The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 1/19/23 with Dr. Sellman

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Aaron: Pat and Aaron Show 95.3 WDAE AM620. It’s time now for the Pat & Aaron Show injury report presented by Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. We go to the hotline to check in with one of our fan favorites. Everyone loves him. He’s Dr. Jeff Sellman. Dr. Sellman, we love having you on as well. How are you boys doing?

Dr. Jeff Sellman: Doing great. How are you boys doing?

Pat: I’m going to be selfish today in this interview.

Aaron: Boy, here we go.

Pat: I’m going to talk about my finger-

Dr. Sellman: I hear you.

Pat: -and I’m going to figure it out. Let’s start before I get to the selfish questions, Dr. Sellman, let’s start with Ryan Jensen. Even though the Buccaneer’s season is over, he spoke with the media after the game and he finally opened up about the severity of his knee injury, which we didn’t really know the details until now. Three ligament tears, multiple fractures, and a meniscus injury.

Aaron: That’s it?

Pat: How crazy is it that he even returned to play in this playoff game?

Dr. Sellman: Guys, freaking crazy in my opinion. Of course, not much crazier than playing center for Tom Brady in the NFL, but this guy has been pretty dedicated since 2017. These ligament injuries, the ACL, the MCL, the PCL, those are sprained, partially torn, those can heal. It was the meniscus injury that was really crazy that he came back from. Because from what I understand, it was one of what’s called a bucket handle tear, where the meniscus literally flips into the groove and can lock your knee into place if it stays that way. That generally needs to be surgically stitched down. That is just crazy.

Pat: He’s going to need surgery before next season. Is that what we should expect? If so, will he be 100% before training camp next year?

Dr. Sellman: The ligaments likely will not need to be repaired from what I understand. From what he says, he’s going to heal it without surgery, but that meniscus likely will need to be operated on and tacked down. Yes, he will be 100% after that one.

Pat: Want to wrap up with the Buccaneers and their injuries, Russell Gage’s scary moments, hospitalized with his neck injury leaving the Cowboys game. We’ve heard good things from him as he’s getting better. When that happens, when we hear the neck injuries, and obviously we saw the medical incident which would happen with DeMar Hamlin, cardiac arrest, and different procedures from the staff to treat that. When there’s a neck injury like that, what’s that procedure in the immediate aftermath of that, and then afterwards, where you take him to the hospital?

Dr. Sellman: The most important is the physical exam for both. He likely had two different injuries that everyone was worried about concussion, and then a cervical spine injury. The main thing that you want to start making sure that everything is intact in terms of his nerves, so there are no spinal cord injuries. Then he’d go through a battery of tests looking at X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs to make sure ligaments and bones weren’t moved out of place, weren’t torn, anything like that. Then since he’s a high-level athlete, likely some strength testing and making sure that he can get back to 100%.

Pat: How rare was what we saw after that play? Again, I think everybody was a little bit more tuned into it because of the DeMar Hamlin situation as Aaron just had referenced. I don’t remember seeing a lot of situations like Russell Gage’s where it looked like he tried to get up multiple times and then couldn’t. How rare is that, and is there anything that either tells you or warns you might be the case when you see that in the moment?

Dr. Sellman: When you see that in the moment, the biggest thing you’re worried about is an actual brain injury as opposed to a spinal cord injury. If he had a spinal cord injury, it’s more flailing of the arms and not able to move the arms or lack of feeling in the arms. When you’re not able to stand, it’s the brain saying, “Hey dude, I am injured, and get me down and protect the rest of the body, and don’t move.”

Pat: Jalen Hurts is going to go into this game battling a shoulder injury. What impact could a hurt shoulder have on his play and potentially further damage moving forward?

Dr. Sellman: Now we know that that is actually not the shoulder that he actually had the injury to. It was the part of the chest wall from what I’ve understand. It’s the clavicle where it actually inserts on the breastbone.

Pat: That sounds worse, Dr. Sellman. That sounds worse to me.

Dr. Sellman: Yes, breastbone always sounds worse. I can’t stand that. There’s two ways that can be sprained, you were forward or backward towards your back. Obviously, if it goes back then you’re worried about lung problems, breathing issues. This thing can actually feel unstable. He might even feel it move a little bit. He’s going to have to be playing through some pain during this game coming up.

Pat: He is going to try to play through that pain. Obviously, that’s something that they’re going to have to keep an eye on. On top of that, if you know a guy has this injury and he’s going to be playing through pain, how much risk is he of furthering that injury? And on top of that, would you maybe suggest, like, hey, you’re going to be out there, but let’s not run around with the football. Let’s get rid of it or take a knee or whatever, but don’t– make sure you’re not taking too many hits.

Dr. Sellman: Yes, 100%. The biggest thing for this one is not to get tackled and landing on that shoulder again. That’s going to just worsen that injury. That’s why you need to have Wayne Johnson back to protect him, learning how to throw the ball away and that kind of thing.

Aaron: All right, Dr. Sellman, let’s get to it.

Pat: Here we go. Ryan of the Titanic music, if you will.

Aaron: Do what you got to do, but I got to talk to Dr. Sellman here. I almost called you the other day, actually, off the air. I didn’t want to bother you. I’m six weeks into my mallet finger, in my middle right finger. Six weeks into it, I got my appointment at Florida Orthopaedic Institute next week. I got a little antsy, Doctor, because six weeks, that’s what initially we said. I took the splint off the other day, right? And It feels–

Pat: Inspired by Ryan Jensen, he wanted to be a warrior.

Aaron: I said, this guy is playing through meniscus stuff, ligaments.

Pat: That’s right.

Aaron: I got to do this. I got to stop with this mallet finger, so I took it off and I think it’s healed properly.

Pat: He won’t stop playing with a doctor.

Aaron: I got to squeeze stuff. I don’t know what I should be doing. Is it normal that it got a little more swollen once I took the splint off?

Dr. Sellman: First of all, don’t have anybody pull your finger at this point, especially in the studio in an enclosed environment. That’s bad [crosstalk]

Aaron: Pat hates when I fart anyway, so I won’t do that.

Pat: I do.

Dr. Sellman: You have to own it, that’s what I like to do. It’s not unusual for a little finger to be swollen. I’m not saying that your fingers are small because I know what you play with, but that being said, exercising it, it’s probably pretty done good if the splint has been on for six weeks and start getting that strength and get that swelling get out of it, get that blood flow.

Aaron: So it’s normal that it’s like, numb and a little swollen? It is numb at the fingertips still. It feels stiff.

Dr. Sellman: You’re numbing in general, but yes, it is very common because you’re not activating the muscles and the nerves when you were in the splint.

Aaron: And you know what, Dr. Sellman, I think a lot of people– It’s is my first broken bone, I know it’s not that intense.

Pat: This is your first broken bone ever? [cross talk]

Aaron: This is my first broken anything.

Pat: Oh, God.

Aaron: I think a lot of people don’t realize what goes into after you have the cast– whatever you break, mine happened to be a minor detail, a minor finger injury. For people, it’s amazing to me. I’m put in their perspective now. People that break a leg, when you take that cast off, your leg hasn’t been moving for however long that cast has been on. It’s not just like the cast goes off and you’re back to normal frolicking in the forest. You got to recover from that.

Dr. Sellman: Yes, no frolicking. You have this little chicken leg. It looks like a little chicken bone compared to the other side when you take off and similar to the finger, but we’re not weight bearing as much, hopefully, at least, unless you’re doing hand stunts at night.

Aaron: No hand stunts. Should I be, like hand activities, real quick here, and I’m sorry to blabber, waste your time. Do I do like a squeeze ball, a stress ball, anything you recommend?

Dr. Sellman: Yes, usually I start with a stress ball, and then ramp up to a tennis ball, then lacrosse ball, even, like using a hammer and twisting that wrist back and forth to get all those muscles and tendons across the wrist. That activates the fingers alive again.

Aaron: You are the greatest. Golf in a couple of weeks, can I play? Can I try that out or what’s up?

Dr. Sellman: You should go now. You should go now and stop using the other hand for a stranger feeling.

Aaron: No worries. I love you so much, you wouldn’t even know it. The Pat & Aaron injury report, presented by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopaedic Institute, they provide you access to one of the top orthopedic programs in the nation. Schedule an appointment today at floridaortho.com. We really do love having you on Dr. Sellman.

Pat: Hey, doctor, last second request, actually, really quickly from the GM of the Pendingos J Retcher.

Aaron: It’s my softball team.

Pat: He said stop bearing the lead. Is Aaron going to be available for the Pendingos season opener next Wednesday?

Aaron: No I’m not Doctor, tell him no.

Dr. Sellman: [laughs] Pendingos opener is on.

Pat: Ohh, he’s playing, and he doesn’t want. He’s scared but he’s playing

Aaron: That’s not the answer I wanted to hear, Dr. Sellman. Golf, yes, that, no, I’m scared. All right. Thank you, Dr. Sellman. We’ll catch up with you later.

Dr. Sellman: Of course.

Pat: Thanks, Doctor.

Aaron: You know what it is–

Pat: He’s the best.

Aaron: He really is, I love him so much. He’s not scared to say anything, that’s why I love him.

Pat: He knows all about your stranger feeling and everything.

Aaron: He gets it all.