Thursday Night Lights: Dr. Vessel on Foot & Ankle Injuries

[0:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=15s)) We are back at halftime on the Ortho Nebraska halftime show and as always we want to talk about health issues with the doctors. We have podiatrist Brett Vessel with us now and we’re going to talk about some common foot and ankle injuries. He is a podiatrist. What are some of the most common ones?
([0:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=34s)) Sure. Well, thanks for having me here, Bill. Um, we all know how much exercise can help both our mental and physical health, but unfortunately injuries can happen particularly to the foot and the ankle. We see a broad range of injuries spanning from toes all the way up to the ankle. Common injuries to the toes can include things like nail injuries, blisters, broken toes. Up to the foot, we commonly see stress fractures, nerve irritation, tendon problems, as well as heel pain, even common things like ankle sprains and Achilles injuries.
([1:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=65s)) And people make mistakes from now now and then on exercising and training. What are some of those?
([1:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=70s)) Sure. You know, even the most disciplined exerciser and athlete can get injuries. Um unfortunately we typically see injuries occur in two types of individuals. One who has drastically increased their exercise over a very short period of time without establishing a good base of fitness. The other is a very avid um fitness person who frankly doesn’t take enough rest or doesn’t alternate between crossing uh you know activities or crossraining which then leads to overuse injuries.
([1:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=101s)) Yeah. So you got them at both ends of the end zone, right? How do they know when they should come see you?
([1:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=105s)) Sure. Honestly, it’s never too early, right? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, if you will. Um, but patients who come in, we try to give them a detailed examination, a personalized one, ideally a specific diagnosis and treatment plan. Most treatment plans are very simple, mainly non-operative, and they can span anywhere from rest and and some anti-inflammation uh techniques to more uh robust uh things like physical therapy, sometimes injections, and on the on the rare occasions even surgery. But most importantly often is we can talk to patients about how to prevent injuries from recurring or prevent other injuries from happening from giving them some tips and tricks.
([2:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=145s)) All right, that sounds good. Thanks, Doc. We’re back on the Ortho Nebraska halftime show right after this.