WAG minor injury question...

[ollieblueeyes]

At what point do you see a Dr for minor occassional ankle pain? About once every 3-4 weeks DD will end up sitting out the end of practice due to a sore ankle. She ices it at practice and a bit at home and then i don't hear about it again for several weeks.

Is this part of normal aches and pains that come along with gymnastics? Would wrapping the ankle be helpful? Should I bring n? She never seems to have an issue walking, skipping, leaping at home.

Any thoughts?

 

[Kiwi]

I don't think it is normal if she is having to sit out practice that often. It would be useful to gather more information about what she was doing at the time that brought on the pain. Then she could see a doctor, who might refer her to a physiotherapist or other health professional. Medical professionals can use your information and an examination to figure out where the problem is, what is causing it and what the best course of treatment should be.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

get it checked. i'd have to know from asking your daughter, but sometimes they land short...and too many times. sometimes this can break off a tiny bit(s)of bone at the farthest bottom part of the tibia. then those little bits become like fish. they swim throughout the ankle. sometimes they settle in the soft tissue around the ankle and create periodic havoc. then they swim on again, and you won't have any pain, then they settle in again.

this sounds like what you are describing.

 

[ollieblueeyes]

Thanks for your input...i taalked with her coach and let her know this was not a one time deal. Shes going to keep an eye on her landings to make sure its not a form thing. If she doesn't see anything and it keeps up, off to the Dr we go!

 

[GymBee97]

I would say regardless of the coach keeping an eye on thing I would head off to the doctors. There isn't a reason to really wait and it can't hurt to go now. I would go and see a podiatrist (foot and ankle dr) and have it checked out. Once with pain I can let go but more than once then there is something causing it. why risk more injury if it is serious by waiting for a coach (who isn't a medical person) observe it.

 

[ollieblueeyes]

We actually just returned from the ortho. Nothing on x ray....diagnosis overuse.....rd 1 wk rest. He further recommended not to go to the gym at all for the rest period. DD would like to condition and I am sure that is what the coach would want....thoughts.?

 

[GymBee97]

go with DR orders after a week your DD will be so much better after that week. If she chooses to go back to the gym she could actually cause some damage why risk it.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

go with DR orders after a week your DD will be so much better after that week. If she chooses to go back to the gym she could actually cause some damage why risk it.

not if she is conditioning only. this is a common practice in gymnastics. and Ollie, as long as you trust that her conditioning will be somewhat supervised and that your daughter instructed that she is not to do anything but conditioning. that includes no trampoline.

 

[Kiwi]

As long as the conditioning doesn't involve the injured body part (i.e. non-impact for sore foot or ankle, so no box jumps) it should be okay.

 

[ollieblueeyes]

Just a quick update....Dh and I decided to keep DD home on Friday and a quiet weekend and send DD back to practice on Monday for a light training day/conditioning. I talked with her main coach and the assistant and told both of them what the Dr. prescribed (no gymnastics on ankle, no running, jumping, landings etc). The main coach said that they would wrap it and see what she could do. I reiterated what the Dr advised and told her that I wanted DD to follow Dr's orders ( I had also talked with DD prior to practice about following orders).

At pickup coach was glad to tell me that DD had pretty much completed a full workout but had felt pain doing RO and level 4 dismounts. To say the least I was surprised, she had totally disregarded what I had told her the doctor had said.

Luckily DD seems fine and is no longer complaining about ankle pain at all. I have not decided to make an issue of this or just keep it in mind next time she has a minor injury.

 

[mariposa]

I would be keeping her home from practice if the coaches can't follow a parents request to follow doctors orders. If they disregard your request when it is a minor injury, I would wonder if I could trust them if it were something more serious.

 

[Moxiegrl83]

^^^^ I agree. A girl on my DD's pre-team had her first practice back after a sprained shoulder. We had a new coach and the first thing our HC did was tell him she was injured and no shoulder activity. She worked the whole class, but no using that arm at all. Especially if you specifically ask the coach, in very clear language, to follow dr.'s orders.

 

[teena82]

If they taped it, it will easily mask the pain. Not necessarily a good thing.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

only medication can mask pain, but i understand what you're getting at. what actually happens is that a tape job can 'move' the force away from the injured site. this in turn will place more force on an area that is already compromised as it is being overworked to compensate for the injured site. an injured site is an injured site until it his completely healed. in this event, the tape job could mask a problem area only to injure another site because it has been overloaded and overworked.

 

[GymBee97]

This is why I say follow DR orders. The gymnasts will push themselves and the coaches will let them. I would talk to the coach on this as you did spend the time with the coach to make sure she would follow the DR orders. Your DD is lucky to have not further injured herself - what would that coach say if your DD had fractured her ankle? Its only gymnastics and a week or so out isn't going to make that big of a deal in the long run.

 

[momocay]

The biggest problem with this is the idea that the coach completely disregarded what you had to say. If I tell the coach that this is whats happening with my dd's health, I would expect them to respect that. If they disregard you and your opinion in this instance, I would let them know now that that is not o.k. When a coach shows me his md, you can disregard doctors orders.

 

[ollieblueeyes]

So, should I not allow the taping? The Dr's rest period ended today and she has a shortened practice so my plan was to do start back today w/taping. He did say taping was fine if needed. She had minor pain doing the dismounts, round offs and cartwheels at practice on Monday and stopped doing them. She has not had pain at home since Monday and has been her normal bouncing, cartwheeling, leaping, twirling self.

Is taping going to worsen/mask the issue? Now I am really confused! The coach had the HC tape her really tight for practice on Monday to immobilze the ankle. She said that they prefer the coaching staff take care of taping and that she would have one of the higher level optionals coaches do the actual taping as a rule.

I am going to speak with DD coach about Monday. This is a new group/coach for my DD and I decided that addressing it now is best. Especially since DD2 will also be going thru her group in the near future.

 

[GymBee97]

When my DD had an over use issue rather than taping her DR had her do an ankle brace. nothing expensive one of thoses ones you slip on like a sock and has an elastic part that wraps around. He had said that yes we could tape but in his opinion tape does stretch out and looses some of the support where a brace does not and if it should feel loose you just have to adjust it instead of retape it.

The rule is always if there is pain then stop right away.

Here is the one that we used but check with your DD's Dr first.

 

[iwannacoach]

So, should I not allow the taping?

Is taping going to worsen/mask the issue? Now I am really confused! The coach had the HC tape her really tight for practice on Monday to immobilze the ankle.

I'll give you my own opinion which include some of dunno's concerns when taping or bracing a problem spot. You have to walk a fine line with tape and braces. These remedies simply re-direct the unmanagable forces around the over use area. It then has to find another body part to absorb it as that absorbing action is what prevents a collapse upon landing a skill or contacting equipment.

The real question in my mind is where is that force going to end up being absorbed. The likely volunteers are the knees and the back. These areas will bend further than normal over a longer instant to favor her ankle. That's ok for a temporary measure to allow light work-outs, but not for long term or high impact skills that will over load her back or knees. Long term use of tape will lead to a weaker limb that requires rehab exercises......

The best solution is to ask the coaches if they can find anything in dd's training program, techniques, repititions and schedule of event rotations that may be over working or stressing her ankle. An "over use" diagnosis implies that her ankle is being over used, but I think some consideration need to be given to the possibility that it's being used to compensate for incorrect technique or being subjected to stress levels at the very edge of her ankles strength envelope.

I'm not the coach in this situation, so I can't tell you what reasoning they are using for immobilizing. I have no idea why the coach put her through a work out contrary to your instructions. It may have been a misunderstanding, absence of passing info down the line, or a coaches (over?) confidence in their own ability to understand the docs orders as applied to gymnastics. No matter, you should have a talk with whoever to eliminate future excursions from your instructions.

Long

 

[sophiagymgall]

So, should I not allow the taping? The Dr's rest period ended today and she has a shortened practice so my plan was to do start back today w/taping. He did say taping was fine if needed. She had minor pain doing the dismounts, round offs and cartwheels at practice on Monday and stopped doing them. She has not had pain at home since Monday and has been her normal bouncing, cartwheeling, leaping, twirling self.

I don't anything about taping, but about the rest period, it doesn't seem to me like she's had a real one yet? In my opinion, it doesn't end until she's followed all of the doctor's orders for the required period of time. I don't mean that you should punish her per se, but in order for her ankle to heal and for her safety in general, she needs the full rest period. You say that the period ended, but if she basically had a full practice in the middle of her "rest", then she hasn't really rested the ankle and still needs to do so. The nature of her injury seems unclear and you're playing with fire by ignoring the doctor's orders, IMO. Moreover, the fact that she felt pain during practice also points to the fact that she hasn't properly rested - she shouldn't have any kind of pain during her rest period.

I understand that the situation is tricky because your daughter's ankle sometimes stops hurting, but I think that you need to reinforce that her safety (and the doctor's orders, logically) comes first. If you let her get away with doing gymnastics when she's in pain, she'll get the message that it is okay and might continue doing so even if she has a more important injury later on.

I don't mean to be harsh, just a reminder to be careful and to follow doctor's orders