Search for tag: "heal"

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With the end of the season upon us Scot, Troy, and Mitch take a look back at the past six months, discussing their favorite episodes of the season, their accomplishments, and the big realizations they've come to about their health and life in general.

• EP44: The 4 Rules of Rest with Dr. Kelly Baron
• EP55: Surprise! It's Hidden Sugar with Thunder Jalili, PhD
• EP50: Putting Runner Controversies to Rest with Shane Thoreson and Laura Lamarche

• EP48: Get to Know Your Macros - Protein with Thunder Jalili, PhD
• EP33: New Year Resolutions Suck with listener Jay
• Ep51: Do I Need an Antidepressant? with Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones

• EP41: At Home Genetic Test - Listen Before You Spit with Karin Dent
• EP45: Three Tools for Your Mental Health Toolbox with Listener Ben and Kevin Curtis
• EP52: Carbs Aren't Bad with Thunder Jalili, PhD

Troy is coming to the realization that there is no "magic bullet" or "secret sauce" to health. After speaking with guests over the past two seasons, he's learning it's all about holding to a core set of simple principles and keeping consistent to the health behaviors where you can.

Scot has learned how to eat again. He used to weigh food and scheduled eating times every day with a very strict macronutrient breakdown By speaking with Thunder about nutrition, he's letting go of a lot of the "baggage" he's gained over years of not so practical diet advice.

For Mitch, the shelter in place has forced a lot more self-reflection in his day to day, especially taking stock of his mental health. This has led to an improvement in communication and relationship with his partner that he works alongside all day since the shelter-in-place.

Troy has seen the impacts of COVID-19 first-hand in the ER. The only real defense against the disease right now is being generally healthy. While this podcast often speaks about health and the benefits that will pay off in 30 years, the pandemic is making the immediate importance of health very apparent.

Keeping consistent with your health can be just as hard as making big changes. Despite the stresses that come from being an ER physician during COVID-19, Troy has stuck to his daily running routine and is celebrating 5 years of running every single day.

Sometimes accomplishments aren't obvious until you take a look back at where you've come from. While Scot originally felt he had nothing to celebrate, after looking back and reflecting, he realized he has done quite a bit in the past 6 months. Whether it be completing another class towards his Master's Degree, converting his classes online, learning to speak in front of a camera, or just getting out and working on his photography with his wife.

A special thank you to all the friends and listeners of the show that participated in the 5k last weekend. It was a long journey for producer Mitch. Even with the setback of a major injury, he reached his goal of going from couch to running a 5k. He shares his experience and what the event meant to him.

See more photos of the event and the listeners who participated on our Facebook page.

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Announcer: Health Hacks with Dr. Troy Madsen on The Scope.

Interviewer: What is today's health hack?

Dr. Madsen: Today's health hack is a trick to avoid a trip to the ER for a broken toe. So let's say you're walking around the house, you don't have shoes on, you hit a corner of the bed with your foot, and you immediately have pain in one of your toes. And you're thinking to yourself, "Wow, my toe hurts like crazy. I wonder if it's broken."

So your first thought is, "I need to go to the ER or an urgent care and get an x-ray." If you were to come to the ER or an urgent care and get an x-ray and if your toe were broken, we would do a simple thing. We would tape it to the toe next to it and we would send you home.

So here's your health hack. If you do hit your toe hard, you wonder if it's broken, just tape it to the toe next to it. If it's broken or if it's sprained, the treatment is the same. As long as it's aligned okay, it's moving okay, as long as the blood is profusing okay, it looks nice and pink, we're going to tape it, we're going to call it good, tell you to give it a few weeks. It should feel better. It should heal up just fine.

Interviewer: And if it is having some of those other issues, that's when you should go to the ER.

Dr. Madsen: Yes. If you look at your toe and it's kind of twisted weird or you're just not able to move it right, that's a sign that maybe it's a more serious fracture, but that's pretty rare. Most cases of fractures in the toe, we're just going to tape it to the toe next to it and give it time to heal up.

Announcer: For more health hacks, check out thescoperadio.com produced by University of Utah Health.

Dr. Miller: You have a broken collarbone or a fractured clavicle? Do you need to have the treated surgically or can it heal naturally?

Announcer: Access to our experts with in-depth information about the biggest health issues facing you today. "The Specialists" with Dr. Tom Miller is on the Scope.

Dr. Miller: I'm here Dr. Bruce Thomas. He is an orthopedic surgeon here at the University of Utah in the Department of Orthopedics. Bruce, tell us a little bit about fractured clavicles.

Dr. Thomas: Fractured clavicles are a common sports injury, men more than women, and the treatment of it has evolved over the years. Traditionally, many of them were treated without surgery and the rate of non-healing was about 3%.

Dr. Miller: Before we get into that, how does one fracture a clavicle or bust the collarbone as they say on the athletic field?

Dr. Thomas: Usually, it's a fall to the shoulder.

Dr. Miller: Outstretched hand, that sort of thing?

Dr. Thomas: Mostly, not outstretched. More to the point of the shoulder and occasionally from blunt trauma. But usually, it's a fall to the shoulder or a side impact.

Dr. Miller: Mostly seen in contact sports like football?

Dr. Thomas: Contact sports, you see it in soccer and skiing as well. The contact with the ground is usually the contact. Most of the collarbone fractures occur in the shaft and in the mid portion of it and the smaller percentage will occur way out towards the end of the clavicle near the shoulder. Those require treatment almost uniformly. The ones in the shaft, less, less uniform require treatment.

Dr. Miller: So does it matter what type of an athlete you are? Might you consider surgery to get back into the playing field sooner in some cases?

Dr. Thomas: They're finding it definitely affects the biomechanics. Traditionally, you would accept 2.5 centimeters of shortening before you would consider surgery and now, the number is about 1 centimeter. And keeping that strut at the right length helps in the position of your shoulder and the movement of your shoulder blade.

Dr. Miller: So if it doesn't heal appropriately or if the distance between the fracture is, you know, there is a gap I guess, then you could lose function or sacrifice some function in the shoulder?

Dr. Thomas: You could. Without a nice, strong strut there as you load the shoulder, you'll feel weakness. But interestingly, the older literature shows that half of the patients that have a non-union don't have a lot of symptoms. But that could be depending on what their activity is.

Dr. Miller: What their activity level is. So kind of who you are matters in terms of whether you might consider surgery. So I guess it's a bit of a personal decision and you as the orthopedic surgeon explain that to the patient.

Dr. Thomas: That's true. And what your demands are make a big difference on whether you need surgery or not.

Dr. Miller: And so how do you repair the clavicle? Do you put a plate in or do you just . . . I mean, it's kind of hard to put a cast on the shoulder, obviously.

Dr. Thomas: That's true. And so, the hardware serves as an internal cast and supports the bone and keeps it aligned while it heals. And most commonly is used a plate, either on the top of the collarbone or on the front of the collarbone.

Dr. Miller: And you leave that in after the period of healing?

Dr. Thomas: On the top, eventually the bone heals, the swelling goes away. And on top, there's not much tissue between the collarbone and the skin. And those are kind of prominent and people will feel them with their seatbelts or backpacks. And so if the plate is on top, it's more likely to be removed later.

Dr. Miller: So would you say that anyone who has a clavicular fracture should probably see an orthopedic surgeon and discuss the reason for her need for surgery or healing?

Dr. Thomas: I think that's a great rule and especially if you're in high demand sports or heavy activities, making sure that your strut is the right length and ensuring healing is important.

Dr. Miller: Once you fracture a clavicle, whether it's plated or not, how long is the period of healing, generally?

Dr. Thomas: It varies, obviously. In young children, it will very quickly, four to six weeks. Adults, six to eight weeks, usually, and a small number up to 12 weeks.

Dr. Miller: And so physical therapy, is that any part of the rehabilitation of the shoulder or clavicle, rather?

Dr. Thomas: It certainly is. People tend to get stiff when you immobilize them or after a surgery. And as the fracture becomes more stable, early motion helps reduce the amount of stiffness and aids people getting back to their activities quicker.

Dr. Miller: So generally, somebody who's been injured in a sports-related activity or at work, they would know if they had a fracture. I mean it's painful, it's prominent. You can see the changes because the bone is so close to the skin.

Dr. Thomas: That's true. Most of the time, they know instantly and pretty quickly, everyone around them can tell as well.

Dr. Miller: So bottom line, then, for our listeners would be that if you have a clavicle fracture, called the collarbone in everyday usage, but if you have a fracture, you should probably see an orthopedic surgeon and have that evaluated because surgery might assist you in healing. And a certain percentage of patients will go on to surgery and have a good result.

Dr. Thomas: That's true.

Announcer: Have a question about a medical procedure? Want to learn more about a health condition? With over 2,000 interviews with our physicians and specialists, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find what you want to know. Check it out at TheScopeRadio.com.

updated: October 26, 2018
originally published: January 15, 2017

Interviewer: You just had a surgery. You might be wondering when can you get back to your life, the things you enjoy doing, your activities? We're going to find out next on The Scope.

Announcer: Health information from expects, supported by research. From University of Utah Health, this is TheScopeRadio.com.

Interviewer: How long after surgery until you can kind of get back to your life the way it was before surgery? That's a question a lot of people have. We're with Dr. Jeff Campsen. He's a surgeon at the University of Utah Hospital. So, when can you get back to your life after surgery?

Dr. Jeff Campsen: Well, it depends on the type of surgery you have. Anytime you have some sort of incision that goes intra-abdominal, you have to heal that incision. Depending on your state of health, it can be shorter or longer. An average time length that a lot of people say with an abdominal incision is about one to two months or even just six weeks to where you really want to let it heal and you try not to put too much pressure on your abdomen during that time.

Interviewer: Is it the skin that's the issue, that that's going to break apart, or is there muscular things underneath that need to heal as well?

Dr. Jeff Campsen: That's exactly right. It's the deeper tissues, what's called the fascia. The fascia needs to heal, and that's what you would get a hernia through. The skin heals fairly quickly, but the deeper tissues take a little bit longer to heal. That's what takes one or two months. Those tissues are basically what make up your abdominal wall. They're sewn back together, but then the stitches that we use, the deep sutures, will only hold up so long. Most of the time over time they get absorbed, so it's really your body reforming that abdominal wall.

Interviewer: Oh, so after surgery there's multiple stitches. There's the stitches inside of me, and then the stitches I see on my skin.

Dr. Jeff Campsen: That's right. You can have internal sutures or external sutures on the skin, but it's the deep sutures that are really what's prohibitive to getting back to your normal daily activities. Basically, lifting anything greater than 10 pounds, putting any kind of stress on you abdomen.

Interviewer: Wow. That's not a lot of weight. I mean, you can't go grocery shopping without lifting something that's 10 pounds.

Dr. Jeff Campsen: You can't. Most children are greater than 10 pounds, which really puts a damper on a lot of people and just daily activities puts you in that position. But it's worthwhile waiting for it and letting yourself heal because then the end result is that you tear through those sutures or don't heal, and eventually you get an abdominal wall hernia, which then can be life-threatening and will need to be fixed at some point, adding another surgery onto what you've already had.

Interviewer: Wow. So it's very serious stuff.

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: It can be.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: It can be extremely serious, and this is the one thing where it's a good idea to pay attention to your doctor.

Interviewer: All right. So what types of activities are OK and not OK?

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: I think as you get further and further out, the activities open up more. In the first two weeks you have to be very conservative. You want to walk, because getting out of bed opens up your lungs and pumps blood back from your legs to your heart, so it keeps you from getting a pneumonia or blood clots. So you definitely want to get up, walk, and do activities around the house. You can still do desk work and different things like that. You need to be active to allow healing.

After about two weeks, at two to four weeks you can start doing a little bit more physical activities. What I tell my patients is there's a little voice in your head that's probably saying, "Eh, that's not a good idea," and if that pops up, you should back away from it. Then after a month, you should start to push it a little bit. If it feels bad, don't do it. Wait a couple days. Try it again. If it feels good, move forward, because I'm not there with you, and you're going to be, basically, living this every second and you need to sort of use a lot of common sense on what to do and not to do, and basically really listen to yourself. The mantra is, "If it doesn't feel right, maybe give it a few more days."

Interviewer: Got you. When you say feel bad, you're talking about pain? Is that what you mean by feel bad?

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: Pain, pressure. You know, you don't want to hear somebody call in and say, "I lifted something and I didn't listen to you, and I heard a pop."

Interviewer: Oh.

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: What you want to do is not get to that point, and so you're basically. . . If you're pushing yourself a little bit, you're starting to lift something heavy, you're starting to do some exercise, all the good things that we actually do want you to do, and you start to feel pressure on your belly, maybe back away and give it a little bit of a rest.

Interviewer: So, it sounds like if you just kind of pay attention to your body, you're going to have a fairly good idea of what is appropriate or not. Or should you do far less than what you feel is appropriate?

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: No, I think if you pay attention to your body, you can pretty much do what's appropriate. It's just you really have to use some good common sense and listen to yourself and not push it too far.

Interviewer: Anything else that we should talk about? Anything that might surprise somebody about this topic? Anything that you feel like we forgot, or feel compelled to say?

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: I think one whole different aspect is this also comes into the realm of when can I drive after surgery? I think driving comes back into your abdominal wall healing. It's not so much your ability to turn the steering wheel and press the gas pedal. It really comes down to: Is your abdominal wall healed enough to where you can stomp on the brake? You obviously need to be off your pain medications, because you can't drive on pain medications, but if you can stand straight up after surgery, whatever many days later, and take your brake foot and stomp on the ground really hard and it doesn't hurt your belly so bad that you are writhing in pain, then you can proceed to drive.

The reason that is, is that most people can drive around. They can push on the gas pedal. They can work the clutch, all that kind of stuff, but if they get into a situation where they've got to stomp on the brake to stop their car rapidly, and they can't because it's painful to them, then they're going to get into a wreck.

This kind of goes into when is your abdominal wall healed enough that you can handle that? Everybody heals a little bit differently, and so it kind of comes into common sense. So, if you can do that test before you ever get into the car, and you're successful, chances are you're going to be fine.

Interviewer: Should you avoid twisting, turning motions?

Dr. Jeffrey Campsen: This gets into. . . You know, it's springtime in Utah, and a lot of people are golfers. What we basically say to that is very similar to lifting and all the other things. You can turn and twist, but if it starts to put too much pressure on your belly, you need to wait. As you get two, four, six week out, you can do more and more.

The analogy with a golf club is maybe in the first two weeks just sort of use your putter, and in the two to four weeks, you can sort of use an iron and just do a half of a backswing. Then, maybe after six weeks to eight weeks, you can really do that full golf swing that you want to do. I think that sort of relates to, basically, what do you do with your abdominal wall, and any of that twisting and turning you can do more and more as you get further out from the sugary, but also the rule, again, is if I feel like it's painful, if it's putting too much stress on my abdominal wall, back off. Give it a couple days to rest, and then try it again in three or four days.

Announcer: Have a question about a medical procedure? Want to learn more about a health condition? With over 2,000 interviews with our physicians and specialists, there's a pretty good chance you'll find what you want to know. Check it out at thescoperadio.com.

updated: June 29, 2018
originally published: June 25, 2014

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Host: At a family barbeque, everybody's laughing and having a good time. You lose track of the three year old for a couple seconds. They lean into the barbeque grill and they get burnt. How bad is really bad, and what should you do if that happens? Dr. Stephen Morris, medical director for the University of Utah Burn Center is going to help us answer some of those questions. First of all, when it comes to burns, what's bad, what's really bad and how do I know as a normal person?

Dr. Stephen Morris: We look at burns maybe a little differently than you might in the community. We know they all hurt, but in fact, the worse they are sometimes the less they hurt. If it is your fingertip it's going to hurt a lot or your palm or if you step on some hot pavement and have a small area on the bottom of your foot, even though that hurts a lot, it's probably going to heal because it's partial thickness or second degree burn. That is, it doesn't go all of the way through the skin, so there's enough there to heal back. However, if a little kid falls into a fire, into a barbeque pit, and has very deep burns that are basically numb because not only is the skin burned, but the nerves are burned too, those can be some of the worst.

Host: So if you're touching it and it's numb that's a sure sign that you probably should go to an E.R. or call 9-1-1?

Dr. Stephen Morris: That's right.

Host: Okay. First degree is least dangerous and third degree is most dangerous.

Dr. Stephen Morris: Correct.

Host: If it's just a second degree burn what do I do to treat that?

Dr. Stephen Morris: Cleanliness is an important thing because if it gets dirty, if it's not well cared for infection will get started. You can get infection that spreads beginning at the burn out to areas that are not burned.

Host: It's a painful thing. Do you use just soap and water? What do you use to clean it?

Dr. Stephen Morris: Soap and water is a great thing. Just wash it off with a washcloth, soap and water, and put a little burn ointment or a band-aid on it if it's small. If it takes more than that you ought to get in to see a doctor.

Host: Okay. I'm going to draw an analogy here. For your ears an airplane would produce so many decibels of sound which they would say that's very dangerous to your hearing. Are there things around the house you could look at like that boiling pot of water and go, "That's going to generate probably only a second degree burn if it contacts the skin for a second." Is there any way that you can judge the dangers in your house?

Dr. Stephen Morris: Yes, we normally don't check the temperature of the bath or of water on the stove. If it's bubbling at this elevation you know it's going to be close to 190 or 195 degrees. That in a matter of a second or less is going to cause a very serious burn. We recommend that you check your water temperature. You can use a candy thermometer early in the morning, turn the water on long enough for it to heat up and check the temperature. Make sure that it's less than 130 degrees.

Host: A lot of times it's kids that are getting burned, and a lot of times those burns are happening in the house. Let's talk prevention for a second.

Dr. Stephen Morris: Sure, we would much rather see safe and healthy children than have to take care of them here. For that reason it's important that you remember the kitchen and the bathroom are two of the most dangerous and perhaps even deadly places in the home for a number of reasons. Burns are really near the top of that list. When there's a small child they should not be left unaccompanied in the kitchen particularly while cooking is going on or in the bathroom particularly when there is a tub full of hot water and the potential for tap water which could cause serious burns.

Host: Or curling irons.

Dr. Stephen Morris: Curling irons are all over the place. Treadmills are another danger in the home that people don't think about. Friction burns can happen basically instantaneously and you have to make sure that little children won't be sticking their hands under that whirring belt. We think about treadmills making us healthy, but they can also hurt us.

Host: You don't think of burns coming from a friction burn. That's a great point. What are some sources of friction burns that you might want to watch out for?

Dr. Stephen Morris: Well, I think that certainly treadmills are something that we see a lot of, bicycles, motorcycles, any place where there is a very rapidly moving object near a not so rapidly moving kid, that's danger.

Host: What other causes of burns have you seen here that might surprise a regular person?

Dr. Stephen Morris: I think most people think about fireworks, barbeques and fire pits. Despite the fact that everybody knows about it we still see little kids that are injured. I suspect probably a good rule of thumb is when you're around dangerous environments like that a kid under the age of two ought to be attached to an adult.

Host: What's the one take home that you would offer to our listeners at this point?

Dr. Stephen Morris: Many things in our lives we take for granted, such as a boiling pot of water or the radiator of a car, but a second or two tipping that pot of water or popping the radiator cap off can change your life unalterably forever, so always be aware.

Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation and medicine. This is The Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.