Doctor’s Advice: Don’t Do That!

Joanne Halbrecht, MD

After 25 years of practicing orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, I have frequently seen injuries caused by the same activity. Here are a few:

1. Reaching in the back seat of your car.

Injury: Biceps tendon tear, Rotator cuff tear, Herniated cervical disc.

What may seem like a fairly innocuous activity can have disastrous consequences. The awkward activity of turning your head and stretching our arm backward puts stress on your neck, shoulder and arm.

A sudden pop in the shoulder followed by prominence of the biceps muscle (Popeye Sign) is an indication that the long head (there are 2, thus “bi”) has ruptured or torn. Depending on your age, this may require surgery to fix. Sudden onset of neck pain that radiates down the arm signals that a disc in the cervical spine or neck is now bulging and pressing against a nerve. Ouch! A tearing sensation in the shoulder followed by pain and difficulty lifting the arm overhead are classic for a rotator cuff tear.

So, if you need to get something that’s in the back seat, find a safe place to pull over, get out of your car, and retrieve it.

2. Jumping on a trampoline with more than one person.

Injury: Ankle sprain, fracture or the foot, ankle or femur.

New trampolines enclosed in netting have greatly reduced trampoline injuries. Unfortunately, the netting gives the user a false sense of security. More than one person on a trampoline frequently results in one person landing on another or one person bouncing the other in a direction they had not anticipated.

Ankle swelling and pain can indicate ankle sprain. A fracture is associated with the sudden sharp pain, bruising, swelling, and pain with weight bearing. In severe cases, there is a physical deformity. Sometimes, fractures are not very painful and require X-Ray for diagnosis.

Play it safe. Don’t jump on a trampoline with more than one person.

3. Performing manual labor that you are not accustomed to.

Injury: Bursitis, Rotator cuff tear, Tendonitis, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Cubital tunnel Syndrome.

If you’re avocation does not include painting houses, building decks or extensive landscaping, you may sustain an overuse injury if you try to tackle the job yourself.

Repetitive use of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand in painting, hammering or shoveling can cause pain due to inflammation of tendons and bursitis or even a tear in the rotator cuff. Numbness in the arm or hand can be a sign or carpal or cubital tunnel syndrome due to swelling around the nerves in the wrist or elbow.

Months of pain, activity restriction, physical therapy and possible surgery are not worth it. Hire a professional to do the job.

4.Taking a jump on a snowboard not knowing what’s on the other side.

Injury: Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) or Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) tear.

This injury is more common among expert snowboarders than beginners. Typical scenario-the boarder sees what looks like a sweet jump, then finds out that the landing is unexpectedly flat. The boarder leans back and the ACL tears or the boarder falls and tears either the ACL, MCL or both. That will get you a toboggan ride down the mountain.

It’s best to scout out a jump first, check out what the landing looks like, then take it on the next run when you’re prepared to react to the landing.

5. Age >40 and new workout routine that includes repetitive lunges, squats and/or leg presses.

Injury: Damage to patella (knee cap) cartilage.

It’s great to add new exercises to your workout or even better to make the commitment to get in shape. Unfortunately, our ageing knees don’t always cooperate with our desire to be active. As we age, the patella is the most common area for arthritis (worn cartilage). Those knees have been squatting, kneeling and going up and down stairs for 4 decades! Often, the arthritis is not painful until we engage in an activity that loads the patella such as lunges, squats and leg presses, particularly when the knee is bent more than 90 degrees.

There are other ways to strengthen the quadriceps that do not load the patella. In some cases, bending the knee less than 45 degrees may give the desired results without pain or further cartilage damage.

4. If it hurts, don’t do it.

Injury: Muscle tear, Tendon sprain, Stress fracture.

Muscle aches with working out are expected, but when you experience atypical sharp or unrelenting pain, don’t try to work through it. Stop and rest. If it does not resolve, seek medical attention.