Oakland Athletics right fielder, Josh Reddick, crashed into the low wall along the right field line chasing a foul ball yesterday. The A’s were leading by 8 runs at the time, so you can debate Josh’s decision making, even if you commend the hustle. As you can see, his right wrist hyper-extends as he tries to brace his fall. Initially I thought he broke it, but x-rays were negative and he’s been diagnosed with a sprain of indeterminate severity (he’s listed as “day to day”, although he’s doubtful for Tuesday night’s game).
The symptoms associated with acute trauma of sprained wrist are pain, heat, swelling and stiffness resulting from the swelling in the joint. All these things grouped together can just be referred to as “inflammation”, but if we are treating Josh with homeopathy it is important to acknowledge the quality and intensity of each particular symptom.
In the case of a chronic injury, simply giving a homeopathic remedy would probably not yield a satisfactory result without also removing the exciting cause of the stress to the joint. But in this case, if I can get Josh to stop running as fast as he can into fences, I think we can help.
In my repertory search, the main rubrics I’m using to get me started are:
Extremities, Pain, Wrists, Sprained, As if
Extremities, Pain, tendons
Generalities, inflammation, tendons
The most appropriate remedies in this case appear to be Bryonia Alba and Arnica Montana. Bryonia is a remedy indicated in acute cases with pains aggravated by the least movement and an amelioration with pressure and heat. Arnica is indicated in cases of ailments from injuries with a blunt instrument, and I think the fence qualifies in this instance. It is a remedy that is accompanied with sore, bruised pain aggravated from cold and wet weather or application.
I would begin treatment immediately after the trauma occurred and re-administer the remedy at intervals of 20 minutes until Josh started to show some improvement and then wait and watch overnight to see if the improvement continued, or the pain and swelling worsened, in which case we would need to re-evaluate.
I would also suggest to A’s manager Bob Melvin that Josh Reddick be moved to center, where all the fences are padded.
