The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 9/8/22 with Dr. Sellman

Aaron: Very excited to bring back for another season of the injury report– We’re going to go to now and then the injury report by the way on The Pat & Aaron Show presented by our friends at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Let’s welcome back to the show Dr. Jeffrey Sellman. Dr. Sellman, how are you doing?

Dr. Sellman: Dude, I’m so excited. I’m more excited than you are. I’m great. How are you guys?

Aaron: There’s no way you’re more excited than we are, no chance. We’ve been selling Sellman all week long.

Pat: Doctor, when we found out yesterday– Actually, I said on the show yesterday, I said we don’t play favorites on the The Pat & Aaron Show, but Dr. Jeff Sellman was definitely one of our favorites from the Florida Orthopaedic Institute all last year.

Dr. Sellman: I’m glad you got that check over the summer, so I appreciate that.

[laughter]

Aaron: Let’s start with Chris Godwin, a guy who we’re all amazed that he is even back and considered for week one coming back from that huge injury in surgery this early on. What are your thoughts on Chris Godwin giving it a go? He’s even said he’s going to have to push it a little bit, and playing injured, it’s obviously not as good as playing 100% in what he can actually bring to the table with an injury like this and a surgery like this. What are some of the concerns that you would have in bringing him back in week one?

Dr. Sellman: The biggest concern actually is something that is not really talked about that much, and that is the psychology of the injury itself. Oftentimes, we have an unconscious rewiring that our brain thinks it’s still injured or knows that it’s still injured, and when he goes out and makes that move again, his possibility of protecting it and re-injuring it is very high. At this point, it’s not only very important to be aware, but not be aware that the body part is still injured.

Pat: There’s also the risk of where a lot of times, if we have something that we’re dealing with, we compensate by putting more pressure on another body part or the other side of the body in that area. Is there is there also that risk of injuring something else because you’re compensating for that original injury?

Dr. Sellman: Oh, we always overcompensate for something that’s smaller or something that’s weaker for sure, but that is absolutely true when it comes to coming back from an injury. Even if we do not feel that we are, there’s always a little minor overcompensation to protect the body

Pat: When it comes to Ryan Jensen who, of course, is on injured reserve now, the Buccaneers took a long time to determine or at least announce his trip to the injured reserve, and they still haven’t been very specific about his injury. We often find out that a guy has a torn ACL within 24 hours of that injury. I do know, as we’ve spoken before in the past, that sometimes, you have to wait for the swelling to go down to really get a good look at what’s going on inside. Is there ever a situation where it takes weeks to get a proper diagnosis or the Buccaneers as being super tight-lipped about this thing?

Dr. Sellman: In the professional world, it usually is not weeks before the official diagnosis because there’s a lot more opportunity to have all the diagnostic tools at hand. In the real world, to be quite frank, there are several instances that it may take a couple weeks when there are different body parts affecting the same body part, if that makes sense, so something from the hip affecting the knee or something from the knee affecting the ankle, that may go overlooked.

With the team like the NFL and all the professional athletes have in terms of the healthcare team, it’s almost impossible to, not impossible, but it’s really lower on the totem pole to miss something like that. Being tightlipped in the professional world, come on. You got to keep tightlipped around the the media and also the opposing teams.

Aaron: Have you been giving advice to Jameis Winston lately because everything you were just describing– I don’t know if you heard his comments yesterday with the Saints, but he was talking about the elbows attached to the knees and the knees [unintelligible 00:04:04]— [crosstalk]

Pat: We actually have that, Aaron.

Aaron: Let’s play that.

Pat: I was going to ask Dr. Sellman if he could do a better job of explaining why the body is symmetrical.

Jameis Winston: You got certain things that– We’re all like this. Our body is so symmetrical. You got your wrists. Then what are your wrists on the bottom have? Your ankles. You got your shoulders up top. What are your shoulders? Your hips. You know what I’m saying? You got your elbows? What are the elbows? Your knees. It’s symmetrical, and you just got to work different parts.

Aaron: What did he mean by that, Dr. Sellman?

Dr. Sellman: First, you got to remember that as a gator, I know that his crab legs are connected to his free shoes.

[laughter]

Pat: Oh, welcome back, Dr. Sellman. Are they both connected to the hip bone as well?

Dr. Sellman: Yes, everything is connected to the hip bone, especially at certain positions, for sure.

Aaron: Oh, yes. I want to get into Matthew Stafford, another quarterback around this league Super Bowl, [unintelligible 00:05:01] Matthew Stafford from last year. We just found out from Adam Schefter. He actually needed a procedure done, off season surgery for his achy right elbow. For a right-handed quarterback who throws the ball very far and relies on the strength of his arm, how concerned should Rams fans be going into the season with Matthew Stafford having a problem going on with that elbow?

Dr. Sellman: I think the opposite. I think they should be excited because if he had an issue where he was able to wait over the course of the summer and the off season, probably a little arthroscopic procedure. Tino cleaned things up, and if anything, he might be better if not throwing at a higher velocity.

Pat: Yes, and I think he got the the PRP stuff as well, which we’ve heard a lot of good stuff about. Zach Wilson, a young player, but just a couple of days after hinting that he could play in the season opener, the Jets have now announced that he’s going to miss at least three games as he continues to recover from his arthroscopic knee surgery. How would you say that a guy would go that quickly from being potentially ready within a few days to needing to miss a month? Is this just about being cautious, or is that maybe a complication of some sort?

Dr. Sellman: It could be actually that changing up the procedure just a little bit once they go in and look around and easier, very less invasive procedure, maybe less time, whereas if they had to do something a little bit more or even have a procedure that requires a little more time that they weren’t exactly expecting but they were planning for, if that makes sense.

Aaron: Dr. Sellman joining us right now, Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Let’s talk about player, regular season reps going from the pre-season to regular season, because players go from barely playing during the pre-season to really being expected to play a lot of snaps once the regular season begins here this weekend. Are there any injuries that are more common when you greatly increase that type of athletic activity outside of stretching as well? Is there anything you can do to try to avoid those injuries?

Dr. Sellman: Really, the off season when you’re not here during the pre-season organized workouts is the most important and making sure that your conditioning, your nutrition level is up, and making sure you stay absolutely hydrated with water as opposed to any other kind of sports drinks, caffeine or, of course, alcohol. The biggest thing that you always see, and you see it a lot in high school athletics too, is that those first few weeks are just riddled with people going down with cramping. That’s really a matter of fatigue, not being conditioned and not being hydrated.

Pat: Doctor, last year, we asked a lot of the doctors about their music that they like to listen to during surgery. This year, we’re switching it up and we’re asking about pre-game meals. Are there any specific things that you like to eat before surgery? More importantly, are there any things that you stay away from before surgery because you’re going to be in a gown and gloves for a few hours? I know when we’re going to cover bucks games, I try to stay away from the hot coffee because of what it does to my body. Is there anything you try to stay away from going into surgery?

Dr. Sellman: Of course. I hope by pre-gaming, you do mean prior to surgery as opposed to going out because pre-gaming, that way, I do participate in other things. That being said, remember, I’m not a surgeon, so I don’t get to suit up in my dressing gown for the evenings nor in the mornings for any kind of surgery. I do think that some of the surgeons, I wouldn’t mind seeing them eat a little bit of macaroni and cheese for a little bit. You know what I’m saying?

[laughter]

Aaron: Oh, you are the man, Dr. Jeff Sell. I call you Jeffrey. Are you Jeffrey or Jeff? Did I make you Jeffrey?

Dr. Sellman: The actual, official– I am not the giraffe from Toys “R”Us, and my official name is Jeff.

Aaron: Dr. Jeff Sellman. I don’t know why I added the “rey” on there. Dr. Jeff Sellman.

Dr. Sellman: Everyone likes to add the “rey.”

Aaron: [laughs] We always love having you on.

Pat: It’s ridiculous.

Aaron: I’m sure we’ll have you on very shortly. The Pat and 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 that appointment today. Don’t wait any longer. floridaortho.com. They got the answer for you.

Dr. Sellman, we love having you back and we look forward to doing it again soon.

Dr. Sellman: I appreciate it. I love being back.

Pat: Thanks, doctor.

Aaron: There you have it, Dr. Sellman and our friends at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute with Tampa General Hospital. We really do, we love having them on. You might have heard some segments over the years and you’re like, “Where did that segment go?” It might not have worked out. The reason we keep having them on every year is we’ve heard from you, we’ve heard on the text line, we’ve gotten emails how helpful they’ve been, people that have been there before saying how great they are.

Pat: That’s why we’ll ask questions from time to time about general injuries outside of sports because we know a lot of our listeners are dealing with those sort of things.

Aaron: It’s why we love working with them. If they’re trusted by you, the listener– You’ve been there before, you know them. We love working with them. We’ve gotten to know them as well, and we know that they can help you if you’re dealing with any injury. Whether it be you need a consultation, whether you need to get that surgery, they’ve got guys. They’ve got Dr. Sellman, they’ve got surgeon, they’ve got the answer for you, but you got to start by reaching out and making that appointment, Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital.

Pat: The great news is, too, they’ve got urgent orthopedic care because accidents don’t always happen when you want them to, so they can see you on an urgent basis as well if that’s something that you need. To access world-class orthopedic care right here in Tampa Bay, just call 1-800-FL-ORTHO or go to floridaortho.com.