Interview With Dr. Christopher Geary About Big Ben's Injury

Mark Barron of the St. Louis Rams sacked Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on Sunday afternoon causing Big Ben to go down and Steeler Nation to go into complete panic mode. Around the time that Roethlisberger was carted off the field, I saw this tweet from Dr. Christopher Geary, Orthopedic Surgeon and Chief of Sports Medicine at Tufts University Medical Center.

While Roethlisberger has an MCL injury to his left knee, multiple reports suggest that the franchise QB will miss approximately 6 weeks, a big difference than being out for the season. Therefore, I reached out to Dr. Geary for his thoughts on the initial tweet and the Big Ben's current diagnosis.

Please tell me and my readers about yourself. How did you get into medicine and decide on your specialty?

I kind of always figured I would go into orthopedics and I really enjoyed it in medical school. And I had played sports my whole life (including playing rugby right through medical school), so sports medicine was a natural choice for me.

You made some waves on Twitter on Sunday by writing that Ben Roethlisberger's season was over. How did you come to this assessment?

Is it difficult to make a medical diagnosis by seeing an injury on television?

At Monday's press conference, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said that there is no timetable for Big Ben's return; however, many sources estimate that he will miss 4-6 weeks. Any new thoughts about this based on your initial tweet? (Sean's note: I combined all of these questions together since Dr. Geary provided this response to all three questions at once.)

As an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and also a huge sports fan (mostly Boston, obviously), I watch games for enjoyment but I can't help but be on the lookout for injuries as they happen. Making diagnoses based on what you see on TV is fraught with difficulty - I was actually watching the replays of Roethlisberger's injury on an 8-inch screen while riding an exercise bike at a hotel gym - but you can usually get something of an idea based on the mechanism of injury and the player/trainers reactions.

My initial tweet about his injury was to Scott Zolak, and I actually referenced a bad MCL injury as my first thought but obviously my subsequent tweets got more play. My thoughts were that if he had an ACL/MCL or a fibula fracture that his season would be over - thankfully for the Steelers this isn't the case. It's tough to say when he will be back - it could be anywhere from 4-8 weeks based on what I have seen in my patients. It will depend on how quickly he is able to move without pain and regain his range of motion - MCL injuries do tend to get stiff. He has the advantage of having a great training staff available to work with him every day, so his recovery may be on the short end.

In looking at your timeline, I didn't see any tweets from you to Scott Zolak, only the one that stated "Most likely an ACL/MCL for Roethlisberger-other possibility is a high fibula fracture w/ syndesmosis injury. Either way, season over."

You're right - I went back and checked and that Tweet either never went through or got deleted. It did exist at some point, though - you'll have to take my word on that even though I'm a Pats fan...


I really appreciate Dr. Geary's quick responses to my questions. We both spent time in San Diego (Dr. Geary mentioned that "San Diego was amazing" and that he "would move back there in a heartbeat if it wasn't so damn expensive." I agree!) and are obviously sports fans. He also was a good sport about this question.

Finally, your Twitter profile picture shows you shirtless. Does this make you the Dr. McDreamy of Tufts Medical Center?

I hate Grey's Anatomy.

Please make sure to follow Dr. Geary on Twitter and you can see his complete bio on the Tufts Medical Center website.

New Dad Take Two

You may have noticed that I haven't written much recently. I also haven't shaved in a week (or kept up with personal hygiene in general), slept as much as I would like (though I did manage to sleep through most of the first two Penguins playoff games) or have had much interaction with the outside world. I have a really good reason though. My second child arrived! Here are some observations about the experience. Enjoy!

- There is an added degree of difficulty when preparing to go to the hospital to give birth when you have a 3 year-old at home. We wanted to give our son a bath and put on his pajamas before we went to the hospital, but my son didn't feel the urgency of the situation. Sure, going potty hadn't been a priority for him, but yes, tell us that you want to use the toilet as my wife is having contractions. I gave him two minutes on the potty. When he didn't go in those two minutes, I immediately put him in the bathtub where he promptly urinated in the bathtub.

- Although I packed a bag for the hospital, I managed to forget several key items including deodorant. Conversely, the one item I managed to grab before we left was a bag of Rold Gold pretzels. Brilliant move as I had a rushed dinner and the hospital cafeteria was closed when I was hungry in the middle of the night. Therefore, I'd like to thank Rold Gold and propose a new slogan for their brand. "Rold Gold: The snack you want when you're waiting for your wife to give birth."

- 22 year-old me would have been excited by the amount of texts I received around 2:30 AM. Of course, 22 year-old me didn't have have a cell phone. (Plus, I'm not sure texting was even around back.)

- Nurses regularly asked the pain level on a scale between 0 to 10. One of the nurses explained that 10 would be like getting your arm cut off. Why use that as your pain threshold? How many people have had their arms cut off? Besides, it didn't seem that bad in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.



- Although there was some initial concern about my son not crying much, he has certainly proved that he can scream extremely loudly. For example, I have no idea how my 3 year-old slept through my newborn's Exorcist-like screams the other night. Of course, the oldest son managed to wake up (and wake me up) at 4:30 even though it was quiet and everyone was asleep.

- I ended up wearing the exact same clothing including shoes from 7:00 AM Wednesday through 4:30 PM Thursday.

- While I'm not going to share my child's name here, I thought I would tell you his Hebrew name: Pedro Tulowitzki after two members of my rotisserie/fantasy baseball team. Those are both Old Testament names, right?

- Is there a doctor out there named Billy Rubin that specifically works with patients with jaundice? Seems like type-casting.

- The hospital encouraged us to watch a video where they prominently showed women's breasts. Encouraged us! I think this might be illegal in some states.

- When I watched Grey's Anatomy in the early years, it seemed like medical staff hooked up nearly everywhere in the hospital. However, I don't think there were any scenes of doctors, nurses or interns getting together on a sleeper chair.

- Yes, that's a nice way of writing that I hope that I never have to "sleep" on Hill-Rom sleeper chair again.

- The company that makes hospital receiving blankets must be super-rich. They have a monopoly on the market.

- Is there a class in medical or nursing school where you learn how to easily and properly swaddle infants? I feel like that's a requirement for graduation.

I'm sure that I'll share more stories soon about being a dad again, but first, I need some sleep.

Things I Learned Being Home

With the exception of trips to the hospital, doctors’ offices and the rare excursions to grocery stores, I spent most of the past three weeks at home. Therefore, I thought I would share my experiences at home as well as some additional notes from my first few weeks of being a father. (This is basically part two from last week's post.)

- There’s not a worse TV talk show on the air than the Rachael Ray Show. She is painfully annoying. I’d much rather watch two hours (maybe even two consecutive days!) of The View than two minutes of Rachael Ray.

- Speaking of painfully annoying, let’s talk about Bravo. I remember watching Bravo for West Wing reruns, but now, the station is all about Housewives or a former Housewife, Bethenny Frankel. If those programs aren’t airing, the station shows some type of talk show where the housewives talk about the episodes with some random guy who appears to be an executive producer for the shows and/or network. The only way to make the network worse would be to start showing the Rachael Ray Show or have Rachael Ray host the housewives shows.

- The local ABC station, WJLA, sponsored the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade with promos that included information about Grand Marshall “Brick” from The Middle. I love the fact that the ads never mentioned the actor’s name, Atticus Shaffer, only the character’s name. Did any parade ever say that the grand marshall was Webster instead of Emmanuel Lewis?



- It is so much easier to feed the cat and change the litter box than it is to feed and change the baby.

- Speaking of our cat, I’ve received several questions about how ZIggy is doing with the new baby. On the negative side, Ziggy was overfed when we were in the hospital and gained some weight. Then, I don’t think he was happy about being locked out of several rooms being used by either the baby or guests. Now that things are back to normal (with the exception of the new baby), Ziggy is doing fine. He keeps a safe distance from the baby but is comfortable being in the same room as him if we are there too. Overall, Ziggy is doing just fine.



- I spent time at two hospitals recently, and I didn’t see any doctors or nurses sneaking into rooms together or even flirting with each other. Television shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and even ER always featured "relationships" among employees. I think something might be wrong in the hospitals we visited.

- I am one of those people turns on the air conditioning only when I know that I won’t be using heat for the rest of the season. With the temperature bouncing up and down, however, I’ve switched back and forth between heat and air conditioning recently because I want to make sure that the baby isn’t hot or cold. I hate doing this.

- I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of time walking around the house wearing a burp cloth on my shoulder. It’s quite the fashion statement!

- I am a sucker for VH1 countdown shows. The newest show was the top 40 one-hit wonders of the 1990s. I think they made this show just for me. Anyway, I agree with the selection of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back for #1 and the inclusion of The Macarena, Chumbawamba, Right Said Fred and Vanilla Ice in the top ten. However, the fact that "Rico Suave" was #3 is a travesty. VH1 should be ashamed of themselves for putting Gerardo that high. My only other complaint is Whoomp! There It Is at #40 on the list. 18 years after its debut, the song is currently featured in two commercials for diapers and cell phones. Tag Team deserved better.


(I completely forgot about the Free Mike Tyson shirt at 2:18 mark.)

- Except for walking up and down stairs, I have had no exercise over the past three weeks. Remarkably, I think I’ve lost a few pounds.

Back to life. Back to reality.

Friday Links and Other Thoughts

Can we make a rule that no one can call a 9-5 office after 4:00 on Fridays? Getting a business phone call at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon is just painful.

The guys at Hugging Harold Reynolds created a great list of comparisons of Food Network starts and NFL Quarterbacks.

While watching the Steelers game last night, I felt that Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive end Jonathan Fanene has an unfortunate last name.

On a similar topic of names, I’m including this Yahoo story about scientists finding the remains and grave of Copernicus. The reason? My seventh grade World History teacher sincerely pronounced his name Copper-nicus. In addition, Socrates was So-crates (like Crates and Barrel)

I applaud Yahoo for including Izzie Stevens of Grey’s Anatomy in its article about five TV characters they would love to kill off. The episode where she killed her "fiancé" was the last one I watched. Yes, I understand that admitting that I used to watch Grey’s Anatomy will significantly lower my gender analyzer score.

PSAMP found a video of Sidney Crosby juggling a soccer ball. It’s only 13 seconds, but I’m impressed.

Finally, there’s a DC Bloggers Happy Hour tonight at 8:00 in Adams Morgan. Arjewtino and Lemmonex have more information. Although I won’t be able to attend this one, I’m sure it will be fun.

Have a great weekend!

Seattle & Victoria Vacation

I’ve promised details about my vacation to the Seattle, Washington area and Victoria, British Columbia so this is it. I have also included a few pictures, but please bear with me as this was the first time I have ever used a digital camera. Yes, I know that it is 2008. I’ve also heard good things about this new VCR thing.

Before the pictures, I wanted to share a few notes:

- I’m a big fan of the Suquamish Clearwater Casino, especially the $3 blackjack tables. I finished up $11, which is a significant difference from Atlantic City last month. My favorite moment was when I hit on 15, got an 8 and then watched the dealer pay me after he busted on his final hand before a break. I noticed the mistake as did everyone else at the table and probably the new dealer who was about to start his shift, but no one said anything. I think it’s a rule that if the dealer makes a mistake in your favor, no one says anything.

- I’m also a big fan of taking a ferry into Seattle. What a neat way to commute with a snack bar, free wireless internet and much better views than Metro. Unfortunately, I worried that we might crash like the ferry did on Grey’s Anatomy (the episode when they should have killed off Meredith). Of course, on Grey’s Anatomy, the boat ran into a bridge. There were no bridges between Bainbridge Island and Seattle’s Pier 52.

- In Victoria, I happened to catch the beginning of Live with Regis and Kelly while flipping through stations. Although the show looked exactly the same as the American version and even had Kelly Ripa, Regis was replaced by Pat Sajak.

- Attending a session of British Columbia’s Parliament (the equivalent of a state legislature), even though it was only for a few minutes, was one of the unexpected highlights of the trip. I have no idea what they were talking about, but after a person spoke, the people in his or her party clapped and banged on the table. When a member of the opposite party spoke, they openly jeered. It was somewhat like Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK.

- If the Penguins were facing British Columbia’s own Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals and I happened to be at Parliament during that time, I would have risked ejection and possible arrest to yell Go Penguins.

- By the way, we received the Globe and Mail, "Canada’s National Newspaper," in our Victoria hotel room, which included predictions by the paper’s hockey experts. Roy MacGregor deserves credit for predicting that Ottawa would defeat Pittsburgh in seven games. Wonderful selection! In all seriousness, Matthew Sekeres deserves credit for predicting a Penguins sweep and Allan Maki and Tim Wharnsby both picked Pittsburgh in five games.

- If you ever go to Seattle, you must visit these stores: The Elliot Bay Book Company; Golden Age Collectables; and Metsker Maps of Seattle.

- World spiritual leaders seem to be following me. The Dalai Lama arrived in Seattle on Friday, April 11 while I was in the city and now the Pope is visiting Washington.

- The Dalai Lama did not throw out the first pitch of the Mariners-Angels game I attended. For some reason, I don’t think it would be his thing. Maybe he watched Naked Gun and is worried that Reggie Jackson may try to kill him.

- I did not have an Ichiroll at Safeco Field.

Seattle pictures:







Victoria Pictures:











This is an illegal picture from the Royal BC Museum. We almost got kicked out for taking a picture with a flash. I blame the camera!

Mariners Game Pictures:







On the way back to the hotel from the Mariners game, we saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile randomly parked in a Bellevue, Washington park and ride. A picture had to be taken.