Interview with Corey Carver

Spotlight Series Topic: Interview with Corey Carver, PA at Flagstaff Bone and Joint

Guest Name: Corey Carver

Guest Credentials: PA

Discussion Details: Corey talks about his treatment philosophy, some favorite patient cases, and when is a good time to see him.

Benefit of Watching: Learn about his treatment philosophy, some favorite patient cases, and when is a good time to see him.

Address of Guest’s Business:
525 N Switzer Canyon Dr., Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Dr. Jordan Williams: Hi everyone. I’m Dr. Jordan with Proof Physical Therapy and Performance. Today we’re talking with Corey Carver. Corey is a physician’s assistant at Flagstaff Bone and Joint and is the first person you’ll usually see when you come in for a same-day appointment. He’s a fellow cyclist and loves rock climbing and hiking. He moved to Flagstaff from Arkansas about three years ago with his wife and dogs. Enjoy this interview.

Today my goal is to learn about you, kind of your role in Flagstaff Bone Joint. So let’s start with some of your background. However, so originally from Atlanta, then moved to Arkansas, and worked there. What brought you to Flagstaff?

Corey Carver: My wife and I had committed five years to Arkansas, and when that five years were up, we started looking at options for moving on. So one thing we wanted to do was move back out west. We had met and lived in Denver for 10 years and really enjoyed kind of the desert area and the western lifestyle. So started looking for jobs, and one popped up in Flagstaff and took it. Nice. So yeah, and enjoyed your time here. Have been very much enjoying my time here, especially going down to Sedona to mountain bike. That’s a huge draw for me.

Dr. Jordan Williams: So, what initially drew you to orthopedics?

Corey Carver: Just chance more than anything else. When I started PA school, I was initially wanting to go into emergency care because I had spent a number of years working on an ambulance, and during my time in school, I realized that I really would enjoy surgery. So I started looking for surgery jobs, and it didn’t matter what kind. I just landed a job in Arkansas doing orthopedic surgery, and I have just loved orthopedics ever since.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Kind of stuck with it. I think orthopedics for me is so much more mechanical, and so it’s just I just it clicks with my brain, and so it makes it easy. Neuro, I can’t see myself doing a lot.

Corey Carver: Right, me neither.

Dr. Jordan Williams: So, is there a patient success story that has stayed with you throughout your career.

Corey Carver: I think one of the things that stays with me is this gentleman that I saw probably in my first year of practice, and he had severe degenerative arthritis of one of his knees, maybe both of his knees, I can’t remember, and was very overweight. Was using a walker to get around, and his BMI was too high to be considered for surgical intervention for his knee, so I sent him to physical therapy. Then I gave him instructions: “Hey, let’s start working on losing weight. He came back to see me six or eight months later, something like that. Had lost a bunch of weight, been strengthening, was no longer using his walker, and said, “I do not want a knee replacement today.”

Dr. Jordan Williams: That’s great.

Corey Carver: Yeah, that’s been one of the better success stories that I’ve been a part of.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah, been really nice to see. That’s great. Did you was that here in Flagstaff?

Corey Carver: That was in Arkansas. My first year out there.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah. Okay, that’s great. What are a few early warning signs that someone you feel shouldn’t ignore that should prompt a visit for somebody to come see you?

Corey Carver: Well, it really depends on the type of pain that’s going on or the type of injury. If it’s you’ve rolled your ankle, you’ve got a lot of swelling and bruising. Probably a good idea to come rule out a fracture. I know that because I took a 15-foot groundfall rock climbing a number of years ago, and never got it X-rayed until I had been limping on it for well over two months. And a surgeon friend of mine said, “You need X-rays, and you need to see my orthopedic friend. And luckily, nothing’s broken or anything. But those things are really important with something like knee arthritis or shoulder arthritis. If it’s been persisting for a couple of months, despite you icing it, resting it, doing some progressive loading, of course, you know, oral medications, things like that. This would be a good idea to come get X-rays to make sure nothing is, you know, out of whack, and we can consider things like steroid injections, formal physical therapy, things like that as well.

Dr. Jordan Williams: So, is there a specific time where you see patients and you think like, man, you’re wasting your time? Where you feel like –

Corey Carver: Yes

Dr. Jordan Williams: There’s definitely a pretty good idea.

Corey Carver: I do think that there are times when people are wasting their time by coming in to see me. If you have a new onset pain without injury, and you haven’t done anything for it, like icing it or taking an oral medication. Try to give it more than a day before coming to see me, because most things, whether you wake up with a stiff neck, stiff back, ankle pain, something like that, do respond with anti-inflammatories and time. Most people find improvement within a week or two of the onset of things like that. If it worsens within a few days, that might be an indication to go ahead and come on in, even if you’re using those things that we talked about. So I see a lot of people that come in, and they haven’t done anything for their pain. It’s been a week or two, and X-rays are normal. They haven’t had an injury at that point. I just say, all right, let’s start with these supportive treatments and see where you get, and come back and see me in a handful of weeks for another evaluation.

Dr. Jordan Williams: So I’m glad we’re on the same page. Yeah, sometimes a lot of times I tell people like, hey, you know, they’ll call and be like, should I come in? Should it work? Should I do? I’m like, you know, let’s sit on it about a week. Right. Like ice it, keep it moving. Yeah. Take some, take some insens whatever, you know. And so, and I’ve had patients tell me like, you know, you’re really kind of eating into your own business. You could be making more money. And I’m like, you know, I don’t really care as much. I want to make sure that you’re getting the best care. So, yeah. So that’s definitely, like I said. We’re on the. I’m glad we’re on the same page. What do people often misunderstand about your role or your specialty?

Corey Carver: People often misunderstand that I have a specialty. So I’m considered a general orthopedist, and I see people for everything from head to toe, from concussions to toe fractures, and I don’t specialize in anything except maybe fracture management. But even then, I still consult with our surgeons to make sure that they’re okay with my plan if it’s not something I’m comfortable with. But I have a lot of people coming in with ankle pain for a handful of weeks, and they’ve done a lot of things for it, and there may not be a specific injury. But I’m not a podiatrist, and so I take X-rays, do an examination to rule out anything crazy or dangerous, and then set them on the path of some supportive treatment, and if needed, as a follow-up with our specialty group. So people often get upset with me because I’m not a specialist and I can’t give them the answers they want. But the role that I have is to triage people essentially and point them in the direction of the specialist after I get them some medications or some therapy or something if they need that.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Right. So yeah, that totally makes sense. How does your care? Do you want to complement physical therapy or other providers in a multidisciplinary approach?

Corey Carver: I think from that same standpoint of initiating just something for someone, yeah, even if they’ve been icing and taking some medications, maybe they need a prescription-strength anti-inflammatory, or maybe they need a formal referral to formal therapy, that kind of thing. So I think that is what integrates things so well into the multidisciplinary approach.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Do you have a favorite body part that you like to see that you like? I just every single shoulder that comes in, like I’m on point with that.

Corey Carver: I don’t know if I have a favorite. I think, well, I do. I think my favorite is acute distal radius fractures because I can reduce those. I can do closed reductions in the clinic. I numb it up, let them hang for a little bit in the finger traps, and put it back in place. And in the two and a half years I’ve been at Flagstaff Bone and Joint, I’ve done about 15 of those, and so far as I know, only one has required surgery after reduction. So pretty high success rate with doing that. So if anybody has an acute distal radius fracture, they need to come see me. Not go to the emergency room right away because we can handle it at Flexi.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah, that’s great. That’s cool. If someone’s hesitant or unsure about reaching out, what would you want them to know?

Corey Carver: They are going to get personalized, high-quality care from FlexFone and Joint, and we do not dismiss pain. If you’re having pain, we’re going to take it seriously. Doesn’t matter what it is, even if you don’t have an injury, it is something to be taken care of, and I’m there to help direct at least initial treatment options for it, and if it’s something very serious, I can consult with our specialists almost immediately if they’re in clinic. And sometimes I do have to text the doctors, and I texted both of our upper extremity surgeons today, Dr. Flint and Doctor Smith, with X-rays of a patient, and they got back to me almost immediately, saying, “Hey, yeah, let’s proceed with surgery.”

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah, so okay, that’s great. What do you think is one simple step someone can take today to prioritize their health even before they call your office?

Corey Carver: One of the things I tell people, and this is, in my opinion, part of the fountain of youth, is even before you are having pain or any issues. One of the best things you can do is resistance training. That, I think, is the fountain of youth. You’ve got to pick things up and put them down.

And that’s going to increase bone density. It’s going to increase your overall soft tissue strength and muscle strength, and it’s going to help prevent injuries, right? So that’s the number one thing that I think people should start doing, regardless of age. But you should be doing it under the supervision of either a physician or a personal trainer or a physical therapist.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah. So yeah, no, I think that’s. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Yeah, that’s one thing that we see, and it’s funny. We see a 90-year-old who is on a walker, and you know they’re barely getting up and out of the chair. And then you have then the very next hour, you see a 90-year-old coming in, and like one of the patients sticks out in my mind. Yeah, you know what a Turkish getup is.

Corey Carver: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Jordan Williams: So he comes in, and he’s got a 35 pound is the max kettlebell that we had at the time, and he’s like, “Do you have anything heavier than this? I’m like, “You take it to him. So you know, he picks up this Turkish or this kettlebell and proceeds. He’s like 91 and proceeds to do a Turkish getup from the ground.

Corey Carver: Fantastic!

Dr. Jordan Williams: And he goes, “I have I only have a 65 at home, and so that’s what I use. Only 65 pounds. That’s a heavy kettlebell.

Corey Carver: That’s a heavy kettlebell. 

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah. He’s like, so you know, and he’s talking to me. He’s like, I can’t do this as much as I used to, and I’m like, I think you’re doing fine.

Corey Carver: Look, you’re doing fine.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Fantastic. You’re 91. You’re doing fantastic. You know, there’s patients who can’t get off the couch in their 60s, you know, and so you have so focused on strength and prioritized that. Like he is just above and beyond all his peers in strength, and so it’s, I think, very abundant for us, especially, but I think in orthopedics in general that the importance of strength for so many aspects, many areas of life, and absolutely. So, I mean, you have to keep moving to keep moving, and that’s a huge area.

Corey Carver: Exactly.

Dr. Jordan Williams: What’s the best way for somebody to get in touch with your office?

Corey Carver: They should look up Flagstaff Blender Joint on the interwebs or the Googles and call the number that pops up, and they’re going to reach either someone at the front desk or one of our PSRs, and they are remote, and they’re able to schedule people appropriately. Okay. And we always offer an appointment with a specialist first, and if we have any specialists that are available that day, they go there first. If there’s no specialists available, they’ll come to me, and if somebody says, “Oh, my knee’s been hurting for three months, and our next available with our knee specialist is going to be three or four weeks from now, they do have the opportunity to see me before then if needed.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Okay. For a first-time patient, what should they expect during their initial appointment?

Corey Carver: They should expect X-rays. They should expect an examination, and they should expect a treatment plan.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Okay, that’s really about it.

Corey Carver: That’s all you need. So, and they should expect personalized care. They should expect us to treat them with respect, and they should expect all of us to be nice to them. That’s really important.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Yeah, being nice to people should be a given. Sometimes, not always.

Corey Carver: I know. I know.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you or flag bone and Joints?

Corey Carver: This position has been a boon to my practice because I have learned so much in the two years that I’ve been at Flagstaff Bonner Joint doing this position. I had a pretty decent amount of knowledge, but I, I think my ability to care for people in a broader sense, meaning head to toe, has increased significantly over the past two years. So I’m well prepared for almost anything.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Awesome, yeah, awesome. Corey, thank you so much for chatting with us today.

Corey Carver: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Dr. Jordan Williams: Thank you, guys, so much.