RICE

I saw her grew quiet. Constantly rubbing the top of her right shoulder, her brows met together with a fretted look.

“Are you okay?” chorused my co-workers and I to our charge nurse.

“Just waiting for the Motrin to work,” she softly answered.

I covered her assignment for a couple of hours as she warned the PM shift that she would come in at 1:00 a.m. instead of the usual 11:30 start of her shift last night. Few minutes before 1 a.m., I saw her shadow emerged from the Female side of the Clinic as I responded to her buzzing the bell on the wall.

As she sat down on her familiar chair, she recounted her incident of falling earlier yesterday. She tripped in her home, and landed hard with her right arm, stretched outward. She felt pain, more like soreness. Like what I had written before, us, nurses, are being stubborn most of the time and waiting always for the symptoms to get worse before seeking medical help [you’d think we should know better]. She was not concerned as she didn’t feel severe pain and that she didn’t dislocate her shoulder.

Only an hour had passed since her arrival, the growing concern on her face was just plainly visible to us, her co-workers.

I had her lift the sleeve of her right arm. I noticed some swelling. Accepting my offer to wrap her arm with a compression bandage [Acewrap], I tried to recall my previous expertise of looping the elastic wrap without causing much pain to her already painful arm.

“Sorry, Rcubes. I think I need to go home early and would like to ask you if you can cover for me when I leave. I’m gonna’ go ahead and go to the Urgent Care. Thank you so much for wrapping my arm. It does feel better,” she commented.

“No! Go ahead! Leave if you need to,” we all said with concern. “I know the pain…” I added, as I told her about my own incident of hurting something on my upper back few weeks ago. It was not the same but the pain was much better. Where I hurt, was the same spot now for her source of discomfort that I could just relate so well. She felt better with all the caring wishes she received. I prayed silently for the Lord to heal her injury.

Things happen to all of us unexpectedly.  Death comes inevitably. Plans get ruined. Money and other resources become scarce. Relationships get broken. At times, these trials drive us to God. But we must not think that going to Him will make our trials and troubles go away or disappear just like that. If we think that way, then we will have the wrong desire to turn to God just so we can be relieved of all these sufferings.

God did offer comfort to all of us. He is after all, the Best Comforter.  His comfort is that kind that encourages us, strengthens us in our weaknesses, and gives us the hope when everything seems to be hopeless. His comfort helps us to learn how to endure. And as we do so, we, in turn, with the right set of mind, are able to comfort others as they go through their own trials. Especially if what they are going through is the same as what we had gone through.

“All praise to the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.”

~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 

If you sustain any acute, soft tissue injury like sprain, strain or contusions, think about the acronym RICE.

REST - rest and protect the affected part

ICE- apply ice or frozen object like a bag of corn or peas sitting in your freezer. The cold prevents swelling. Do it for 20 minutes, three times a day for the first 48 hours.

COMPRESS- the affected area by using an elastic bandage [You’ll see those tan colored Ace wraps]. Make sure you don’t wrap the area too tight to prevent cutting off the circulation.

ELEVATE - put the area higher than your heart. Like raising the arm or leg by supporting it with a pillow or a rolled blanket. This also helps reduce the swelling.