wrist suggestions please

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flippymonkeysmom

Ok - my dd is having major issues with her wrist. We went to the ortho and he said it was tendinitis. She was supposed to be in a wrist splint for a full month (which would be until the 25th) Anyway - of course that was unacceptable to her - summer training is too much fun - and the doctor said she probably won't make it worse if she uses it moderately (yeah right). We have been icing, she's using tiger paws during vault and tumbling, and she has been doing wrist strengthening exercises. It started feeling better for a few days - which means she started working hard on it again. Yesterday and today she was doing giants (regular bar, not strap) and that has just killed it again. Now we are back to square one. She is in a lot of pain to put any pressure on it. Has anyone had any experience with this?? She is getting so frustrated because mentally she is so focused right now and really wants to work.
 
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Ooooh me too, among other problems. I'd take the time off. I eventually HAD to because I couldn't even flex my wrist (much less put weight on) without extreme pain, but luckily it was summer anyway. Now is the time. I just did a lot of stuff without hands. Giants don't hurt mine as much (when I can put weight on it) but some stuff on bars does. But it hurt less in undergrip (front giants) because my wrist was straighter. Maybe she can work on something like that on strap - I would tape the wrists. Actually I will do things like HSs on floor bars (or P-bars) because it hurts less so if she wants to do something like presses I would suggest on some floor bars set parallel.
 
I think the strap would bother it on strap bar. I think she is going to have to go back to doing things that won't aggravate it again and keep working on strengthening it. The bars for presses is a good idea - that way she doesn't have to flex the wrist to work them.
 
Putting on my Physical Therapy hat here...

Tendonitis is one of those annoyances that doesn't go away easily. A comprehensive program of rest, ice, STRETCHING and STRENGTHENING is a must. (strengthening both the wrist and grip strength). The rest alone usually helps, but without the stretching and strengthening portion, it will be easily irritated again (which seems to have happened here). I don't think that you mentioned any anti-inflammatory meds, but taken on a regular basis in combo with the above can also help stop the cycle of irritation.

If you have access to an orthopedic physical therapist (who is familiar with young athletes) it would probably be most beneficial to your daughter.
 
She has been doing strengthening - but I guess not long enough to make a difference yet. Thanks so much for the suggestions :)
 
Sorry to hear about the tendonitis - I have had it in my shoulder several times and it is VERY painful.

I hope she feels better soon
 
It is really hard to tell a gymnast to take a break. The idea of going even just a day without gymnastics can drive them crazy. But the break is essential for her wrist to heal in order for her to be able to continue to progress in her gymnastics. Can you have a chat to the coach and organise for her to continue training but follow a different training program to the other girls where she does not do things with the wrist.

There are lots of things she can work on such as leg flexibility, static and active leg flexibility, conditioning for her lower and mid body. Lots of conditioning exersizes can be modified to work for her. Like holding shapes on her elbows instead of her hands and so on. She can work a lot of her floor skills like leaps, jumps, turns, balances and holds. She can work her floor routines and just leave out the acrobatics and tumbling. She can work her beam skills as well with leaps, jumps, turns, holds and so on. Some tumbling work would be ok too. Front and back tucks and layouts of course, general trampoline stuff that does not require hands and so on.
 
I agree w/everyone else here. I, too, know how frustrating it can be to try to "keep them down." DD broke her collarbone 2 weeks ago and she's driving everyone around here crazy, but I really think that allowing any injury to heal properly is better in the long run!!!

I took DD to MY gym w/me this a.m. to work out her lower body on some of the leg press machines, etc. She also did cardio on the stationary bike. Is that a possibility where you are? At least she can try to keep up her strength and cardio while she's "resting!"

-Lynn
 
When I had to take Bigger Baby Bog out of gym for five weeks we stepped up swimming, biking and walking. She also had a programme that the sports therapist wrote for her to follow twice daily, it more than kept her busy and even though she hated not being in the gym I have found that being there can be just too tempting sometimes.

She has had enforced breaks quite a bit in the last two years, she is a bit behind the others now, but hey she can walk without pain and that has to be worth so much more than the loss of a few weeks of gym.

Her 5 week break has done wonders for her pain, but I am still vigilant and she still has to take care as now she understands that she (and not every girls who does gym) is susceptible to tendon issues.

I totally understand how frustrating this is for her, and you. But the cost of not taking care of this now is just too great, chronic pain is very unpleasant and long term physio is very, very expensive. :eek:
 
I agree with everyone else that rest combined with strength is probably the best thing. And when she does go back, ramp up SLOWLY. If there's any pain, back off. Tendons/ligaments are very touchy and hard to heal. Does she wear a wrist splint during the day so she's not using it much in day-to-day activities? That might help it heal faster.

You might also want to consider acupuncture. It can be very effective for things like this.
 
I would go in and tell the coaches how much pain she's in and make sure they watch her also and keep her off bars and vaulting for awhile otherwise you're just going to go back and forth with this and she'll get to a point of real frustration. No, these kids don't want to sit down or take a break, but she has to or she'll end up losing part of a season. Better a little rest now than alot of time off later.
 
Ok - my dd is having major issues with her wrist. We went to the ortho and he said it was tendinitis.

Has anyone had any experience with this?? She is getting so frustrated because mentally she is so focused right now and really wants to work.

Hey, I hear what you are saying. My 10 year old has had wrist pain since February and been on restricted activity since April. From April to the end of May she still did vault and tumbling with a tiger paw on her right hand, but then the doctor told her no weight on her wrists, period. Here we are now in mid-August with no improvements. We are going to see a hand surgeon at the end of this month for a 2nd opinion. The ortho doctor said he's confident it's an overuse injury that will get better with rest, but he said we could go see this other guy just to make sure there's nothing that he's missed.

Meanwhile, my daughter is going crazy to get back into the swing of things. She's been going to practice only 1-2 times per week and doing lots of conditioning, leaps, jumps, turns, etc. We only have 3 months to the first meet, so she of course is very frustrated that this is taking so long to heal. :gloomy:

She was told not to do any strengthening exercises until the pain goes away, but I've been kind of wondering if that's true or not.
 
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The frustrating thing to me is that many gymnast have somewhat undiagnosable injuries. Many gymnasts have loose ligaments which can cause pain even without an official injury. We also tend to pound on joints differently than other sports, and I don't think many doctors understand how to deal with gymnasts. And when I'm tested for strength and ROM, it appears normal for the general population, but it's not normal for me. I've had injuries to both knees and my arm (only one of them actually being from gymnastics) and all three times my doctors have been unhelpful. I feel like I'm diagnosing and curing myself.

Maybe you could get your daughter into an activity that will help her gymnastics while she heals. What about doing ballet? Or putting her in a trampoline class? Both of these would be wrist-friendly, but still allow her to make progress with her gymnastics.
 
I put her back in the splint until she goes back to the doctor next week. I told her coach this morning how much it is hurting - but my dd just doesn't seem to understand what not putting weight on her wrist means. Before I left this morning I was talking to another mom and I looked over and she was doing back walkovers, front limbers, etc. I went over and asked her what she was doing and she said - just warming up - so apparently that doesn't count. Then when I picked her up she said she didn't do too much tumbling - just some bhs back tucks and layouts. I was like - hello - you really are blond aren't you!! (I can say that b/c I am the blondest of them all, lol). Anyway - since she obviously is going to keep using it unless she can't, I told her she has to keep the splint on. I don't think she realizes how much time she spends on her hands instead of her feet.

Thank you all so much for your support - it really sucks when they have injuries doesn't it !!!
 
Hey, I hear what you are saying. My 10 year old has had wrist pain since February and been on restricted activity since April. From April to the end of May she still did vault and tumbling with a tiger paw on her right hand, but then the doctor told her no weight on her wrists, period. Here we are now in mid-August with no improvements. We are going to see a hand surgeon at the end of this month for a 2nd opinion. The ortho doctor said he's confident it's an overuse injury that will get better with rest, but he said we could go see this other guy just to make sure there's nothing that he's missed.

Meanwhile, my daughter is going crazy to get back into the swing of things. She's been going to practice only 1-2 times per week and doing lots of conditioning, leaps, jumps, turns, etc. We only have 3 months to the first meet, so she of course is very frustrated that this is taking so long to heal. :gloomy:

She was told not to do any strengthening exercises until the pain goes away, but I've been kind of wondering if that's true or not.

Wow! That looks a lot like my story. I was reading this and I could really relate it to my problem. Here it goes,

I've had wrist pain for almost 1 year now. At the begining of last year, I woke up with this, strange pain in my wrist that no one (doctors) could tell me what it was. They told me all the possible things, sprain, moved bones, broken bone, overuse injury, torn ligament, and even a bone disease.

Once, I went to a physio, and he told me he could feel a little bump, which felt just like a ganglion (cyst). He sent me to see another doctor, who then told me that if you can't see the bump, then it's not a cyst.

So I went and saw another doctor, then another one, and then another one. And I went through almost all the test for the wrists, like an x-ray, a CT scan, and an MRI.

The MRI, was the only test that showed something, a cyst, but the doctor who sent me for this test, told my dad that this wasn't the problem, it couldn't be.

I was almost sure, from all my reasearch on the internet, that this was the cause of my wrist pain.

So we went to a plastic surgeon, and he finally made the diagnose that this cyst, was for sure the problem. So I lost my whole season because of this cyst, and I might loose this season too. But I'm so happy that someone finally told me what was the problem. :eek:

Now, I just need to find a surgeon who wants to get this thing out of me!!!:D
 
I put her back in the splint until she goes back to the doctor next week. I told her coach this morning how much it is hurting - but my dd just doesn't seem to understand what not putting weight on her wrist means. Before I left this morning I was talking to another mom and I looked over and she was doing back walkovers, front limbers, etc. I went over and asked her what she was doing and she said - just warming up - so apparently that doesn't count. Then when I picked her up she said she didn't do too much tumbling - just some bhs back tucks and layouts. I was like - hello - you really are blond aren't you!! (I can say that b/c I am the blondest of them all, lol). Anyway - since she obviously is going to keep using it unless she can't, I told her she has to keep the splint on. I don't think she realizes how much time she spends on her hands instead of her feet.

Thank you all so much for your support - it really sucks when they have injuries doesn't it !!!

NO BACK WALKOVERS!!!!! Those are some of the worst for me, hurts more than BHS really at the worst times. I'm now at the point where I can do BWO most of the time (a reasonable amount) without wrist supports but I still sometimes have strike pain on it. Seriously I will send her a message or something ;) Even tick tocks are better for me because the weight transfer is less abrupt. Also I know girls who have things casted because they couldn't/wouldn't stay off it, or got non-removable casts, or were flat out told they should stop going because the doctors figured it would be too tempting. So I guess you could tell her if she can't keep the splint on and limit flexion, she will have to take time off from going at all.
 
Once, I went to a physio, and he told me he could feel a little bump, which felt just like a ganglion (cyst). He sent me to see another doctor, who then told me that if you can't see the bump, then it's not a cyst.

So I went and saw another doctor, then another one, and then another one. And I went through almost all the test for the wrists, like an x-ray, a CT scan, and an MRI.

Yeah, the orthopedic told us that he could feel a bump in my daughter's wrist too. The first x-rays she had didn't show much, so she had a MRI too. They told us that the MRI did not show a cyst or a fracture; however it did show low level stress responses. I'm not sure what that means, but he told us to have keep resting. Well she's gone through the whole summer vacation with no improvements. Anyway, we are seeing the hand specialist on the 26th, so we'll see what comes of that. My daughter is getting upset though. She's been talking about quitting gymnastics if it doesn't get better soon.
 
Yeah, the orthopedic told us that he could feel a bump in my daughter's wrist too. The first x-rays she had didn't show much, so she had a MRI too. They told us that the MRI did not show a cyst or a fracture; however it did show low level stress responses. I'm not sure what that means, but he told us to have keep resting. Well she's gone through the whole summer vacation with no improvements. Anyway, we are seeing the hand specialist on the 26th, so we'll see what comes of that. My daughter is getting upset though. She's been talking about quitting gymnastics if it doesn't get better soon.

Oh yeah?! well, maybe she also has that. It's very common in gymnast's wrists.

Maybe the MRI didn't show the cyst because it was smaller then usual. They grow, and then they get smaller, and then they grow again. It's often like that with these.

You know, sometimes I also wonder if I should quit too. But I do think that now, it doesn't only affect me with gymnastics, it's for everything! I can't lift my dog with that hand. (I have a toy puddle lol). Sometimes, when it hurts too much, I can't even dress up with that hand.

It's really, an everyday problem, not only with sports. And I know that once I get that sugery, if everything goes well, I'll be able to do everything I use to do, including my favorite sport! That's what keeps me going. :eek:
 
My DD also had a ganglion cyst in her wrist. They are "lumps" right at the joint in the wrist. It would get large and hurt, then it would get small again. Finally it got REALLY HUGE and I made a Dr.'s appointment for the following Monday (this was a Thursday). She went to gymnastics practice Friday night and "popped" it during her tumbling. Problem solved, for now. Yes, they do have a tendency to come back. And the "old fashioned" remedy used to be slamming them with a book to pop them and let the fluid drain. (I am NOT kidding... google ganglion cyst)

-Lynn
 

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