not realistic. Tissue healing takes time. We cannot rush it, and it is important to understand that issues heal at different rates depending on their physical makeup and blood supply, among other things.

Additional contributing factors, such as diabetes, age, poor nutrition, inadequate rest, etc. can further delay the healing process.

The chart below shows the relative healing time frames involved for various tissues in the body. It can serve not only as a guide but also a reminder that we cannot force our bodies to heal faster than physiologically possible.

What we can do is facilitate the healing process by rehabbing appropriately, eating high quality food, getting adequate rest, and reloading throughout recovery process.

Recovering from an injury or surgery is always the same. You can experience your fair share of ups, downs, turns, setbacks, breakthroughs, frustrations, and triumphs. This is NORMAL. Sometimes, it is not easy, especially when it keeps you from being able to do many of the meaningful things that make life enjoyable.

When you are in that situation, it is not hard for you to focus on all the things that you can’t do because of the issue you are dealing with. However, especially in cases that take long periods to recover from or where progress is slow, this can really eat away at your ability to progress through the rehabilitation.

Focusing on what you cannot do leads to poorer outcomes, decreased motivation to stay consistent with your program, decreased effectiveness of the program, more frustration, feelings of hopelessness, and at the end of the day, getting back to what you want to do.

Instead, shift your mindset to focusing on what you can do. Always remember that tissue will reshape and remold due to the stress applied. Follow through with a rehab program and remember that you can only control how strong your body is and was at the time of injury!!