Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Welcome to Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios! Get ready to dive into a world where safety meets storytelling! Drawing from his rich background as a former firefighter, EMT and safety expert, Jimmy brings you straight into the heart of safety and emergency preparedness. Episodes feature easy-to-understand tips, real-life stories, and interviews with experts, all designed to help you protect yourself, your business, and those you care about.
Whether it's advice on navigating everyday safety challenges or insights into the latest in health and safety trends, let this podcast educate and entertain you. Join Jimmy and level-up your safety knowledge with engaging discussions that could one day save a life.
Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
We Were Athletes… Until That One Injury
We all like to think we can bounce back from anything—but sometimes our bodies have other plans for us. In this episode, we’re swapping stories about the injuries that taught us the hard way how important it is to rest, recover, and know your limits. From a high school football game that ended with a torn rotator cuff, to a wrestling match gone wrong, and a rollerblade trick that backfired—this episode is full of moments where we probably should have rode the bench.
Along the way, we’ll break down the basics of what to do when something pops, swells, or locks up—like how to sling a shoulder with a hoodie, what not to do with a jammed finger (seriously, don’t yank it), and why ignoring a sore knee could sideline you for months. Whether you’ve got kids in sports, a body that isn’t as invincible as it used to be, or you just enjoy hearing our painful lessons of what not to do with an injury, this episode is for you.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
Hey, what's happening? It's Jimmy and your girl Mags. Hello.
Megan :Hi Hi.
Jimmy:You gotta talk. I got Megan all fired up, bringing out my heated athleticism what is an athlete, what's not an athlete conversation? We're not going to tell you what we were arguing about. Yeah, we had to wake her up this morning. So we are going to talk about athletic injuries. Some I've had, some I've seen and just kind of had to respond to them. So what you know you wouldn't look. You know you really can't tell. If I look at me anymore I'm more pear-shaped than V-shaped, but when I was younger I was definitely. I think I am still athletic, for you know who I am and you know what my body type looks like. Now I'm not the athlete that I used to be for sure. Now I'm not the athlete that I used to be for sure, but growing up I played lots of sports, primarily football. Growing up, a little bit of martial arts, growing up.
Jimmy:And as I got older I transitioned to like most fellas, I would say, got into golf and those kind of things, and I actually stopped playing football because of my shoulder injury. And I guess we'll start there, okay, my shoulder injury. I tackled somebody on a kickoff and I tackled this really large human and I dislocated my shoulder and my shoulder popped out and I had basically three of the rotator cuff muscles torn.
Megan :Oh fun.
Jimmy:A nd I was still being recruited heavily to play football and I knew the recruiters was in the stands so I actually at halftime went in and they put it back into place. And you know, at the time I was young and dumb and different, just time in life where athletics were a big deal and the coaches just wanted to win. They didn't really totally care about the kids. I mean, my coaches cared about me and I'm actually in touch with the head coach still through social media. It's kind of cool. But he his wife was the trainer and he was just like you going to play and I was like, yep, they put it back in and I would have played.
Jimmy:Crazy, probably should have done that To this day I would have played Crazy. Probably should have done that.
Megan :To this day, I still have, I would argue, definitely shouldn't have done that.
Jimmy:Definitely not, definitely not.
Jimmy:So yeah, I went and played and ended up destroying my shoulder, and now I don't get to play at all anymore, and I still wake up in the mornings, when it's cold and things like that, my shoulder locks up and it's hard to move still and it just kind of is what it is, mm-hmm. So shoulder, how do we treat shoulder? How do we respond to the shoulder injury? So the thing that I always tell people is you know, depending which way it's, you know, if the shoulder ball is out of the socket, the head of the shoulder bones out. Just don't put it back in. It's extremely painful. The muscles are going to tighten up around it and protect itself. It and protect itself. Mm-hmm. So sling it. So ace bandage or tally wrapped around the arm and the torso. A triangular bandage is best mm-hmm you can use a sweatshirt. I
Jimmy:actually my little brother's baseball game years ago I think the kid slid into third or was playing third base. I just remember it was at third base and the kid's shoulder kind of popped out back then and he was just sitting in the dugout just in crazy pain and I had walked up and I was like hey, hey, can I help you, kind of a thing. And he's like yeah, you know whatever. And I just took his sweater and I just took the sleeves and tied around his neck and stuck his arm into the torso part of the sweatshirt and used it as a triangular bandage. And he did and he was like man, I feel so much better mm much better.
Jimmy:I arm doesn't have to hold up that, so slinging it is huge. Uh, when I went through my ski patrol class, they taught us like seven different ways to do slings and splints for shoulders and all this stuff. I was like cool, like cool, why yeah?
Megan :I was always taught the swing and sling and swath. So you sling it and then you swath it like tie it down to the body, so it can't move from there, yeah.
Jimmy:And that's realistically all you really need to do for a shoulder injury.
Megan :Yeah.
Jimmy:And obviously calm down when it's needed. You're probably going to have to go to the emergency room.
Megan :You're gonna be sad, yeah did I ever tell you about my shoulder injury?
Megan :no I was on the wrestling team and we were doing just matches in practice and, um, to this day I don't know exactly what happened. I kind of blacked out, but um, I was, she was trying to pin me and I didn't want to be pinned and I kept my arm out to the side and she sort of flipped me over and just popped my shoulder out and my friend who's on the team she's still my friend to this day was on like the other side of the gym and heard it pop out and my coach was um a lot and she was like keep going, keep going. And the girl who was on top of me like felt my shoulder pop through my body and was very hesitant to keep going, but coach kept yelling finish it flipper. And so she kept going and I just kept rotating out, um, and then at that point I gave up and just flipped and got pinned because I was in so much pain, sure, and then I popped it back in myself because I have fun. Fact, I have a genetic disorder where I just kind of pop out. So it's not the end of the world and I've dislocated my shoulder before and popped it back in, but that was definitely the worst one, because normally when I pop out I stop and get it back in, but that time it kept going. There was like it wasn't just my body, it was somebody else's body weight forcing it um, and like nobody believed me because I wasn't like screaming in agony, but I was in a lot of pain and crying and um, and they were like you're fine, it's not dislocated. I was like no, it super is um.
Megan :And then I tore stuff. Obviously I don't know if that's obvious, but I tore stuff, um. And then, unfortunately, that was like two weeks before, uh, ccs, our championship game game, that's not the word match and so I was pulled from CCS, um, because I couldn't use my shoulder properly because there was a bunch of torn stuff in there. But yeah, and I I wish that I had not popped it back in myself and I wish I had gone to the doctor more than because I definitely waited a couple of days. And then I just still couldn't move my arm after a couple of days. And then I just still couldn't move my arm after a couple of days and I was like something's wrong, yeah, yeah.
Jimmy:I was um growing up I it was it went through a rollerblading phase that probably a lot of guys my age did, and you know know, because it was very similar to skiing, and so we were doing like freestyle skiing stuff on our rollerblades. Basically I was actually grinding a pipe that my buddy had made in front of this house and I fell off the pipe and dislocated my shoulder and my buddy actually yanked on it and put it back in. And while I was doing that, actually it called um another friend whose mom was a nurse and he's like let me call my mom, and mom was like, actually worked in an orthopedic office. So the doctor said I'll see, you just come in. And I got there and I, since my buddy pulled on it, he's like it's back in place, he's like, but you probably tore stuff and you know not a lot you can do at that point except for put it in the sling yeah so I was like, yeah, I shouldn't do that, so let's talk about.
Jimmy:You should probably talk about how do we know it's out. Well, the person will usually fill it, pop out and in yeah, right, and if you can imagine where your shoulder and your arm go together, that ball, that muscle mass, is going to be either towards your belly button or towards your back, or up or down, and it's usually going to be pretty obvious yeah right.
Jimmy:If you can actually fill the top of the collarbone right, the bone that goes across the top of your shoulder, you'll feel the v and it'll end. It'll point at the end of the shoulder joint and and if you feel that and you can't feel that there's a hole, there's just a ball of the shoulder head someplace you know, towards the tummy, towards the back, up or down, you should probably get it checked out. I get a lot of in sports with my kids and just around it's a lot of that. Is my finger dislocated, my finger broken? I don't know. I don't have x-ray vision. Those people don't. If you do, let me know. I hire you out for you know, birthday parties and sporting events. You know we'll make up some money but we look for is just like any kind of deformity, especially in the fingers. It's usually pretty obvious.
Jimmy:The thumb injuries are big because you have a lot of that big muscle and kind of stuff in your hand or palm. We had a kid coaching football my son's football team. He was 12 or 13 at the time and one of the kids came over and he was like hey, I think I broke my thumb. The coach sent him over to me. I was kind of the de facto coach for injuries for the organization, which was cool. And he came over and I said, did you guys pull on it? And they were like no. And I was like yes, you did.
Jimmy:Everybody always pulls on thumbs and fingers and they feel like it's jammed or hurt and they're like, yeah, we jammed it, we pulled on it and I said okay, and I wanted to know, because the way it was, the discoloration was happening and I was like this doesn't look right and it was kind of off at an angle and so it definitely was not in the socket. And where the happening is is when they pulled on it and there was a small hairline crack in the small little bone and when they yanked on it it broke more yeah and they made them kind of practice with it.
Jimmy:Oh, they're like it's just your thumb, it's just a jam thumb, it's just a jam finger, don't worry about it. And we moved it around, it broke. More so, the socket the u part of the socket of the thumb actually was for lack of a better word destroyed. So we had this 10-year-old boy with a thumb that was basically useless and he ended up being in a cast for like 10 weeks or something like that for his full U-bone to go back.
Megan :I was going to say that sounds like he's out for the rest of the season at least.
Jimmy:He was definitely out. So don't yank on fingers that are jammed. You know, if you can move them, cool, if you don't, that's okay. Like, if you can't move it, it's probably a problem. Go get it checked out, um, let the doctor x-ray and make sure there's no things in there. Um, I'll like so with fingers. My son, he broke his finger pretty bad, his junior, sophomore year, sophomore year, jumping up and catching a football and he jammed his finger and, him being my kid, he yanked on it and put it back into place, of course, of course, and it ended up being the second bone in his fingertip.
Jimmy:So if you think of your, nail the first joint and that second bone before the middle joint, the big joint. That bone was broken and the only way to fix it was they had to pin it. And since he was an athlete and he was getting on in the baseball season, the doctor actually said well, since baseball season is starting, we'll put a cover on it so you can heal by itself. And it was broken so badly the split didn't help, it just didn't do anything. So they were like alright, it's not healing, let's put a pin in it. So they basically took a long crochet needle if you can imagine that and stuck that through his fingertip.
Megan :Exciting yeah.
Jimmy:So he watched around with a finger you know, this nail sticking out of his finger for about four weeks, Did he?
Megan :continue to play.
Jimmy:He wasn't able to play baseball because he couldn't fit in his glove.
Megan :Oh, okay, fair, fair, fair, and that was his catching hand.
Jimmy:So if he caught a ball or something, it hurt pretty bad yeah, and they were like, well, what if he pitches?
Jimmy:And I said if you can put a glove on him, it doesn't hurt, we don't care if he pitches, but he can't defend himself without a glove and that and that's kind of a safety issue. Yeah, so he didn't get to play for a couple weeks, so he missed a couple games, but ended up being a good season for him, um, so that's your shoulder, your hands. I was, um, I don't do jujitsu a lot. I broke. I've um, used to do jujitsu a lot, but it's kind of it's rough on the body.
Jimmy:They call it the gentle art arm, but it's hard on the body and I actually was getting we were just doing arm burn drills and my elbow got caught in a weird way and it ripped my forearm muscles and the only thing they could do was splint it and let it rest. And they said they could have surgery on it. And I said, well, what would the surgery tell? And they would say we would go in, scrape all the scar tissue out of the ripped muscle and then take all the viable muscle and just sew it back together.
Jimmy:Oh yeah, and it was more of a steeple back together and I was like well, what happens if I don't do it? And they were like nothing.
Megan :It feels like that was a pretty easy choice there.
Jimmy:Yeah, they were like if you're an Olympic athlete and you needed your forearms for something, we would recommend it just because. Then I was like just because, or benefit. And they were like just because. And I was like, yeah, I'm not doing that. So now if I flex my forearm and turn it the right way, you can see the indentation of my muscle, Like where it ripped Crazy. There's like a little hole there. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't do anything, it's fine.
Jimmy:But fun fact I was actually working on an ambulance at the time when that happened and I showed up to shift with this ace bandage wrapped around his splint and they're like I can lift and carry things and I could do probably one-handed CPR. I could do compressions with my left hand. They're like and I can drive. And they're like okay, I'm like I could work, it's not a big deal, I need to work. And they're like okay, I'm like I could work, it's not a big deal, I need to work. And they were like all right, so I actually worked. I think I ended up doing like two shifts on the ambulance with my elbow, like that.
Megan :Oh my gosh.
Jimmy:Yeah.
Megan :Sounds like it worked out though.
Jimmy:Yeah yeah, I just had a fun story and a little deformity. So, joints, right, rice, what's a rice?
Megan :Do you remember Rest ice compression elevate.
Jimmy:Yep, perfect. That's really the best thing to do with joints until you get to a doctor, right? So rest it, ice it, compress it, grab something, you know, that's really the best thing to do with joints until you get to a doctor, Rest it, ice it compress it, grab something not super strong like a firm handshake, wrap around it.
Jimmy:You don't want to create a tourniquet and have your toes turn black and fall off, so to speak, or your fingers Just tight, compression and keep it elevated. Keep it elevated the best you can. So let's talk about real quick sport injuries with fingers. We kind of brought up my son's finger, so the best thing to do for fingers? Obviously we're always, always, always, always get checked out 911. None of this is medical advice.
Jimmy:This is something you can do in lieu of getting to the doctor Splint, so splints for fingers after a sport injury. Ice cream sticks, popsicle sticks are awesome and just taping the fingers together works really good. Body splinting Body splinting Body splinting Using a pen will work Anything realistically. You can't tape your thumb. You can tape your thumb to your hand. It doesn't always make you comfortable because it's your thumb and you want to use it more, but you can definitely do that. Popsicle sticks are better for the thumb. Everything else, including your toes, is just taped to itself, taped to the body, anatomical splints. So I guess knees would be another one I have knee injuries.
Jimmy:Um, it's going to be just like an elbow or shoulder injury. You know, immobilize it, try to keep it as mobile as you possibly can. I know, um, with volleyball, especially beach volleyball, I've been told a common injury is dislocated kneecaps from just the torque and things like that on the knees, extremely painful. Yes, the person can't move it, and a good way to split that is just putting a pillow or lots of blankets or a jacket like a beach house, something like that, underneath it, make it kind of like a triangle and then just kind of try to tape it all together.
Megan :What do you mean by make it like a triangle, like make their leg like a triangle?
Jimmy:No, no make the split, the blanket, whatever it is, as triangular as possible, cause that person's leg is going to be locked straight out or bent a little bit and um, so just kind of take that blanket and make it triangular shape, cause that's usually going to be more supportive behind the knee and like so the calf and the thigh, and just keep pushing the comfort you know. Lots of hugs, lots of kisses I'm gonna be honest, I'm still.
Megan :What do you mean by a triangle?
Jimmy:I'm sorry, I'm so lost so take the triangle like the jacket or a blanket and just bunch it up and try to make it look like a triangle.
Megan :Okay, I'm with you on the shape of the triangle, but what do you do with said like?
Jimmy:is it pointing the triangle, pointing towards the so the top of the point goes into the knee and then the sides of the triangle, one goes into the calf and one goes underneath the thigh.
Megan :Okay, oh, got it. Yeah, so you? So you are trying to bend their leg into a.
Jimmy:Well, you don't have to never bend the leg right. So we know you can't see us team, probably for the best. So I took my jacket off and I actually took it in a kind of triangular shape, so if you can imagine the knees here, it's like you're creating sort of a wedge yes, got it, and then you're resting it.
Megan :You have the wedge pointing up and then you're resting your leg over the wedge and your knee is over the point. Yep, got it, not, okay, I'm tracking. I thought you were talking about like a flat triangle and I'm like I thought you were talking about like a flat triangle and I'm like what, pointing, like what? You're good, I'm tracking. Now, gotta got it.
Jimmy:Make it like so everything thinks I do so, mm-hmm, I'm tracking now. All right, that's, it's all pretty good. I Guess maybe I use triangular as too much of a shape, which too much of a pointed shape, so it didn't make sense. Maybe.
Megan :Yeah, I was also picturing like a flat shape, not like a pyramid type of we're tracking. I'm just slow this morning. One thing I will say about knee injuries, like actually really any injury, is we've said it before, but I'm going to reiterate um, go to the doctor, get it checked out. Don't try to push Like this is one of the things when I was coaching and working with kids that I would like push a lot.
Megan :I had a really bad knee injury when I was in high school and I thought that I could push through it. I thought that, oh, whatever, it's fine, I'll just put a brace on it and keep going, Like I don't want to let the team down. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I just kept going and I had a partial subluxation. So it's a partial dislocation and a little bit of which one? I think it was my MCL.
Megan :One of the ligaments in your knee tore just a tiny bit and if I had stopped there and rest I probably could have been back in a couple of weeks.
Megan :But instead I kept going, didn't go to the doctor, just kept pushing for a couple of weeks until it got to the point where I couldn't put any weight on my leg Like it would just give out. And then eventually at that point I went to the doctor and they're like, oh yeah, this is bad, Like you're out for the next couple of months, and I was on crutches and it was a whole thing and it really drove the point home for me personally of just it's so much better to just stop where you are, get checked out, let it heal, instead of pushing, making it so much worse. And then you're out for double, triple, quadruple the amount of time. And so that was one of the things that I always pushed when I was coaching kids was, if they were hurt, I said, no, stop, Get it checked out. If you're good, great, Come back tomorrow. If you're not good, sit out until you're better, so that you don't push it and make it worse.
Jimmy:Exactly. I couldn't agree more. It's better to miss a couple weeks early in the season than you know the more important games to the back of the season and postseason stuff if your team's good enough to do that. On that note, take it easy team, be safe, peace.
