WAG Wrist pain after injury

[mllea2]

Hi, does anyone have experience with prolong wrist pain after a stress reaction in the wrist. My daughter hurt her wrist 8 weeks ago and it was confirmed a stress reaction via MRI. She still is not back in Gym because she is still having wrist pain while tumbling and doing anything that requires her wrist to flex (?), like a handstand.
PT just thinks weak muscles due to injury and time off in gym is causing pain however it is becoming increasingly frustrating. Anyone have experience with this? TIA

 

[2G1B]

My son had stress fractures of both wrists years ago. He was out of all events for 7 months (missed that season). For some kids it takes more than a couple of months to heal. (I know this is likely NOT what you wanted to hear.)

 

[Deleted member 18037]

And when she is ready to go back. Also rice bucket exercise and Tiger Paws

 

[mom2gymnast]

Sadly we have too much experience with this. Mine had growth plate stress fracture confirmed on MRI. After about 9 weeks of immobilization, she continued to have pain and eventually had a contrast MRI and ended up with a complete tear of her TFCC ligament and a partial tear of her scapholunate ligament. Surgery was 5 months ago and she still has pain and is very limited on what she will do.
My advice is keep pushing for answers if the pain does not start to get better! We could have chalked this up to all of the same things that you mentioned but it would not have gotten better without surgery.

 

[profmom]

Yeah, wrists can take time. Unfortunately you really do need to wait it out and let the injury heal completely. With stress fractures and other bone injuries, the time table is usually pretty straightforward, so if you're outside of that window, you may need another scan to get answers. Was her wrist completely immobilized for more than a few weeks? If so, I'd be more inclined to think that your PT is right. Nevertheless, if the pain is still a problem even with PT, a contrast MRI may be necessary to see if there's also cartilage/ligament damage. Remind her and yourself that a serious wrist injury could put her entirely out for several months, so even if it's frustrating to have to wait a few more weeks for full recovery, it's far better than the alternative. (Note: veteran parent of two gymnasts' stress reactions, growing pains, tendonitis, currently have one recovering from ganglion cyst removal and awaiting results on MRI contrast for the other one. Yeah, that's just the butcher's bill for wrists around here, lol!)

 

[coachmolly]

I'm dealing with something similar with an athlete. She fractured a growth plate in both wrists a little less than a year ago (before I coached her) and was cleared over the summer to start coming back just as I began coaching her. She was never able to do much of anything without pain before fracturing her thumb at a school. Now that she's cleared from that she can't do anything without pretty significant pain. Mom told me yesterday that I should start pushing more and that she thought the pain was just from not using the muscles for so long, but I'm unsure. Hopefully the road back isn't quite this long for your daughter!
Keep doing the PT and whatever gym-related activity the PT recommends, but if there is no change in a few weeks I would head back to the doctor. I'm a big believer in listening to a kids pain and while some soreness/stretching/weakness will probably be felt after a long break from using a body part, I feel like actual pain is a little more concerning.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Pads, supports, helmets are required in so many sports. To protect athletes.

I simply don’t understand why Tiger Paws or other similar brand of support is not required in gymnastics. This sport is hard on wrists.

My daughter had a minor wrist injury a few years back. She has been in tiger paws ever since. And I truly believe if she had started wearing them proactively, she might not of had the wrist injury at all.

 

[tpMom]

Have they checked the rest of her arm?

My daughter had a wrist injury last April. Got cleared to go back to the gym but always seemed to have pain. She was seeing one PT who thought the wrist was just weak from the injury. She did several treatments with this PT, did her home exercises religiously, and saw no improvement.

One day the PT was out sick so her supervisor was covering for her. He spent 2 minutes looking at DDs arm and determined that she actually had an ELBOW injury, which probably occurred with her wrist injury or right after. The tendons in her elbow were completely inflamed and the pain was radiating to her wrist. We switched to the new PT, started treating the elbow, pulled her totally out of practice for another 6 weeks and now she's as good as new.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Stress injuries develop over time. If the gymnast continued to do the sa e things they did leading up to the injury, the problem will continue to happen.

I find the most common cause of wrist pain in gymnasts who have a tendency to turn their hands out on skills, does your gymnast do this?

 

[rosettasmom]

Stress injuries develop over time. If the gymnast continued to do the sa e things they did leading up to the injury, the problem will continue to happen.

I find the most common cause of wrist pain in gymnasts who have a tendency to turn their hands out on skills, does your gymnast do this?

my daughter did this. new club is fixing old terrible form and sure enough, her wrists feel 100% better!

 

[coachmolly]

Stress injuries develop over time. If the gymnast continued to do the sa e things they did leading up to the injury, the problem will continue to happen.

I find the most common cause of wrist pain in gymnasts who have a tendency to turn their hands out on skills, does your gymnast do this?

This is how the kid who fractured growth plates in both wrists I mentioned above did it. She hasn't gone back to tumbling yet, but we are fixing it before she starts back handsprings again.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

She isn’t back in gym because of the pain but it hurts when tumbling ? Where is he tumbling ? We have a no brainer rule , 2 weeks of conditioning prior to pressure. 1 to 2 weeks of pressure prior to tumbling ,