Wellness Unmasked: The Road to Surgery Recovery

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show Episode: Wellness Unmasked: The Road to Surgery Recovery
Release Date: July 8, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosted by iHeartPodcasts, the focus shifts to personal wellness and resilience through the inspiring narrative shared by Dr. Nicole Safire. The episode, titled Wellness Unmasked: The Road to Surgery Recovery, delves deep into Dr. Safire's journey through shoulder surgery and her reflections on broader societal challenges, such as the devastating Texas floods.

Personal Journey: Shoulder Surgery and Recovery

Dr. Nicole Safire opens up about her recent shoulder surgery, providing listeners with a candid and detailed account of her experience.

Accident and Immediate Aftermath Dr. Safire recounts the incident that led to her surgery:

“I slipped on the grand staircase wearing socks, and instinctively threw my arm behind my head to protect my neck.” ([02:55])

Despite not injuring her head or neck, the sacrifice resulted in severe shoulder damage, necessitating multiple surgeries.

Surgeries and Rehabilitation She describes the surgical procedures:

“The first surgery repaired my biceps and labrum... I was in a sling for six to eight weeks.” ([04:10])

However, instability in her shoulder required a second surgery:

“They repaired some of my pectoralis, my capsule, some of my rotator cuff.” ([05:45])

Post-surgery, Dr. Safire faced significant challenges:

“Driving, cooking, even doing my job was manageable, but the shoulder wasn’t back to normal.” ([07:30])

Mental and Emotional Impact Beyond the physical toll, Dr. Safire emphasizes the mental strain:

“Being unable to drive or even put your hair in a ponytail can be incredibly challenging.” ([10:15])

She highlights the importance of support from family and friends in her recovery:

“I am not too proud to ask for help and so I'm going to...” ([12:00])

Current Recovery Status and Outlook As of July 2025, Dr. Safire is four days post-surgery and optimistic about her recovery:

“I'm feeling better than I have since the fall... I am at the beginning of this recovery journey.” ([14:50])

She outlines her proactive approach to healing, incorporating both medical treatments and natural remedies:

“I'm taking my Droprx Soothe... I will be taking oral anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen.” ([16:30])

Dr. Safire anticipates continuing her rehabilitation throughout the summer to return stronger by fall:

“As we enter fall 2025, I'll be stronger than ever.” ([18:05])

Reflections on Resilience and Community Support

Dr. Safire shares insights on building resilience:

“Recovery is rarely linear. It can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and humbling, but it's also an opportunity to reconnect.” ([19:40])

She stresses the importance of community and social support in overcoming personal challenges:

“We are humans. We are not meant to do this alone. We are social animals.” ([20:15])

Commentary on Texas Floods

Transitioning from her personal story, Dr. Safire addresses the ongoing Texas floods, highlighting both the environmental and societal impacts.

Impact on Communities and Healthcare Describing the devastation, she notes:

“The surrounding neighborhoods are destroyed, but thankfully the hospital itself is structurally intact.” ([22:00])

She explains the indirect health consequences:

“Patients are unable to get their medical care outpatient... exacerbating asthma, COPD, heart disease.” ([23:10])

Critique of Political Polarization Dr. Safire criticizes the politicization of the disaster response:

“It is a complete devastation... shame on her.” ([25:40])

She references a controversial social media post by a Texas pediatrician, condemning the mixing of politics with humanitarian crises:

“While children were dying... she decided to make this political.” ([26:30])

Emphasizing Unity and Compassion Concluding her commentary, Dr. Safire advocates for unity and compassion:

“People need to come together. People need to help others. Not everything should be political.” ([28:00])

Conclusions and Final Thoughts

Dr. Safire wraps up the episode by intertwining her personal recovery with broader societal issues, reinforcing themes of resilience, community support, and the dangers of political division during crises.

“Resilience is built not just in the body, but in the mind and spirit... it's a reminder of how interconnected our personal and communal well-being truly are.” ([30:15])

She encourages listeners to stay proactive in their personal wellness journeys while being mindful of the collective challenges facing society.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Protecting Her Neck: “I instinctively threw my arm behind my head to protect my neck.” ([02:55])
• Facing Surgery: “I essentially tore everything you could possibly tear in one's shoulder.” ([04:50])
• Mental Struggles: “Being unable to drive or even put your hair in a ponytail can be incredibly challenging.” ([10:15])
• Community Support: “We are humans. We are not meant to do this alone. We are social animals.” ([20:15])
• Political Critique: “It is a complete devastation... shame on her.” ([25:40])

Key Takeaways

• Personal Resilience: Dr. Safire’s journey underscores the importance of resilience and proactive management in recovery from severe injuries.
• Support Systems: The role of family, friends, and community is crucial in overcoming both physical and mental challenges.
• Societal Reflection: The episode highlights the detrimental effects of politicizing disasters, advocating for unity and compassion in times of crisis.
• Holistic Wellness: Combining medical treatment with natural remedies and maintaining mental health are essential for overall well-being.

Conclusion

Wellness Unmasked: The Road to Surgery Recovery offers a profound look into personal healing and the broader implications of societal challenges. Dr. Nicole Safire’s honest and heartfelt narrative provides valuable insights into overcoming adversity, the significance of community support, and the need for empathy in societal responses to disasters. This episode serves as both an inspiring personal story and a thoughtful commentary on current events, making it a compelling listen for those interested in wellness and resilience.

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Note: The timestamps provided correspond to the key points in the transcript segments attributed to Dr. Nicole Safire, ensuring accurate alignment with her discussions.

Transcript

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Welcome to Wellness on Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Safire and today's episode is both deeply personal and I guess a little professionally enlightening, as I'm going to take you kind of behind the scenes of my recent shoulder surgery. That's right. I am recording this episode of the podcast straight from my couch because I'm four days post shoulder surgery. So what happened? Well, I had both of my shoulder rotator cuffs operated on when I was in my 20s. So that was two decades ago. I was a gymnast all throughout school, competitive cheerleading. I had lots of injuries. I had knee surgeries from torn ACLs. And by my 20s, again, I had both of my shoulder rotator cuffs worked on. I was kind of a hot mess, let me tell you. But as I entered my 30s, I was feeling stronger than ever. I was even playing soccer on an adult team. I wasn't having any really issues. I was feeling great. It wasn't until a fateful night during the COVID pandemic, December 2020, that I made a big mistake. I decided to walk on my staircase. A grand staircase, I think it was, 13 stairs from top to bottom. I did that wearing socks. And I didn't have any runners on my stairs. So as you can imagine, I slipped. That's right, my foot slipped out from underneath me. I'm married to a brain surgeon, so the first thing that I thought of and instinctively was to protect my head and neck because my husband had told me way too many stories about patients who fell downstairs, broke their neck, got a brain bleed, devastating consequences. So instinctively I threw my arm behind my head to protect my head and neck. And the good news is, by the time I reached the bottom, I had not hit my head or neck. The bad news? I sacrificed my arm to protect my head. I'm very glad I did. It could have been much worse had I hit my head or neck. But laying at the bottom of the Stairs. I knew something was wrong with my arm. My oldest son was next to me. He witnessed the fall. He screamed for my husband. They came running to me. I stood up and I just looked at them and I said, I am okay. I do not need to go to the hospital right now. I just need to go into my bedroom. I need some alone time. I'm skipping dinner tonight, but I'm okay. I didn't hit my head. I don't have any signs of internal bleeding or anything of the sort. I knew something was wrong with my arm, but it wasn't something we needed to call 911 for. So I decided to go and spend some alone time. At 4am I woke up. My type A personality decided to rage, purchase grip socks for my entire family. And I did that. By 5am I called my primary care doctor saying I have a non functioning arm. I need to get to surgery. But again, doctors are the worst patients. So of course I'm not going to go to the hospital. I just needed to make some phone calls. Long story short, I essentially tore everything you could possibly tear in one's shoulder. The first surgery repaired my biceps and repaired my labrum. It also helped kind of put together some of the joint. I was then in a sling for six to eight weeks afterwards. Day one in physical therapy, it was obvious my shoulder was still very unstable. So I had to go right back into another surgery. This time they repaired some of my pectoralis, my capsule, some of my rotator cuff. And then I was again in a sling for another six to eight weeks. When I came out of that, I had to get some injections into the joint because of just severe pain. We could tell that my shoulder wasn't back to normal. But then again, I mean, do things ever really go back to normal after such a severe injury? I had realistic expectations that maybe it would never be 100% normal again. There were times when I would stick out my arm and I could just tell it is just not as stable as I want it to be. But I was able to drive, I was able to cook at home, I was able to do my job. Part of my job as a breast and interventional radiologist is I do a lot of biopsies on patients, whether it's biopsying, the thyroid, lymph nodes, the breast. I was able to do my job. And for me, I was happy. I had just spent far too much of 2021 in a sling and I was very happy to be out of the sling. So even though the conversation between the Surgeon and I was, we may need another surgery. I was holding off. A few months later, it was starting to get bad again, but again, I was not ready to go to surgery. I got a second opinion. Second opinion. Doctor said, listen, you do need another surgery, but as long as you keep your arm strong, you keep rehabbing it, you can probably hold off for a while. Well, I held off for a while. Three years later, here we are, 2025. I was doing great until the last few months. I've been feeling some more pain when I'm doing biopsies at work. I just. I can feel it kind of getting weaker and weaker. Despite me working out and doing everything I can to keep my body as strong and healthy possible, the shoulder was starting to fail me again. So here we are, July 2025, nearly five years from that fall, and it was time to do one more surgery. And I'm glad I did, because I can tell you, I am now four days out from the surgery, and so far, I am feeling better than I have since the fall. I came out of anesthesia. I didn't feel nearly as sick. It's hard being down an arm, being back in that sling again, especially in the summer when all you want to be is outside. You don't want to be weighed down by this sling and bandages and stitches and all these things. But I can tell you I'm feeling optimistic because I'm being proactive. I didn't just grind my shoulder down until it really failed and would have been even more difficult to repair. But here I am. I'm at the beginning of this recovery journey. I'm going to spend the summer rehabbing it, getting stronger. So as we enter fall 2025, the new school year, I'll be stronger than ever. Stronger for myself, stronger for my kids, stronger for my patients. So eyes forward. You know, sometimes it can be challenging going through these surgeries mentally. We obviously know that there are physical challenges there. Not being able to drive sounds silly, but even do laundry, put your hair in a ponytail, wash your own hair. It can really affect you mentally because you become so dependent on others around you. And I pride myself on being a strong, independent person. Then all of a sudden, I can't even get my hair in a ponytail. That's. That. That can be challenging. But I'm very grateful that I have friends and family who surround me who have offered themselves to help. I have a whole cadre of friends who are sending food, knowing that I'm unable to cook this week. And my husband is on call. So he may or may not be able to be home in the evenings. I have family that are constantly checking in with me. My kids are picking up and doing their own laundry. I mean, God bless America. If this is what it takes for people to chip in around here at the house, you know, it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. So the procedure itself, what I had done when they went in, there was a ton of scar tissue all around the nerves. So they had to do this intricate dissection of all of the nerves surrounding that kind of supply my entire arm. I'm having a lot of nerve sensations in my arm. I believe this is all normal post op and it'll take some time because they really did a lot of work on my arm, those nerves. But I can tell you it's not a good feeling. It's this constant feeling of like my arm still being asleep. So stay tuned on that because I'm hoping that gets better. That's the only thing that's really bothering me right now. I can deal with the ache of the shoulder, but it's that nerve stuff that are bothering me a bit. For me, I'm going to do everything I can to try and decrease my inflammation as much as possible because my nerves are absolutely inflamed. I will be taking like oral anti inflammatories, like an ibuprofen. But if you know me, you know I am all about the natural ways to decrease inflammation. It's why I created Droprx, my liquid herbs. I actually have a blend, it's called Soothe. It's full of turmeric and ginger and it is a natural way to decrease inflammation in the body. We are cultivating the garden as much as possible, getting all the natural herbs here. I'm taking my Droprx Soothe. I'm taking my oral anti inflammatories, I'm icing and resting which for me is very difficult to do. But I'm doing everything possible to give my body the best chance of getting back to good. I am going to start physical therapy this week, which sounds crazy, I'm not even a week out of the or but they want to start moving my arm and I am dreading that because physical therapy is so painful when you are newly post op. Anybody who's done it, they can attest to it. I'm sure I will be cranky coming out of physical therapy. But again these are all the things you have to do to get yourself as strong as possible. So I'm going to be doing it and I'M just going to make sure that I continue to reach out to my friends and family and ask for help. Very difficult for someone like me to do, but you have to. We are humans. We are not meant to do this alone. We are social animals. So I am not too proud to ask for help and so I'm going to you're listening to Wellness on Mass. We'll be right back with more.

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Before we conclude this episode of Wellness on Mass, I have to comment on what is going on in Texas. You know, I'm not really watching a lot of TV or even the news much right now. I did get called to comment on Fox and Friends this weekend because of the devastation that these Texas floods are causing in central Texas. My friend, actually one of my closest friends from medical school is a physician in San Angelo, Texas, where this flooding is all occurring. And I was able to talk to her. She said the surrounding neighborhoods are destroyed, but thankfully the hospital itself is structurally intact. They are taking in a whole bunch of patients because if you think about it, you know, we always worry about the direct damage from the floods to the structures. So washing away homes, destroying all of our belongings and the immediate danger of being swept away by the water and drowning. There are so many indirect ways that this flooding can cause damage. And what they're seeing in the hospital is patients who are not able to get their medical care outpatient or they're not able to use their oxygen at home or they were in home hospice. So all these patients are now needing to be cared for in the hospital because there's nowhere else for them to go. People have also been, you know, up to their chest in this floodwater. So it's exacerbating their asthma, their copd, their heart disease. And on top of that, they're at risk of infections, whether it's pneumonia. This water, this water is like a toxic soup. It is full of sewage, bacteria, debris. There's so many bad things in this water. And not to mention in the water, the debris can actually cause you to cut your skin. And you can get skin infections if you ingest it, you can get a GI tract infection. I mean, it is just a, it is a disaster. And at this point, you have at least 82 have died, dozens are still missing. It is a complete devastation. I hate what I'm seeing online that people are poor, pointing fingers as though this is some politician's fault and this is just not sequel of a natural disaster. Did you even see what happened? There was a pediatrician who from Texas. They had some vile posts on social media. They essentially said, anyone MAGA does. I mean, I'm going to misquote this. She said something along the lines of, let's see. May all visitors, children and non MAGA voters and pets be safe and dry. Kerr County MAGA voted to cut fema. They denied climate change. May they get what they voted for. Bless their hearts. This Dr. Christina Prost. This is of course a now deleted social media post, but it went viral. She's a pediatrician in Houston and she felt the need for. While children were dying, while people were swept away and missing and lost their entire livelihoods, she decided to make this political. And you know, we saw this a bit during COVID We saw people, specifically doctors, who are supposed to be altruistic. We're supposed to have taken oaths for saying do no harm. But yet, just like we saw during COVID you saw a pediatrician office saying, we're not going to see you if unless you are vaccinated. They essentially outcasted anybody who didn't have the same mindset as them. The fact that this woman put this post up, it is disgusting. She has lost her job according to reports online. And all I can say is, you know, shame on her. People need to come together. People need to help others. Not everything should be political. And as I continue to heal, both physically and mentally from my shoulder surgery, I'm just reminded how resilience is built not just in the body, but, but in the mind and spirit. Recovery is rarely linear. It can be uncomfortable. It's absolutely inconvenient and it is most certainly humbling. But it's also an opportunity to reconnect with ourselves and reconnect with those around us. And while I am focused on my own healing right now, I just can't stop thinking about the countless Texans facing a far greater battle. It's hard to feel sorry for myself when I look online to see what these people are dealing with. The devastating floods have upended lives, destroyed homes, and placed a serious burden on public health, and I can't believe people are politicizing it. I'm absolutely disgusted by it. Until next time, thank you so much for joining me on Wellness en masse. I'm Dr. Nicole Safire. Thanks for listening to Wellness on Mass on America's number one podcast network. I heart follow Wellness unmask with Dr. Nicole Safire and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And we will catch you next time.

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