their feet

RETURN TO ACTION

Clinic helps patients back on their feet

BY JEANA DURST

Tin Vuong, DO

At some point in our lives, it’s likely that we’ve all dealt with an injury. For some of us, recovery may have even been a long process. This fall as your kids return to the athletic fields and Tin Vuong, DO, is board certified in family medicine and board eligible in sports medicine. He is fellowship trained in primary you hit the trails, it can be a risky time. Even if you have planned care sports medicine. With a carefully or been faithful to athletic training, the fact is that you specialization in fracture care, can still get hurt. And it doesn’t take constant activity to produce concussion management, an injury—even an intense tennis match or an old injury can be diagnostic and therapeutic enough to cause a problem. musculoskeletal ultrasound,

Fortunately, Dr. Tin Vuong and the other physicians at ultrasound-guided injections, Precision Sports Medicine and Orthopedics are trained to diagnose and treat a wide range of sports injuries and conditions. Here Dr. Vuong shares with us more about their practice, as stem cell treatment, platelet rich plasma and tenex procedure, he can treat a host of issues. well as how they can get you (or your student athlete) back in Dr. Vuong attended medical the game. Precision Sports Medicine physicians are trained to diagnose and treat a full range of sports-related injuries and conditions, including but not limited to: school at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Arizona, and completed his family medicine internship and • Back, neck, hip, shoulder and foot pain residency at Palmetto General • Broken bones or stress fractures Hospital in Hialeah, Florida. • Knee problems, including those related to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) • Muscle, tendon and joint pain • Shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and iliotibial (IT) band pain • Sciatica (numbness or pain in or around lower back, hip or knee) • Joint replacement surgeries

Dr. Vuong elaborates on his role there: “As a sports medicine physician, I see a wide variety of muscle skeletal injuries that range from fractured bones, muscles, ligament, strains to chronic overuse injuries and degenerative conditions.” Every one of these injuries can occur acutely on the field or can be something that happens over time. Many of the patients who have injuries are those who don’t exercise regularly and just try to be weekend warriors, he explains. “While the pro athletes and collegiate level athletes keep in top shape year-round, weekend warriors just get out Friday through Sunday, so they are more susceptible to joint inflammation, muscle strains, and ligament sprains.”

For the student athletes, their practice plays another important role: providing primary care attention as well. For some younger athletes, primary healthcare needs may coexist with an injury. Dr. Vuong can address some general issues in the course of treatment that can support injury recovery. His main goal? Get athletes and weekend warriors back in action so they can continue doing what they love.

Precision Sports Medicine is part of the Brookwood Baptist Specialty Care Network. For more information, visit precisionsportsortho.com.

The nationwide virtual walk empowers communities to affect change through care, advocacy, research, and education.

Walk to end epilepsy Virtual walk to benefit Epilepsy Foundation

For families looking for a good reason to get outside together, you can join the Epilepsy Foundation on a virtual walk on November 7. A good reason for a good cause. This statewide Walk to End Epilepsy will kick off on Zoom at 9:30 a.m. (The event was originally scheduled for November 7 at Railroad Park, but was moved to a virtual format due to the nature of the pandemic.)

Following the initial Zoom presentation at 9:30 a.m., registrants will be encouraged to walk in person together as a group. Families will be walking “virtually” in their own neighborhoods or wherever they choose.

The goal of this walk, which is one of many walks held nationwide, is to empower the local community to affect change through care, advocacy, research and education.

“We are excited to once again bring our Birmingham Walk, even if it’s virtual, to those throughout the state of Alabama in order further engage and mobilize the community to be part of the fight to end epilepsy,” says Sara Franklin, executive director, Epilepsy Foundation Alabama.

“Even though the event is online, it strengthens our current efforts and generates funding to help families affected by epilepsy and seizures in our local community.”

Over a lifetime, one in 10 people will have a seizure, and one in 26 will be diagnosed with epilepsy. There are more people living with epilepsy than with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy, combined. Yet, epilepsy receives one-tenth the research funding than any one of those disorders.

Everyone who participates — by leading a team, making a donation, sponsoring a person with epilepsy or volunteering — helps fund research and awareness, training programs on seizure recognition and first aid, as well as improved access to specialty and supportive care.

To sign up or for more information visit walktoendepilepsy.org/Birmingham.