The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 12/15/22 with Dr. Nofsinger

Aaron: Let’s go now to the Friendly Kia DAE hotline. Been looking forward to this as we do every Thursday. The Pat & Aaron Injury Report, presented by Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Joining us on the hotline right now, we have Dr. Charles Nofsinger. Dr. Nofsinger, how you doing today? Good morning.

Dr. Nofsinger: Good. How are you guys doing this morning?

Aaron: Pat’s great. I have been better. Thankfully, I have you all to thank at Florida Orthopaedic Institute and Tampa General Hospital. I broke my finger.

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Aaron: Oh, don’t do this, Pat. I broke my finger last week, Dr. Nofsinger, and the first–

Dr. Nofsinger: How’d you do it?

Aaron: I was playing softball, and there was a ground ball that was coming to my glove side. Took a hop on me and I put my non-glove hand in the way a little bit. Made the play at first, don’t worry, I got the out.

Dr. Nofsinger: There you go. That’s legit.

Aaron: Thank you, but my fingertip, right away, I looked down and I said, “This thing, something’s wrong with it.” I went online and I found out, and I actually got it right, mallet finger, which was diagnosed–

Pat: It was mallet finger? Oh, you never confirmed that for me.

Aaron: I went and saw Dr. Nydick over at Florida Orthopaedic Institute.

Dr. Nofsinger: Oh yes. That’s awesome.

Aaron: He set me up. I got the splint on. I’m going to ask you, and I know Dr. Nydick is a hand specialist, I’m really freaking out because it’s been a little over a week, I’m getting antsy to play golf already. I’ve been told six weeks.

Pat: Tell him 12.

Aaron: Don’t tell me 12. I’ve been told six weeks.

Pat: 24

Dr. Nofsinger: Six weeks is good. Are you using that little brace for your finger?

Aaron: Yes, I have not taken it out. I showered for the first time in a week yesterday because I didn’t want to take it off.

Dr. Nofsinger: [laughs] As long as you keep it in the brace by six weeks, I’m sure Dr. Nydick will take another look at you and–

Aaron: I have a follow-up, but what about– I’m going to see him in sit in six weeks, but what about four weeks? Do you think I can try to play golf after four weeks?

Dr. Nofsinger: Yes, you can play golf with the brace on. Make sure that you– I would tape it to your other finger.

Aaron: Really?

Dr. Nofsinger: Yes. Just to give it a little protection because that mallet finger, what it is, is that the tendon that extends your finger to the very last little bit of your finger is partially detached. With it taped to your other finger, it’ll just protect it.

Pat: What’s the danger if he does play with it a little earlier than you should?

Dr. Nofsinger: A danger is if you tried to grip too hard. If you really white-knuckled your club, you could actually pull it off and then that would be obviously not good.

Aaron: I’ve been white-knuckling on other things for the last week, so I’ll be fine. I want to ask you about Tyler Boyd, who has a similar injury. He’s dealing with a finger injury as well. He’s going to be trying to get on the field for the Bengals against the Bucs this week. For a receiver who is dealing with a finger issue and it happened recently, what are we looking at for the outlook of a guy like Tyler Boyd?

Dr. Nofsinger: Tyler, as far as I know, dislocated one of his, what are called, interphalangeal joints. If you pick up your hand, you bend your fingers, you can see you got those three bones in a finger, right?

Aaron: Yes.

Dr. Nofsinger: Between those, those joints in the middle, those are called the interphalangeal joints. It’s not uncommon to dislocate one of those things and put it back in, and really he should have next to zero problems with this finger during the game.

Pat: If somebody were to chip their knuckle, and part of that bone were to actually break off and get lodged inside the knuckle–

Dr. Nofsinger: That’s a serious problem. That’s when you would want to have surgery for it to correct.

Pat: I was going to ask you that because I did and I didn’t know if maybe like they finagled me. It was years and years ago and I didn’t know if maybe they made me get surgery that I didn’t need.

Dr. Nofsinger: No, you needed it. If you put your fingers out, and then close your fingers into your palm, you can see how the fingers lie right next to each other perfectly. You want that in order to be able to do anything that involves dexterity.

Aaron: Was that a 20-year-old question on if you got finagled?

Pat: You know why? Yes, but it’s a new thought because here’s what I found out-

Aaron: Did I get finagled?

Pat: -I have a stigmatism in my left eye, and what my new eye doctor told me was regardless of what she does, what she puts in front of my eyeball, it doesn’t look better. I can’t see better, so glasses won’t help me. When I was a kid, they sold me and my mom glasses for years.

Aaron: Finagled you.

Pat: Finagled. It’s not right. On the text line, by the way, Doctor, Ryan Valdez says hi. He said you did his Tommy John surgery. I believe he was a-

Dr. Nofsinger: That’s right. How is he? How do you know Ryan?

Pat: -professional pitcher. Ryan’s a listener of the show. He has also challenged me [crosstalk] multiple times to throw– He wants to pitch against me, I want to get a hit against him, so hope hopefully you didn’t do too well with that Tommy John, so he’s not throwing as hard.

Dr. Nofsinger: I think it went well, so you might have a problem there. Has got some gas.

Aaron: Doctor, we hear it all the time, man, from listeners and we love it. That’s why we love doing the segment with you guys in the partnership. We have listeners who will say, “Hey, I went to Florida Orthopaedic Institute partnership at Tampa General Hospital, and whatever they’re dealing with, they get fixed right up, man.”

Dr. Nofsinger: Cool. That’s why we’re there to help you guys if you need me.

Aaron: Speaking of fixing right up, Mike White, the Jets’ new starting quarterback, now that Zach Wilson has been demoted, he was beaten up last week with his ribs. For a quarterback, and we’ve seen it before, we’ve seen James dealing with it back in the day, what is that like to have to get back on the field right after a rib injury?

Dr. Nofsinger: It stings. Mike White’s a great kid. He was at USF for a couple years, and so I can tell you, firsthand knowledge he’s a great kid. The getting hit right on your throwing side, on those ribs in there, can seriously inhibit your ability to throw, but I can tell you, the athletic trainers with the Jets are going to be all over him giving him treatment to make sure that he’s loose enough to throw with his normal motion.

Pat: When it comes to the rib or maybe an oblique injury like that area for a quarterback, how different is it for, say, a quarterback who does need, when he throws the ball, to turn that area of his body versus, say, a major league baseball player, or any baseball player for instance, who the swing of the bat obviously is a lot more violent of an action than what that quarterback does in throwing the football? What’s the difference there in recovery, and whether or not you can let somebody go back out with that injury?

Dr. Nofsinger: That’s a great question. The athlete on baseball that would have the biggest problem with it would be the pitcher because that mechanism is so fine-tuned. Batting, my experience with intercostal or rib injuries on batters is that they’re pretty tough, in general it’s not so bad. Throwing athletes like this quarterback, the problem with the quarterback too is that you’ll get gun-shy. You see the guy coming, and you know that that thing is injured, and then it can really inhibit your ability to read the field, et cetera. There’s all kinds of special padding and there’s some special medicated pads that you can put over it, and like I said, they’ll make sure he is ready. White is a tough kid. I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference in this upcoming game.

Aaron: Yes, you can tell he’s a tough kid. Every time he got back on that field, it’s incredible. Anytime you overcome having to be a backup quarterback in a top draft pick like Zach Wilson, and overcome it, mentally then you could tell he’s a really tough kid. Quinnen Williams, doctor, for the Jets, he’s dealing with a calf injury. It looked really bad initially. For the star defensive lineman, he’s having a good year. What do those calf injuries look like and what’s the recovery like?

Dr. Nofsinger: He’s a D-tackle, so that position where you use those calf muscles to push against the O-line. There’s three muscles back there. There’s two heads of this muscle called gastroc, another one called soleus, but it’s also your achilles tendon, they all insert into that thing. When you push off hard, that thing can be a very big challenge. That one actually could be a bigger game changer. What’s going to happen is that the O-line’s going to know he is got that problem, and so they’ll, I would guess, come after him a little bit. It’ll be interesting to see, but that’s actually a tougher injury, say, than that finger dislocation or potentially even the rib.

Aaron: Are you suggesting a bountygate or something on Quinnen Williams’ calf?

Dr. Nofsinger: [laughs] Hey man, who knows? I’m not authorizing that. I don’t–

[crosstalk]

Aaron: Really great stuff today, Dr. Nofsinger. Really appreciated. He is Dr. Charles Nofsinger, and of course, the Pat & Aaron 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. I don’t just tell you about it, I saw myself last week and I am on the mend. I’ll be playing golf for sure in six weeks, maybe in four weeks I’ll be trying it out. Schedule your appointment today at floridaortho.com. Doctor, thank you so much.

Pat: Thanks Doc.

Dr. Nofsinger: Oh, thanks, guys. Have a good day, man.

Aaron: You as well and have a great Christmas ahead if we don’t speak with you. They really do. Every week, it doesn’t matter who we get, Dr. Sellman, Dr. Nofsinger, they really have the best doctors over there.

Pat: Doctors, they’re very, very smart. It’s impressive. They know a lot.