The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 9/15/22 with Dr. Sellman

Pat Donovan: Pat and Aaron Show 95.3 WDAE & AM 620, time for The Injury Report/ The Pat and Aaron Show Injury Report brought to you by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopedic Institute. We bring on once again, one of our favorites, Dr. Jeff Sellman. Dr. Sellman, thank you for joining us again this week. How you doing?

Dr. Jeff Sellman: Oh, I’m doing awesome, and don’t forget you can’t say favorites.

Pat: We’re not allowed to pick favorites.

Dr. Sellman: Yes, you’re not supposed to. I’d be betting.

Pat: We do everything wrong on this show, doctor.

Dr. Sellman: Which is why I’m here or why– [laughter]

Pat: We need your help. Dak Prescott, everything was going wrong for him against the Buccaneers in week one, and it ended poorly as well when he hurt his right thumb, had to undergo surgery. Now, if you listen to Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones says he’ll be back in less than four weeks. If you listen to the doctors, they’re saying it’s more six to eight weeks. What are you thinking, Dr. Sellman?

Dr. Sellman: I’m going to give them six to eight weeks. Jerry really wants him back within the four games being off the– not even on the injured reserve yet. The good thing about this particular injury is that the fracture happened away from a joint space. He will be able to move that thumb a little bit, sooner, especially when they get the hardware and the plates in there. My bet though is because that thumb normally is quite flexible, he’s going to lose some of that mobility, which is very important for his throwing hand. It’s going to take a good six to eight weeks for him to come back.

Pat: We saw that safety– Jamal Adams of the Seahawks was carted off during Monday night’s game, and apparently it’s an injury to his left quadricep tendon. What does that injury look like? How difficult is it to recover from? I feel muscles like that you’re constantly using, doing anything like walking, bending over. How difficult is that to recover from?

Dr. Sellman: Man, I tell you that’s pretty rough and you’re absolutely right. Getting up and down off the toilet, which I hope we do every day would be hard to do if you don’t have your tendon completely intact. Him needing surgery my assumption is that he likely completely tore it or he ruptured that quadriceps tendon. Which when you look down at your leg when that happens that kneecap actually slides downward a lot further than the other one. Certainly takes quite a bit of force, but that’s going to take quite a bit of rehab after he is immobilized for up to six weeks.

Aaron Jacobson: You really painted that picture for us, Dr. Sellman, the kneecap falling.

Dr. Sellman: Man, don’t you love it?

Aaron: That’s rough.

Pat: What’s the weirdest injury or most horrific injury? Where is maybe the most misplaced part of a body that you’ve seen? Have you ever had to look away?

Dr. Sellman: Wait during the medical part or something else at home?

Pat: Yes.

Dr. Sellman: [laughs] Yes, I would have to look away when I saw just the actual dislocation of an ankle, and then the bones were coming through it. I do love this crap, but I can’t look at this one, this poor guy.

Pat: What’s the most maybe out of place bone, or joint, or something misplaced where it’s not where it’s supposed to be that you’ve seen?

Dr. Sellman: Do you remember that–? Gosh, I forget his name now, but I was doing my training at the University of South Carolina, the Tennessee play– the South Carolina– Oh, Lattimore went down on the field with a complete– when you hear somebody say, “Oh, I had a knee dislocation,” and they’re the South Tampa, Weekend Warriors, that means the kneecap just went out and came back in. This poor guy had his entire knee, the big bone femur displaced from the tibia and it was– all of us were a little bit sick when we saw that. That was the most out of place joint that I’ve ever seen.

Pat: T.J. Watt of the Steelers, the reigning defensive player of the year, he’s going to get a couple different medical opinions because he’s got that torn pectoral. If he needs surgery, what does this mean, is his season over? What’s it like trying to recover from a torn pectoral muscle?

Dr. Sellman: Here’s the perfect example of– you get six doctors in a room, you get eight different opinions. It’s always a great idea if surgery is anywhere on the table that you get several different opinions. Last time I read he probably did not have a full tendon tear which normally requires the surgery, and that the recommendation is not to have it. That would mean he likely had some partial tearing of the muscle fibers actually in the belly itself, kind of around the nipple area or the shoulder area. Sounds good, doesn’t it? If he were to have surgery he’s going to be out for probably the rest of the season. Not operatively, he’s going to be back mid-October if he does not need surgery.

Pat: Donovan Smith has a hyper-extended right elbow and apparently his availability is going to be dictated by his pain tolerance, which I think is good news because we’ve seen Donovan play through some things before. What does the pain feel like for an injury like that and is there risk? It sounds like maybe they’re saying there isn’t. Is there risk to a re-injury if it’s just a pain tolerance thing?

Dr. Sellman: Anytime that the– any joint goes out more than it needs to go, you’re going to have a little bit more laxy/stretching of the tendons and ligaments and muscles around it. There is a possibility of a little bit of an increased risk for injury but man, Donovan Smith, he’s only missed two starts, so his pain tolerance is going to be really high. For us we’re not going to be able to lift a can of beer after this because the pain is going to be in what I love to call the elbow pit, that area where they put the needle in to draw blood. It’s going to be really tenderer to touch as to straighten. It’s going to be really stiff in that area too.

Pat: That’s what I wanted to ask you too. We hear elbow injury and we always just think about the bending process of the elbow. When you think about past protection, you’ve often got your arms out in front of you extended and locked outward. Is that something that is going to be very painful for him or is it more about the bending?

Dr. Sellman: It will be quite painful, it is about the bending, but trying to straighten that– Pat, when you went back to the gym for the first time ever and tried it that one time where you tried to do your bicep curls. You know what you felt like the next day-

Pat: It didn’t go well.

Dr. Sellman: That pain, you don’t want to straighten it. It doesn’t go well. It’s similar to that, but don’t want to dumb it down too much for poor Donovan. He’s going to have some tenderness when he straightens that bad boy out.

Pat: Hey, really quickly, doctor, we actually have a question on the [unintelligible 00:06:54] 4DAE text line. Somebody wants to know your thoughts on rooster comb injections for the knee cushion. Is that something you’re familiar with?

Dr. Sellman: Oh, rooster comb, affectionately called rooster’s our cocktail. It is a nice injection that we love to do for painful arthritic knee. Someone like me or somebody else who would like to just experience a little bit of chicken.

Pat: See, I didn’t read that text as I thought somebody was messing with us. I was like, “Is somebody messing with us?” I forget we actually have listeners that have real questions for you. We’ve seen them before, so we’ll incorporate that in the future. We’ll get.

Dr. Sellman: That’s really awesome. It’s actually hyaluronic acid derived from rooster comb. It’s really funny to hear people in the gym or out in the community say, “Yes, I got that chicken gizzard injection.” I’m like, “No, it’s the cocktail from the rooster.”

Pat: What is a rooster comb, by the way? I don’t even know what that is.

Dr. Sellman: That’s that little floppy thing on the top of their head.

Pat: Oh, really.

Dr. Sellman: That little pink and floppy.

Pat: You shoot that into a knee?

Dr. Sellman: It’s derived.

Pat: Interesting:

Dr. Sellman: Some of the substance derived from in there and it actually mimics a healthy knee joint, so it lubricates the knee.

Pat: Dr. Sellman knows it all, and that’s why we love having them on. We love having everyone on involved with the Florida Orthopaedic Institute and Tampa General Hospital. The Pat and Aaron Show Injury Report presented by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopaedic Institute, providing you access to one of the top orthopedic programs in the nation. Schedule your appointment today at floridaortho.com. Kneecap slides, elbow pits. Thank you for all of it, Dr. Sellman.

Dr. Sellman: Oh, anytime guys.

Pat: We’ll talk to you soon.

Aaron: Thanks, doc.

Pat: He is the best. Dr. Sellman and everyone over there. Dr. Sellman even said it himself, multiple opinions. They’re not going to say, “You’re not going to go to Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital.” They’re not going to tell you, “Hey, this is the end. We’re the ones, we’re the answer. This is the last opinion, the only opinion.” They’re going to tell you, “Listen, get some other opinions.” They’re going to be honest with you. Whatever injury you’re dealing with, they’re going to make sure there’s a solution for you. However, they have to get to that solution.

Aaron: Yes and if you’ve got a young athlete or if you’re just an athlete, you’re that weekend warrior Dr. Sellman was talking about, they have the largest and most advanced sports medicine program in the region. They also have the most advanced treatment for sports-related injuries. Again, anything you’re dealing with, a lot of times we tell them some of the questions that are coming, but we just pulled the rooster comb question right off the text line. Doctor knew exactly what we were talking about because they really are dialed in at Florida Orthopaedic Institute and Tampa General Hospital. For access to world-class orthopedic care right here in your own backyard, all you have to do, call 1-800 FL-ORTHO or go to floridaortho.com.