Parents Spondylolisthesis

[Amel2007]

My daughter has been having lower back pain since right before the Holidays. We consult a very good chiropractor regularly. This week, since my daughter’s pain won’t go away after multiple adjustments and exercices, the chiropractor said that she suspected spondylolisthesis. She has restricted what my daughter can do at practice until next week, when an X-ray will be done to confirm her hunch. The chiropractor asked us to massage the spot where it hurts (ligament is very tight) and put ice for 10 minutes every 45 minutes. Has anyone else had experience with spondylolisthesis? If so what was the treatment? How long was your kid out of gym? I think I need a bit of reassurance...

 

[NutterButter]

Time is the treatment then PT. Lots and lots of PT and a very slow transition back to the gym and skills. If your DD has spondy, she will have to learn and regularly do exercises to keep her core engaged and also re-learn some things in the gym (like landings and dismounts). Spondy doesn't always show up on an x-ray so you should push for an MRI. There are several good threads on spondy here and I recommend you do a search and read on up what other's have experienced. It's a tough injury to comeback from but is possible. My DD is exactly 1 year post diagnosis. She just got all of her skills back about 2 months ago (she's a L9). She was out of the gym completely for almost 3 months but started PT 8 weeks post-diagnosis. Some kids are braced for a portion of time but mine never was.

 

[NutterButter]

One more thing that I wanted to mention. There's a difference between spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis and it's easy in the beginning to confuse the two words. The one you mentioned - spondylolistheis - is much more serious than spondylolysis. Do you know which one your chiro suspects? I'm curious how a chiro can detect the slippage that indicates the more serious spondylolisthesis.

It looks like you posted this message in the WAG forum too. I also agree with Bog that an ortho with experience treating gymnasts will be most qualified to treat your DD.

 

[Really]

My L6 daughter was diagnosed with both spondylolisthesis (vertebral slippage) and spondylolysis (stress fracture) in November. The treatment was 4 weeks full rest with only light conditioning (exercise bike, chin ups, stretching. NO running or jumping or swinging on bars), then started very light PT after 4 weeks (massage and stretches) that's rapidly increased to a massive list of 20 exercises she has to do every day, so what Nutter Butter says about "lots of PT" is no joke . It was 8 weeks before my DD was allowed to run and jump again. She is currently 11 weeks post diagnosis and has been cleared to vault (it's L6 so just timers, no hard surfaces for her yet), swing bars and add tumbling. She still is not allowed to dismount onto a hard surface from bars or beam, nor to do bar skills up to vertical because of the risk of overbalancing and arching; nor can she do front or back walkovers or handsprings. Her coaches have alternative skills planned for her to meet routine requirements and those are what she's working on for L6 states in a month. Happy to talk about those if it gets to that point for your DD.

My DD's spondy showed up pretty clearly on the xrays; in fact, to answer Nutter Butter's question as to why the chiro might suspect spondylolisthesis, my DD's orthopedist could actually palpate her spine and feel an indentation where the slippage of her vertebra occurred over her sacrum. It's possible that Amel's chiro can feel the same thing with her DD. Amel, you will find a lot of information on this board, but there's something I learned that never popped up on any of my CB searches on the topic that I wanted to put down here for future searchers. You will need to have at least 4 xrays (maybe MRI's too like Nutter Butter says) done if she has spondylolisthesis: a front xray, a lateral xray and a flexion xray and extension xray (one is where she's arching and then another when she is bent over, I can never remember which is which! ) The first two will determine the grade of the slippage (amount that it's slipped). The latter two are critical for determining the instability of the slippage if she does in fact have spondylolisthesis. So if she DOES get the spondylolisthesis diagnosis, it is very important to know if the doctor considers the slippage stable vs. unstable as well as the grade of slippage, so be sure not to leave your doctor's office without that information!!! If it's a grade 1 (least severe) but stable slippage, she can still be cleared to do gymnastics again. This is what my daughter has, and it's apparently not uncommon for gymnasts with this grade and stability to progress to the highest levels of the sport with diligent self-care and knowledgeable coaching. If it's an unstable slippage, that's when you will run into potentially career-ending problems. So spondylolisthesis and spondylolysis are very serious conditions, but not necessarily career-ending, esp for lower level gymnasts. I did not know to ask the stability question, and spent an entire 4 weeks in a great deal of anxiety over my daughter's back that I could have been spared if I'd just asked at the first appointment.

I hope that helps. It is a very stressful thing when your child has a back problem! Happy to answer any more questions and provide any sort of emotional support for you here on the board or via PM. Stay calm and try not to worry. Let us know how the doctor's appointment goes.

 

[Mrsboots87]

My daughter has grade 1 spondylolisthesis. Hers cannot ever be “fixed” as she has congenital bilateral pars defects of her L4 to L5 and spina bigeda occulta. All sounds so horrible but she has been doing well. Her neurologist cleared her for gym stating that the core and back strengthening is good for the condition to an extent. Her back and leg pain is almost non existent now but there are some skills she can’t do so she competes Xcel to not have to. And she competes with a high ranking gym and is placing well at large competitions.

I know for acute spondy, it’s an actual injury that requires treatment because their is pain and such involved. But there is a great chance very your kiddo will be competing again once healed enough. The important part is seeing if there is a cause to the spondy outside of gym workouts. While an X-RAY May show, and MRI is a better option. The MRI is how my daughters congenital defects were found and helps with her “treatment” (this was found years ago before she was competing).

My daughter has strict instructions to stop her workout if her back hurts and if it becomes to painful on a regular basis, she may have to quit permanently. She will have the option of PT, but since this can’t become a long term college goal for her, she may just quit when the time comes. Only get one spine and all. But again, she has other spinal issues. More just posting so you know even if this is chronic, continuing is a possibility.

Sending some healing vibes your way to get her through PT and back on the floor quickly if this ends up being the case.