Coming back from injury: prehab, patient rehab and the long road back
Joey Diaz credits prehab before knee surgery, Tom Segura calls a serious injury his turning point, Tony Hawk rebuilt after a broken femur, Travis Barker came through thirty surgeries, and Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, David Blaine and fighter Ethyn Ewing describe their own rehab. Their stories agree that the work before and after the operation decides the result, and that setbacks during recovery are normal.
What decides the result of a comeback from injury, according to these accounts? Show answer
What the person does in the weeks before the operation and the months after it, more than the operation or accident itself.
Why does Joey Diaz say his second knee surgery went better than his first? Show answer
He prepared for it, with pre-surgery strengthening and a supplement regimen from his health advisor, then did physical therapy.
What did Tom Segura's physical therapist predict about his rehab? Show answer
That he would end up in the best shape of his life, because he would be so focused on rehab and feel better for doing it.
What was Tony Hawk's false start? Show answer
He ignored professional advice and skated on his broken femur. Seven or eight months later X-rays showed a non-union fracture, a bone that had never connected.
What finally healed Hawk's femur? Show answer
A specialist reset the bone and ordered two months without movement, which he obeyed, followed by work with a doctor of physical therapy.
How did Colin O'Brady's rehab begin after severe burns? Show answer
His mother set a kitchen chair one step from his wheelchair. Reaching it took three hours, and the goal grew to five steps, then ten.
What did returning early cost Russell Crowe? Show answer
He boxed ten rounds 21 days after shoulder surgery, and his doctor's warning of severe arthritis later proved right.
Why does the article say the rest versus movement disagreement cannot be settled without a diagnosis? Show answer
The cases are different injuries: a disc problem that eased with activity, a fracture that needed to knit, and a blood clot.
What pattern does the article find in defying doctors? Show answer
Defiance worked against predictions about the long-term ceiling, pursued through graded rehab. It failed against instructions about healing time.
What did Bert Sorin's ignored ankle injury turn out to be? Show answer
A blood clot running from his knee to his hip. His doctor later told him he should not have survived.
What does David Blaine admit about food and his injured shoulder? Show answer
When he eats perfectly his inflammation and pain largely disappear, but the injury became his excuse to stop eating well.
What limit does the article place on the treatments the speakers credit? Show answer
They are testimony, not controlled evidence. Rogan himself says he cannot isolate which of his treatments worked.