Not all medical professionals are best suited to do a sports physical for your child. Dr. J. Michael Bennett talks with Dr. Terence Chang about sports physicals for children in this interview. If you’d like to schedule a sports physical for your child with Dr. Bennett, please call our office at 281-633-8600.
This is a transcript of a Dr. Jay Show broadcast on 1560TheGame in Houston, TX. Dr. J. Michael Bennett is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and a Fellowship Trained Sports Medicine Physician serving patients from Katy, Fort Bend County, Metro Houston and Southeast Texas from offices in Houston, near the Houston Galleria and in Sugar Land, near First Colony Mall. Call 281-633-8600 for an appointment.
Our special guest is Dr. Terence Chang, a family practice physician Board Certified in Sports Medicine from Physicians at Sugar Creek in Sugar Land, TX. Bob Lewis, from 1560TheGame, is also participating.
Here’s the transcript of the sixth portion of the Show:
DR. J. MICHAEL BENNETT: If you’re just tuning in, what we’ve been talking about today is that really every athlete that’s out there playing needs a physical exam. And you have to make sure that the doctor that is doing the exam is an MD and has experience listening to murmurs and abnormalities and things like that. There’s some places, some other states actually, I think they have other health care providers doing these things but for me and my situation, I wouldn’t want an orthopedic surgeon clearing me in my cardiac and lung exam.
BOB LEWIS: Or the nurse.
DR. BENNETT: I think that there are probably some nurses out there that are doing some clearances too and you just want to make sure they’re qualified. I mean if it’s a cardiac nurse that trained specifically with those issues then probably they’re okay. But if there’s somebody that just doesn’t have the background or the experience, you’ve just got to be careful. And if you have any questions about it, that’s something that needs to be brought up. I mean you always have the right to ask whoever’s doing your exam, “What’s your experience with this?” And always make sure, once again, that the parents are recording every single little bit of that family history if there’s a cardiac issue or anything like that.
And Dr. Chang I wanted you to go over with me right now if you’re a parent out there, and you’ve got your kid, and I mean a lot of kids are going to run and they’re going to play and they may look like they’re out of breath and they may have some dizziness or whatever, when do they need to see a physician about their symptoms and when do you think there’s something to take seriously? Do you look for the dizziness aspect? Do you look for some discoloration maybe in their lips? What particularly would you recommend, just a take home message to the parents out there about when they need to take their kid in to have them looked at.
DR. TERENCE CHANG: Like you said, education is key, so knowing the signs and symptoms of what to look out for is most important. So in the physical, the things that we look for are whether or not the athlete has been passing out, especially with exercise, whether or not they’ve had chest pain, shortness of breath, tightness in their chest, whether or not it feels like they have a skipped beat. Now a lot of the kids they can’t really describe that but they’ve said that they just feel funny, and sometimes the kids will actually say that they have belly aches when in fact they’re actually talking about their chest or their heart because they just kind of don’t really know how to verbalize it. We’re also looking at if they’ve had a history of lightheadedness, or if there’s any unexplained seizures. If, for example, they’ve had seizures and they’ve gone to see a neurologist and the neurologist has said, “No, your brain’s okay,” the link there may be that the heart is not actually delivering enough oxygen to the brain and so the brain starts sending out a bunch of electrical charges and it makes someone look like they have seizures. So being able to connect those dots is very important. Sometimes if you’re just not sure, there’s never any harm in just visiting a doctor and asking those questions.
DR. BENNETT: I think you’re right and have a great point because a lot of times, I mean, if you’re dealing with little league and you’re dealing with kids in that age range, they really don’t know how to verbalize those things. It’s kind of like veterinary medicine and pediatrics, it’s kind of like you’ve got to look at how the kid’s verbalizing it to you to determine what they mean. You know if my kid tells me, “Oh, I’m coughing, I’m coughing,” sometimes that means that they’re about to throw up. So you kind of have to interpret that.
BOB LEWIS: Also you have the heat issue in Houston or Texas. How do you know whether it’s heat related or heart related? I guess either way you’d get it checked out. I mean if it’s 3 o’clock and you’re out there in 100 degrees playing football with all the gear on, I mean, seems to me that you’re going to be light headed anyway.
DR. BENNETT: That’s actually a huge topic. The whole heat stroke and heat illness and dehydration issues are going to be a show that we’re going to do. We’re going to have Dr. Chang on here again and we’re going to talk about that for the whole hour because that’s a big deal here in Texas.
So anyway, this is basically it for the show today and we appreciate you guys tuning in, this is Saturdays with Dr. Jay, this is Dr. Terrence Chang with us from the Physicians of Sugar Creek and we’re definitely going to have him back here to talk about some other issues. Once again we’ll be back next Saturday, 9 to 10 a.m. on 1560 The Game; make sure you tune in. We’re out of here. Thanks.
If you’d like to schedule a sports physical examination for your child with Dr. Bennett, please call our office at 281-633-8600.
