Parents Stress Fracture Questions

[3LittleGymmies]

My daughter has been complaining of right lower leg pain (on the inside of the leg) for over a week. She is pretty tough, and I know that she is down playing the pain. I took her to the pediatrician who ordered an x-ray. He showed us a "line" on her tibia that he thought was a stress fracture. But the radiologist said that there was no fracture. Weird! She has been icing her leg (even at school) and resting it when she's home and claims that helps a little. She says that it hurts more when she's NOT practicing. I have heard that stress fractures can not always be seen on x-ray. Is that true? If it was a stress fracture, would it be normal for it to hurt more when she's NOT doing gymnastics then when she is? I have not noticed it affecting her gymnastics at all, and I have not seen her cringing or anything on her tumbling or vault. Practices really seem to be totally normal. It's when she's just walking around the house, sitting still, or going up and down the stairs that it hurts. She doesn't want to unnecessarily miss practice time if it's nothing, so we compromised that I would make her an appointment with the sports medicine doctor on Monday if it's not feeling better by then. I just thought that some of you may have some ideas.

 

[LizzieLac]

I would see an orthopedic or a sports med doc. You need someone with a specialty - pediatrician is too much of a generalist. I have heard that faint stress fractures will not appear on standard xrays. An MRI might provide better diagnostic. I seem to recall another test where through IV material is injected near the location and can help highlight what is otherwise hard to detect. Good luck, I hope it is nothing serious.

 

[Midwestmommy]

If it were me, I would not take my daughter to a pediatrician for this. I would take her to one of the three orthop. speciality clinics in our area, one of which is where many of the athletes go and has walk-in hours in their acute injury clinic until 8pm. (so you don't have to pay an ER copay). Fortunately they are "in network" for my insurance and also don't require a referral. It is true that sometimes small fractures (e.g. in the growth plate) may not show up on the initial xray after an injury, but will show up four+ weeks later when the calcification (not sure if that's the right word) starts showing up white on the xray where it is healing. I am not a doctor and not giving you medical advice. But I personally am more comfortable with an orthopedic specialist given the amount of stress gymnasts put on their body compared to average kids..... this is not medical advice, but just my personal noneducated opinion....

 

[3LittleGymmies]

@Midwestmommy, I would have done that.. but we are new to our gym (we moved from a different state/different gym a few months back) and I could not get anyone on the phone on that day to find out if there was a specific sports medicine doctor they use. I still wanted to get her in to see someone just in case it was something bad. Since then, I have had time to talk to the gym and I now know which sports medicine orthopedist they use (she was also a former college gymnast). It is actually the same one that our pediatrician recommended. I am absolutely planning to make an appointment with her if it's still bothering her by Monday. You mentioned a white line, and that is what is shown on the x-ray.. not a dark line. Her pediatrician actually said that it could have been calcification from a healing stress fracture.. but then the radiologist came back and said that there was nothing there. I wonder if there are any other common lower leg ailments for gymnasts other than stress fractures...

 

[3LittleGymmies]

This is a photo of her x-ray and I put a little arrow by the white line. She does have a lot of little "white lines" on her x-ray down by her ankle too, though.. so maybe it's the same as those (calcifications?). I guess we will find out when we see the orthopedist!

 

[SignHere]

If the Orthopedic specialist is Terri McCambridge, she's very good. I'd highly recommend her. My older DD saw her for a stress fracture in the wrist.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

This is a photo of her x-ray and I put a little arrow by the white line. She does have a lot of little "white lines" on her x-ray down by her ankle too, though.. so maybe it's the same as those (calcifications?). I guess we will find out when we see the orthopedist!

whoa!!!!!!!!!! i don't know what concerns me more. the fact that you have "5girlsand1boy" or that i can EASILY see the stress reaction in her tibia in this medium. that is clearly a stress reaction, hence the line. THAT needs to be looked at by someone else. AND, you/her/coach need to figure out what might be causing that in the gym.

i don't want to go in to what could happen due to the location of that "line" in relation to where the tibial head is, but if that becomes a "thru and thru" it could have serious implications.

 

[iwannacoach]

whoa!!!!!!!!!! i don't know what concerns me more. the fact that you have "5girlsand1boy" or............

Definitely two girls over the limit!

 

[Seeker]

Please....no practice til she's seen by a specialist. Good luck.

 

[SignHere]

Definitely two girls over the limit!

The mind boggles!!!

 

[3LittleGymmies]

I really appreciate everyone's input/advice!

@dunno, it's true.. we have five girls and one boy! They are all great kids. But yes, that's a lot of girls! Our son is the oldest at 10, and he is an amazing big brother to five crazy little sisters. Thankfully, we only have two gymnasts (so far)!

Oddly enough, my daughter came to me last night and asked what on earth was all over her leg. I was shocked to see ringworm ALL OVER the inside of her right leg. Now, having six kids, we have had ring worm several times.. but never this much. It was quite the sight! And the more I thought about it, I remembered that right around when she started complaining of pain, she also complained of itching in the same area. But there was nothing there and I thought that it may have just been from her dry skin and the heat that we have been running at night. Three days ago, she showed me two tiny red dots on her leg.. but they looked just like plain old skin irritation. And now this... ack! She has started on a skin cream and oral medication and thankfully it is quickly disappearing and she has said that her leg pain already feels so much better. I had no idea that ring worm could cause such pain and for that long before it shows up on the skin, but apparently so!

Now, that all being said... I am thinking this is a blessing in disguise and I am glad that we had the x-ray done. She will still be seeing the orthopedist on Wednesday so that we can look more into those "lines" on her x-ray. I will update here after that!

 

[iwannacoach]

Now, that all being said... I am thinking this is a blessing in disguise and I am glad that we had the x-ray done. She will still be seeing the orthopedist on Wednesday so that we can look more into those "lines" on her x-ray. I will update here after that!

When I started reading your recent post my reaction was Noooooooo, it's never that simple. I read further and was relieved that you will follow through with the ortho because you never know until you're sure, and even then the only thing you may know for sure is that you are sure you've got it figured out and couldn't possibly be wrong.

It's not always that simple..... especially with an x-ray like that.

Express my sympathy to your eldest.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

Oh I totally agree, @iwannacoach... that is why I said that it's a blessing in disguise that the ring worm took as long to show up as it did. I am pretty sure the pain IS from that since it started feeling so much better once we started treating it, BUT I am soooo glad that we had it x-rayed and may be able to deal with whatever else is going on before it becomes a bigger issue.

 

[iwannacoach]

Oh I totally agree, @iwannacoach... that is why I said that it's a blessing in disguise that the ring worm took as long to show up as it did. I am pretty sure the pain IS from that since it started feeling so much better once we started treating it, BUT I am soooo glad that we had it x-rayed and may be able to deal with whatever else is going on before it becomes a bigger issue.

Here an interesting question for the doc. Can ring worm cause problems for other parts of the body having nothing to do with skin, Like increasing sensitivity in near by injuries.... kinda like the leg I broke 25+ yeas ago hurting when there's a large scale shift in the weather.

Wadda ya think. Is it going to snow?

 

[3LittleGymmies]

I wanted to update about this! My daughter saw the orthopedist today. There is no stress fracture! She said that the lines on her bones are (insert word that I already forgot here) which are caused by getting a high fever as a child and your bones temporarily stop growing (like a tree that has lines). Very interesting! She couldn't find anything wrong with her and thinks that it's either shin splints or growing pains. But she can practice as usual!

 

[iwannacoach]

Nice!

 

[LizzieLac]

great news!!

 

[htimcj]

Fantastic news!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

you got me on this one. wish you could remember the name. great news though. i went back and looked at the pic and still said holy crap.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

That's wonderful!