Pity the poor toe. The abuse these toes take. They’re made to kick things, they’re squished into shoes that are too tight, and the often get smashed into door jambs, table legs, or goodness knows what else.
When my now-20-year-old daughter was three months old, I broke the small toe on my right foot. My husband and I were going out for dinner for the first time since her birth and being home with her and my then-2-year old was driving me nuts. So, we found a trusted sitter and we were going to go out.
While we were waiting for her …read more

We hear it all the time: women should go for bone density tests to see if they’re at risk for developing osteoporosis (thinning of the bone). But – what exactly is a bone density test? How is it done? Does it hurt? How long does it take? How often is it done? What does it tell you?
Those are just some of the questions many men and women have about bone density tests and often they remain unanswered. Did you know that not just women should have the test, but men over the age of 70 should too? And that both …read more

Several years ago, I stepped half on the sidewalk, half off. What resulted was a very hard fall and a very, very painful ankle. I had hurt this ankle before. When I was one day before my due date with my first child, I fell and sprained my ankle so badly, everyone thought it was broken (Imagine a 9-month pregnant woman on crutches!). This fall felt even worse.
Off to the hospital for an x-ray and the doctor in emergency said she thought it was broken, but she wasn’t sure, so she sent me home with just an ace bandage and …read more

Just writing those words make me wince. On Sunday afternoon’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins, forward Robert Lang took an innocent-looking hit but just after the fall, another player’s skate cut into Lang’s Achilles tendon, the tendon that connect the heel bone to the calf muscles.
It’s a painful injury and without the tendon to control your heel, you can’t walk. Lang has had surgery that’s been reported to be a success. Let’s  hope so, because if you’re a Habs fan, you know that Lang is desperately needed right now!
Here are some resources for you on the …read more

Injured in action is a term that we think of when troops are injured while fighting, but we also know that other injuries happen, such as car accidents and every day injuries that can happen anywhere.
Orthopedic injuries, particularly to the back and knees are turning out to be particularly troublesome for the U. S. army as the troops carry heavy combat equipment that protect their body from injury. The accumulated weight of the armor, including helmet, is up to 35 pounds. Once you add weapons, ammunition, water, food and communications gear, this range from 97 to 135 pounds. The recommended …read more

I don’t think it’s a particularly startling finding, but it is interesting nonetheless. When it comes to shoulder injuries in teen athletes, boys outnumber girls considerably and the injuries are three times more likely to happen during competitions rather than in practices. Sports like wrestling, baseball, and football account for the highest number of shoulder injuries.
The statistics were obtained by studying soccer (boys and girls), volleyball (boys and girls), basketball (boys and girls), football, baseball, and softball.
Strains and sprains make up 37% of the shoulder injuries, dislocations 24%, bruises and scrapes 12%, and fractures 7%. Six percent of all …read more

Regular readers here know that I often come across studies that make me say, "What the heck were they thinking when they proposed this topic and how the heck did they get funding for it??" (but with stronger language, often)
Here’s another one: A study, published in Arthritis & Rheumatism (Arthritis Care & Research), found found that when patients had better outcomes from surgery if they agreed with their surgeons about the importance and benefits of undergoing a knee replacement.
Ok, so now I have images of patients being dragged kicking and screaming into the operating room as their doctors prepare to …read more

If you’ve ever heard of Hans Brinker or read the story, you’ll know that the Dutch love their ice skating. But, with the weather changes over the past few decades, skating on the canals – which was once a popular past time – has been much less frequent than usual. Until this year.
Winter has returned strong enough to freeze the canals, allowing the people of the Netherlands to once again don their skates and zoom around on the ice as they did generations before. There’s just one problem. They’re out of practice!
According to this article, Dutch skaters a little rusty, …read more

Weak or thin bones increase the chances of injury if you fall. The most commonly known scenario is that of an older lady who falls and breaks a hip or who has a "dowager’s hump" because of bone breakdown in her upper spine.
It’s known that brittle or thinning bones often has their root in a diet – of years before – too low on calcium and vitamin D, but it can be caused by other things. For example, if you have a disease or long-term illness that forces you to take a steroid, like prednisone, you are at higher risk …read more

If you think hip surgeries are only for old people, think again. Twenty-six-year-old hockey player Marian Gaborik is going to have hip surgery today and will be out of service for at least 10 weeks, say news reports. Apparently, he had the same corrective surgery done already on his right hip.
The hip is a complicated joint. It’s a ball-and-socket joint that takes a tremendous amount of stress from body weight and movement. That’s why many people who have osteoarthritis, the so-called wear-and-tear arthritis, have it in their hip or hips.
I feel badly for Marian Gaborik. I know that he’s made …read more