Tommy John Surgery

Kind of like how a good number of readers don't know what ACL stands for. I get "ACL joint" all the time.

 

Okay, I just finished an experiment that should solve this debate. My fiance watches a lot of baseball, so she's heard of Tommy John Surgery. But when I asked her what it was, she wasn't able to give specifics. To her, it's just something a pitcher has done to their throwing arm. I got similar responses from a few ladies at our lifestyles desk.

This data tells me that it's best to give a brief explanation of what Tommy John Surgery is. I would say Doc Andrews preformed ligament replacement surgery on XXXXX XXXXXX's throwing elbow — a procedure best known as Tommy John Surgery. Then possibly give a brief description of the surgery preformed and the projected recovery time.

 

Since this discussion appears to be devoted solely to nitpicking, here's one: They no longer use cadavers for the transplant. They use a redundant tendon that runs from the wrist to the forearm. Roughly 20 percent of the population doesn't have this tendon, though, so they go to the achilles/calf area to harvest another redundant tendon. Interactive fun: Press your thumb and pinky together and look at the inside of your wrist. If a tendon pops out at you, congratulations -- you are among the 80 percent who can have the least invasive Tommy John procedure.

 

The tendon in the wrist is called the palmaris, while the one in the calf is the plantaris. The plantaris tendon is prone to rupture and patients routinely come in saying they felt or heard a pop or snap in the back of their calf while taking ajump shot. There is immediate pain and mild swelling but it gradually resolves. The big worry is whether the achilles tendon is intact or ruptured.

 

An aside: The LSU softball coach referred to one of her pitchers having Tammy Jane surgery.

 

I can beat that one.

A few years ago covering the local minor league outfit, a pitcher fresh out of Venezuela developed arm trouble. He walked up to me, tapped his elbow and said, "Me, Papa John."

This became habit as he would inform everyone of his pending Papa John surgery.

 

I could go for some of that surgery.