Sports Medicine Master System-Chapter 129 - 90: Intervertebral Disc
By the time Chen Yu got to Madison Square Garden Arena, held up by traffic, the entire Suns team had already arrived from their hotel and were warming up.
When he reached the locker room, Byron Howard was applying athletic tape to Dudley’s calf. He quickly got up when he saw Chen Yu walk in.
"Where’s Jason?"
Chen Yu scanned the locker room but didn’t see Kidd.
Dudley pointed outside. "He went to warm up."
Chen Yu nodded. Just as he was about to go to the court, he stopped, pointed at Dudley’s calf, and said, "The tape’s too tight. Loosen it up a bit."
With that, he turned and left the locker room.
Byron Howard gave the athletic tape a doubtful look. ’He didn’t even touch it, and he knows if it’s too tight just from a glance?’
"Is it tight?" he asked, looking up at Dudley.
Dudley thought for a moment, then asked in return, "What do you think?"
Byron Howard gave a wry smile and ripped off the tape. "I think Chen was right."
Out on the court, Nelson was watching Kidd shoot when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find it was Chen Yu.
"How’s he doing?" Chen Yu asked, glancing at Kidd.
Nelson replied, "He’s doing okay. The warm-up has been going smoothly, and he’s not showing any obvious signs of pain."
As they spoke, Chen Yu had already scanned Kidd’s back with the Eye of All-Seeing, and his brow furrowed instantly.
’Damn it, I actually jinxed it this time.’
’I can’t believe I actually hit that one-in-a-million chance!’
"Jason, stop," Chen Yu called out.
Kidd stopped, only then noticing that Chen Yu had arrived. He said, surprised, "Chen, you actually came."
’Nelson told me Chen Yu wanted to come take a look, but I didn’t think he’d actually show up.’
"I feel pretty good. No problems," Kidd said as he walked over, stretching a little.
Nelson’s expression faltered. "Chen, is something wrong?" he asked anxiously.
Chen Yu nodded. After a moment’s thought, he asked, "Jason, how old are you again?"
’He was born in ’73, I think. A few years younger than me.’
"I’ll be 28 in a month. Why?" Kidd was completely baffled. ’Why is he suddenly asking about my age?’
Chen Yu sighed. "Well, that’s not exactly young."
As he looked Kidd over again, Chen Yu cursed that Bruce Bowen a hundred times in his head. ’Intentional, tactical fouls are a normal part of the game. But there’s a line. You’re all ballplayers; you should at least have the sense to protect not only yourself but your opponent as well.’
’Pulling a guy out of the air like that... to be blunt, that’s just trying to injure someone.’
’And as for Kidd... the guy’s luck is just terrible.’
Chen Yu recalled the video of the fall.
’Did I miss something? It looked like a normal fall. I didn’t see any extra movements, like a twist or anything. How could he be so unlucky as to injure an intervertebral disc?’
Indeed, with that quick scan, Chen Yu had seen bruised back muscles.
That was perfectly normal. After all, he’d taken a hard fall. With the muscle strength these guys had, a couple of days’ rest would have been enough to fix that.
But the real problem was the disc between Kidd’s fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae—it had improbably bulged!
Chen Yu knew that acute trauma, like a fall, carried an extremely small risk of causing a disc to bulge, or even herniate.
But the probability was likely in the single digits per thousand.
For Kidd to get injured like this from that fall... one could only say his luck was abysmal.
Chen Yu instinctively crossed his arms, staring intently at Kidd as he tried to deduce the cause of the injury.
’The L4 and L5 are the vertebrae that bear the most pressure and weight in the lumbar spine, which also makes them the most vulnerable to injury.’
’Theoretically, the chances of disc pathology developing there are the highest.’
’At the same time, the main cause of disc symptoms is physiological degeneration, which begins after the age of 20, when the annulus fibrosus starts to change, becoming thicker and less elastic.’
’The peak age for disc herniation is between 30 and 40.’
’For an ordinary person in that age range, it’s normal for a scan to show at least some minor bulging.’
This was why Chen Yu had asked for Kidd’s age.
’At 28, he wasn’t exactly young anymore.’
’And that’s not even mentioning that he’s a professional athlete. His daily training regimen far exceeds that of an ordinary person, putting much more stress on his lumbar spine and increasing the likelihood of symptoms developing.’
Chen Yu speculated that, first, Kidd’s disc in that particular segment must have already had some underlying issues.
Chen Yu had scanned him before with the Eye of All-Seeing, including his intervertebral discs, but he had only checked to see if the nucleus pulposus was herniated; he couldn’t tell if the characteristics of the annulus fibrosus had changed.
Then, during the fall, Kidd’s back muscles had likely tensed up instantly. At the moment of impact with the floor, a violent contraction in his lower back probably applied immense force to his lumbar spine, leading to the bulge.
Alternatively, he might have landed directly on that spot, or perhaps twisted it.
But dwelling on how the injury happened was pointless now. The fortunate thing was that it had only bulged; it wasn’t compressing any of the surrounding nerves or blood vessels.
This was why he could move normally and only felt a faint, dull ache.
"Jason, you’re sitting this one out," Chen Yu said. "I’m going to arrange for you to go to the hospital for some imaging, get it checked out."
The color drained from Kidd’s face. "Chen, do I really need imaging? I feel fine," he said quickly.
He was about to say more, but Chen Yu shut him down with "just to be on the safe side."
Nelson sighed. "I’ll go talk to Scott."
All he could do now was pray the injury wasn’t too serious.
Chen Yu didn’t hesitate, pulling out his phone and dialing a number. "Jamie, it’s Chen Yu. I’m in New York. Are you on shift today? If it’s convenient, could you arrange for one of my players to get an examination?"
