Everyone gets injured. It’s just a part of life. But not all of us know the best way to manage our injuries when we get them. If you ask people, you can hear anything form “walk it off,” “use a hot and a cold pack,” to “just slam those pain killers down.” One of the best-known ways to manage immediate injuries is “RICER,” but today I am going to talk about an update to this, I am going to talk about “PEACE and LOVE.”

This strategy focuses not just on immediate care but also the transition back to full recovery. “PEACE” is all about the immediate painful first stage and how to minimise pain for the best healing.

• P = Protection
  • Avoid activities and movement that cause severe pain for the first few days after injury (generally 3 days, more with worse injures)
• E = Elevation
  • Elevate the injured limb higher than he heart as much as possible
  • This helps the body drain away the often-painful swelling in the area
• A = Avoid Anti-Inflammatories
  • Anti-inflammatories reduce swelling and has been proven to slow down the healing process in injured limbs
  • AVOID does not mean NEVER, if you cannot function because your pain is just too much, we would prefer it if you did take some anti-inflammatories just to manage your pain
  • Just don’t take a fistful a whole packet at once
• C = Compression
  • Use elastic bandage or tape to reduce swelling
  • This also helps with joint/limb stability and “unstable feelings” 
• E = Education
  • What you are doing right now!! Finding out the best way to manage while avoiding harmful methods
  • Your body is pretty smart, pay attention and avoid treatments, medications and investigations that are not needed and/or make it worse