Podcast 84: Dr. Jack and I are joined by a panel of tennis players (Part 4)
John : Well that was too easy..
Dr. Jack : Well it was real easy . And you know what? You can always just get a hold of me through the website which is fine. But everyone's had a little situation and what's good for Peter is not necessarily good for Paul-especially when it comes to injuries. You know, someone may have tendanitis , which is not a tendanosis, which is not a tendon tear. So a correct diagnosis is always paramount to the proper treatment..
John : Excellent, excellent. And I know what you mean about the court Doctors because anyone who has had tennis elbow will quickly learn that there 15 different silver bullet cures from fellow players.
Dr. Jack : And sure there is a lot of stuff out there and there is a lot of things that I have to use in my medical [inaudible] to treat someone based upon their severity; their duration of their injury; what I may see on a ultrasound. So there is a lot of different factors that come into play when it comes to treating someone . Are you going to give them an anti-inflammatory or is that not good because they have some sort of medical condition which would make that contra-indicative? Now there is topical anti-inflammatory jellies and patches, but if someone has a tendonosis where it's been a problem for months, then that's a waste of time–that's not going to work. You see people walking around with the tennis elbow bracelet, and that's relieving the pain but it's not really treating the problem , so there is a lot of things you have to consider before you make the cure-all statement. John : And do you recommend that people really take the time to inform themselves, rather than just looking for a quick, easy fix? Because it can be frustrating when you are hurt and you are off the court and can't seem to find the solution to your problems. Dr. Jack : Sure. I think if you go to a good sports medicine specialist, that you should be able to get right down to the proper diagnosis and get the treatment. I'm fortunate enough to have a [inaudible] ultrasound machine in my office, which is really- -I told Ian about this about a year ago as it's my new favorite toy because I can get the answer on a [inaudible] injury that you'd pretty much get from an MRI scanner, and I can do it right in my office without having to have aggravation of doing the referral, and getting insurance authorization, and having the patience to waste the time to go get the MRI and then come back for immediate review… And there's a lot of time lost with that. As opposed to being able to just come in to a good history; a good physical exam; and that will pretty much tell you –give you a 99% certainty of what's going on . Then you can do an ultrasound , and you can see whether or not its tendonosis or a tear, and then go ahead with your treatment. So it really helps expedite the whole process.
So if you can find someone who's well versed in these kind of things , that's really going to help your cause , and 3/5
you're not going to be tied down with all these ‘Ah, well somebody said to try this, or try that'. Or, you know: ‘Put this certain rudiment on my elbow and it's going to heal it up in no time. ‘ Or ‘sleep with six clover leaves under my ear' and [inaudible] Ian : [laughter]
Dr. Jack : You know, because you hear all kinds of things! But if you just get to a good specialist , then they can figure out what's wrong with you, and they can get you treated and on the way, and it will really help. And sometimes there's–you just have a problem that's going to take awhile. Sometimes it's just [inaudible] of time, and you do have to shut down for awhile. I'll never tell anyone to stop playing; in fact I had a patient that I saw just this past week who came into the office to see me for his yearly physically, and I walked into the room and he had a big grin. He said: ‘You accomplished your goal!' I said: ‘What was that?' He said: ‘You got me back on the tennis court!' And that he had had some arthritis in his hip, and was just really debilitating him, and he stopped playing tennis , and I said: ‘Why aren't you… Why aren't you playing anymore?' Why did you stop?' He said: ‘My hip's killing me!' I said: ‘Well, we got to get after that. That's not an acceptable response.' He went through a series of about five [inaudible] injections in his hip, And now he's 90% better , and he played most of this summer, and he's happy as a clam! So you just have to somebody who's going to be on the same philosophical page with you, and really be a , you know, be a sports nut, kind of like myself, who is willing to get you back into the game –provided that it's safe for you to go back. There's people that will blow out there ACL and want to go skiing next week , and I say: ‘Well you know, that's just not going to happen.' So you always have to be reasonable about things also.
Ian : Good stuff. Anything else John to follow up with that?
John : No, that's about as thorough an answer as I could expect, so thank you Dr. Jack. Dr. Jack : Sure! it's my pleasure. Ian : Alright. Great stuff. We're going to wrap up the show with that, and I first off want to thank very much our question asking panelists: John, Joe, Angie , and Royce. Thank you guys so much for spending time with myself and Dr. Jack. We really appreciate it, and I'm sure our listeners appreciate it very much as well. Especially those who may have had some of the same questions or same problems. This information will be very helpful to them.
And of course thank you Dr. Jack as well for coming on the show. Great to have you here as always, and I look forward to having you back on the show again soon.
Dr. Jack : Yeah. It was a great time . I really enjoyed it! Thanks everyone for joining in asking the questions. It was really a lot of fun, and I would just ask when you guys write questions to me on the form, you know, when you have your injuries, try to give me as much information as possible. Things that are really important are: how long have you had the problem . Be as specific as you can as to where the pain is. What causes it; what makes it better ; and that really helps me out. Some of you have asked me really questions, and I think we've been able to narrow down some problems , and it's been a lot of fun for me. Ian : Yeah, everybody listening, if you have any specific injury questions–or anything having to do with sports medicine–Dr. Jack has his own section of the forums. Just go to essentialtennis.com . Click on Forum. You'll see 4/5
his own section listed there. People ask him questions all the time, and Dr. Jack is kind enough to spend time there as well answering questions from listeners. [music] So Dr. Jack, thanks again, and take care. I'll talk to you soon. Dr. Jack : Alright, thanks for having me.
[music] [music]
Ian : Alright, that brings Episode #84 of the Essential Tennis Podcast to a close. Thank you very much for joining me today, and again, thank you to my guests on the show this week : Dr. Jack as well as our panelists. In wrapping up today's episode, I want to do a couple of shout-outs and kind of recognitions here of members of the Essential Tennis forums as well as one other person. As people continue to listen to this show, and participate in the forums, and other t hings that Essential Tennis does, they continue to improve. That's really the whole point of the show and the website. It's for people to get better at tennis . So I want to share a couple of success stories here.
First of all, Brian in Nebraska, he first joined the forums when.. . He was having some mental tennis issues, and had really never won a singles match before. This was several months ago.
Well, for the first time in his life, he not only just won a tennis match, but he double-bageled his opponent. He won 6-0, 6-0 , which absolutely takes a great deal of concentration a nd mental toughness. So I wanted to say good job to Brian.
Also, I want to give a shout out to Rob, who lives in the U. K. He wrote on the forums and said: ‘You may have read my previous posts about the set I won off a friend, who I couldn't win against come hell or high water . Well today I didn't just win one set– I won in straight sets! I feel as though my consistency is improving greatly thanks to all of you guys who have been giving me help. Especially Ian with the podcast and mental toughness in avoiding choking. Thanks guys. Great job, Rob! Excellent work. And very encouraging to hear that this is somebody that he's played many, many times , and hadn't even taken a set from, and just beat in straight sets. That's awesome. One more person, and that's Bibi , who just won her first tournament. It was a mixed 3.0/3. 5 tournament put on by the city where she lives . It wasn't a USTA tournament, so she doesn't feel like it'syou know, it's quite official quote unquote. But still awesome that she was able to get out there and play other competitive players around her level and come away with first place. So that's great! One more person. And this person is not on the forums, but I want to give him a ‘thank you.' His name is Andrew Yoder in North Carolina. I did a racket giveaway about a week or two ago, and it turns out there were two Andrew Yoders who entered into that Babalot racket giveaway. And the Andrew Yoder in North Carolina was kind enough to withdraw. And could have really been in trouble since there were two Andrew Yoders with the exact same name who had actually entered, and there was some confusion there.
But he was kind enough to withdraw his name , and I'm going to be sending him some strings for his kindness. And congrats to Andrew Yoder in Ohio, who actually won the racket.
Alright. That does it for this weeks. Thanks very much for tuning in everybody. Take care, and good luck with your tennis!
