Hurt or Injured?

"It’s not broken, just fractured.” I’ve heard that one many times, usually as a signal that the person believes that the injury isn’t as bad as it could be.

OK…I’m going to start with that one. Broken, fractured, they mean the same thing. It’s not like horseshoes or hand grenades—a bone is either broken or it is not. A stress fracture is still a break in the bone. Maybe it only goes through part of the bone but it is still broken. That one is easy.

“Is it hurt or injured?” That one is much more difficult to define. I have heard coaches for years tell their players that they need to decide if something is “hurt” or “injured.” The clear implication is that if something is simply “hurt,” that they can play through it. There is some truth in that. There are a lot of hurts in sports participation.

“Hurt” may be exercise soreness from overdoing it. Overtraining, going too far or too fast, lifting too much or too often, all those can result in pain.

Usually those will go away with a little time and refraining from doing whatever it is that got you there. Most people seem to know what they did and when they did it if it has created pain.

Sore feet from running a lot further than usual. Sore shoulder from throwing too many times. Sore knees from running all those steps.

“Injured” implies damage to tissues.  While usually associated with a specific injury, it doesn’t have to be. In other words, you may not know what you did but damage is done.

It’s easy when you turn your ankle and it hurts on the outside of your ankle. You probably know what you did. And maybe you know pretty much what to do (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) but you might need help in deciding when that ankle is ready to go. That’s where you might need help. More on that in a minute.

Same with knees. If you injure your knee, you usually know when and how. Remember those bits of information—they will become important in deciding how bad it is and what is damaged.

Knees that always hurt and the pain lasts for several days? Something is wrong and you need to get checked. Weightbearing hurts your knee? Get it checked. Something is wrong.

Shoulders can be really complicated. If you pitch a full game (or have a high pitch count), you can expect your shoulder to be sore. Is it injured? Probably not. But you need to take care of it. That means ice on that shoulder within minutes of your last pitch. You can’t wait until you get home and finally find the ice bag. You need to have ice in the dugout and something to hold it on. And you definitely don’t need to cover up the pain with ibuprofen.

If it hurts the next day, something may be wrong. Any pain that just won’t go away needs to be checked.

A lot of people have chronic shoulder pain (LOTS of people). Our world today puts lots of stress on our shoulders. Much of what we do is in front of us. Sitting at a computer is a huge culprit in the development of chronic shoulder problems. I spend a lot of my professional time dealing with those.

But athletes with chronic shoulder pain need to have it checked out. It doesn’t mean that they can’t continue to play their sport. It may just mean that they need to prepare for the sport differently, to do things differently.

That’s where the Athletic Trainer comes in. Athletic Trainers are trained in all this. Athletic Trainers can help decide if it is “hurt” or “injured.” And here’s the good news:  All our schools have Athletic Trainers. All of them.

My final advice—use those Athletic Trainers. They are not there to keep you out of the game but to keep you IN the game.

 

Over 45? Get Screened for Colon Cancer

Vince Lombardi. Darryl Strawberry. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Ken Stabler. Tom Lehman. All have one thing in common:  They’re all sports stars that have had colon cancer.

Dr. Ed Brown is retiring this summer. In case you don’t know Dr. Brown, he’s a gastroenterologist that has served this community long and well.

I got to know Dr. Brown almost 28 years ago, when I showed up in his office. You see, I had a grandmother and an aunt that died of colon cancer. And my mom had colon cancer.

So, at age 40, I showed up at Dr. Brown’s office to schedule my first colonoscopy.

Let me tell you about a colonoscopy (without getting too graphic). First of all, you’re asleep, so it is painless and not cringe-worthy.. Using a flexible tube with a light and a camera at the end, the gastroenterologist examines your colon.

That’s it. You wake up, go get something to eat, and go home. Any suspicious places (usually a thing called polyps) are removed and sent to pathology. A few days later you get a report from the pathologist.

I didn’t mention the hard part. The day before the procedure, you can only have clear liquids (my clear liquid of choice was hot lemon Jello) and then at the end of that day, you take medicine to…shall we say…clean you out.

And it does a good job of it. The next morning, you head in for the colonoscopy and meet some really nice folks that do this sort of thing every day. I met a really nice Nurse Anaesthetist named Bill who was thorough and personable (but Propafol keeps me from remembering his last name).

Dr. Brown is a quiet, very professional physician with enough wry sense of humor to keep the whole process in perspective. When he called me this week with the pathology report, I thanked him for his many years of excellent care.

Here’s the good news—colon cancer, found early, is 100% treatable. That’s where the colonoscopy comes in. That’s how you find it early.

Who should consider screening for colonoscopy? All men and women over 40. Period.

But beyond that, what are signs that there could be a problem?  Unexplained changes in bowel habits. Blood in their stool. Unexplained weight loss, chronic constipation, or diarrhea.

Anyone with a family history of colon cancer should get screened. The screening may be as simple as a medical exam and a laboratory test.

Should everyone get a colonoscopy?  That’s for your doctor and you to decide The American Cancer Society recommends that anyone with a family history should begin getting colonostomies at age 45. For some, at higher risk, sooner than that.

As for me, I depend on my gastroenterologist to keep me healthy and so, I will do whatever they tell me to. Dr. Brown is retiring but I have great confidence in one of his young colleagues, Dr. Isaac Cline, who I’ve known since he was nine or ten.

And I’m counting on Dr. Cline keeping me safe from colon cancer for many years to come.

Parents Say the Darndest Things

There aren’t many of you that remember the old Art Linkletter television show.  It’s so old, I think it was only done in black & white.  He had a segment on the show called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”

It was later recreated a couple of times but the original was what I grew up on. On the show, Art Linkletter would subtly lead kids into saying what was really on their minds. And you know kids—they sometimes have no filters.

What resulted from Art Linkletter’s somewhat innocent questions was often hilarious. Parents of athletes sometimes say the darndest things too. Some are funny, some are sad.

“They just got lucky.” One team scores and the coach/parent yells, “they just got lucky.” Maybe on some level that coach/parent is being positive but I think not.

It clearly implies that the other team is not really good enough to score without the benefit of luck. That their skills mean nothing.

I’ve heard people say “I’d rather be lucky than good.” Not me. I’d rather be good. Every time. I’ve also heard it said that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I like that.

“Hit somebody.” That one always strikes me as funny.  Hit somebody! OK, who? Shouldn’t you be more specific? Is it OK if I hit somebody on my own team? They’re “somebody” aren’t they?

I guess “strike hard against someone on the opposing team” just wouldn’t work. By the time you get it out of your mouth, the play is over.

“Keep your eye on the ball.” I’ve been guilty of that one. I’ve probably said it a million times. The idea is to watch the ball all the way to your bat or to your racket and, in doing so, make better contact. It isn’t quite that easy.

Early on, it is important to keep your eye on the ball. Through repetition, the bat or the racket becomes an extension of your hands. That’s where you want to get to.

You can’t tell me that major league hitters see the ball all the way to the bat. MLB fastballs are just moving to fast. But thousands of repetitions establish a muscle memory to where it isn’t necessary.

“They just got their bell wrung. It’s football.” I still hear that one, even in today’s world of concussion awareness. Sure, that’s the way we used to approach things. We know better now.

And once you know better, you can never go back. You can never ignore the potential or the possibility of a concussion.

“Get in the hole!” It’s a golf thing. I’m not sure but I don’t think golf balls have ears. And from my limited experience, they don’t take orders. From anybody. Yet, I would have been yelling for Phil Mickelson’s putts to “get in the hole.”

“You hit like a girl.” Oh don’t get me started on that one. The other one in this category is that you “throw like a girl.” Those parents need to get a clue. Or a girl.

I’m as competitive as the next person but I don’t believe in cheering when somebody misses a free throw. That’s just wrong. Unless it means that your team wins the game. Then you’re cheering the win, not the miss.

I try and imagine what it is like to be the kid on the losing team or the kid that strikes out or the kid that keeps trying and trying and trying. And then I choose my words carefully.