Brian Grawe -- 11/13/25

Tony talks with Brian Grawe from NovaCare on ESPN 1530!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It is since E three sixty hour number three on
a Thursday afternoon, rolling right along on ESBN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station. Let's spend some time on the injury front,
and let's do so with a guest from our good
friends at Novacare. Brian Growie is joining us today on
behalf of Novacare and Brian, first of all, how are

(00:28):
you doing.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I am doing very well, Tony, thanks for having me today.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Absolutely, absolutely, the world of football, we are always seeing
injuries throughout the game, and we saw a pretty nasty
one with the injury to Jaydon Daniels a few games ago,
and got me thinking a little bit about something that
I've went through. I've fractured my arm twice when I

(00:52):
was at the University of Cincinnati. Let's talk a little
bit about dislocations or fractured dislocations and just what that
it looks like to a trainer when you initially get
that diagnosis.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Absolutely, it's one of those injury patterns that I would
say is fodder for clickbait. It always looks gruesome, and
you know, it's one of those things where you don't
want to look at it, but you also don't want
to look away when people end up injuring their joint
and dislocating it. The number one thing is trying to
get the joint back in place, and that's exactly what

(01:25):
you know athletic trainer or a physician is going to do.
On the sideline. Those ones that are the elbow fractures
and or dislocations, you know, they can come in different varieties.
You can either have a dislocation or you can have
a dislocation with a fracture, and typically those are going
to be the ones that we discuss getting reduced and
even sometimes needing surgery.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
When you think about not only the need for surgery,
but what else are you concerned with when you see
a dislocation, About that not only with the fracture itself,
but maybe what's around.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
That, You know, Tony, that's a great question in regards
to injury to any extremity, especially the dislocation. The first
and foremost thing, we want to make sure that the
patient has a pulse. Do they have an injury to
a neurovascular structure, because we want to make sure that
the patient gets sent to the right place at the

(02:20):
right time. Do we need to send them to the hospital.
Do they have an injury to an artery? Do they
have an injury to a nerve? Especially if you're traveling,
you know, as you know with collegiate or professional athletics,
those doctors and those athletic trainers could be on the
road and they may need to send them to an
outside hospital to be sure that the limb is okay.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So with Jade Daniels a couple of weeks ago, obviously
the worry is at first how gruesome it looks, and
then you're making sure to test the ligament damage. And
for Jadan Daniels did not have any ligaman damage, so
he avoided us season ending injury. Obviously, still going to
be out quite some time. But how different of a
rehab process, how much more severity are you adding if

(03:02):
there were ligament damage around that fracture?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, I mean when when guys dislocate their joints and
have ligament damage, typically that does occur. It's those fractures
that actually get a little bit more tricky in terms
of idiosyncrasies associated with do you need surgery? Do you
not need surgery? But thankfully, when guys have the dislocation
and do not end up with any sort of ligament

(03:26):
tos injury that would affect their position. You know, because
we're personalizing this with everybody, time and place. You know,
what's your position, what do you need to do to compete?
What do you need to do to compete at the
highest level. But I would say a good timeline associated
with the dislocation is first getting the range of motion
back over the next cup, over the first few weeks,

(03:48):
getting the swelling down, and then getting their strength back
over the next few weeks after that, and typically we're
looking at four to six weeks on on most dislocations
that do not require surgery.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
We're talking about getting back. I think one of the
unique things with injuries. There are some injuries that feel
like you run the risk of re injuring that same area,
and there are some injuries you're healed and you never
think about it again. When you talk about a fracture,
you talk about something as we're discussing here, is there
a inherent risk at suffering some type of re injury

(04:21):
at some point?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, that's another great question when we look at guys
that play contact sports like football, because you know they're basically,
you know, getting into a car accident multiple times during
a game, and they're putting their bodies at risk. When
we're talking about fractures, I think we usually try to
diconomize them between you know, weight bearing and non weight bearing.

(04:45):
You know, is it part of your extremity that you're
running on or is this more a situation where it's
a smaller bone like a finger. And I think all
of them run the risk of being reinjured, and then
I think it just depends upon, you know, risk to
the layer and what they're willing to undergo to get
back onto the field. But you see it all the time.

(05:05):
Guys they break their collarbone, they go back too soon
and then they rebreak it. Well, we see guys with
a fibula fracture down at their foot or ankle area
and they break that and then they're back in six
weeks and they're good to go. So we try to
personalize it again based upon sort of the what the
risk is and then what does that mean if they

(05:26):
rebreak it, does that mean then they're going to need
surgery and then they're going to be out the season.
So it's a balance.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
I know there are some injuries that you take on
and you can maybe even play before you're back to
one hundred percent. You could pad it up, you could
play with some type of brace, depending on obviously where
the fracture or the dislocation would happen. Is this the
type of injury that you could protect in a certain

(05:52):
way and get back for a quarterback, Let's let's say
a right handed quarterback that that hurts his left arm,
or are you making sure it's it's one hundred soend
healthy before you're getting back out there.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
So, in my opinion and in my experience, I would say,
especially with these higher level athletes, that when you get
into the NFL, they want to be out there. A
lot of these guys just love playing the game and
it's what they've dreamed of doing and are really trying
to be aggressive about trying to get back on the field.
And even in the all the way down to the
high school athletes, you know, sometimes as medical professionals, the

(06:26):
athletic trainers and the doctors, you know, we're protecting them
from their cells, from themselves as much as anything else.
In regards specifically to an elbow injury like that that
you're describing, I would say, you know, even in the
throwing arm. They would be a pretty low likelihood that
you would redislocate it once it kind of heals up
over the first couple of weeks. So as long as

(06:47):
they can compete in their position and protect and protect
themselves out on the field, I would be pretty bullish
about about getting that quarterback back onto the field.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Awesome stuff, man, Brian, this was so helpful for us.
We can't thank you enough for your time. We appreciate
certainly the University of Cincinnati and Novacare, and again, thank
you for your time. I look forward to catching up
again soon.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Thanks, Tony. Have a great day.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Absolutely, that is Brian growie with our good friends at Novacare.
From traveling to the game, walking to your seats, and
partaking in postgame celebration, your body can take a beating
from all the activity on game day. At Novacare Rehabilitation.
They understand how important it is for fans to be
there to root for their team. Through the power physical therapy,
you don't need to let aches, pains, or injury keep
you from the game. Find a center near you at

(07:35):
novacare dot com. Today we're moving right along cinty three
to sixty hour three on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports
station