Parents Elbow Fracture - What to Expect

[NY Dad]

Thanks, she's feeling okay. She's enjoying getting lots of extra attention from family/friends. Inactivity for the last two days has been difficult for her. She's on regular Advil/Tylenol and thats doing the trick as far as pain (though her arm above the cast and her fingers are crazy swollen).

She seems mentally ready to get back to the gym (at least for conditioning)

 

[LizzieLac]

It is hard for kids to understand the concept that time provides perspective and that we all have the benefit of being able to look back on things. The best way to get her to internalize that is to help her take one day at a time. Each day is a day closer to being healed and each day she has the opportunity to do something that contributes to her recovery.

 

[kris]

Both my older two girls broke their elbows about a year apart, and needed pins. My gymmie broke hers at the gym when she was 5. She did gym for eight years after that with no issues from her elbow after it healed. My older DD's break sounds more like your daughter's in that it took longer to heal, they had to wait for the swelling to go down before doing surgery, and they had to keep doing x-rays every few weeks to make sure the break was healing in place. Her break was across a growth plate. She's fully grown now and also no long term issues beyond a scar from the surgery. Sending get well vibes for your gymmie!

 

[Texasmomof3]

My dd broke her thumb/wrist and ds broke his arm in two places. Over the years, I've seen lots of breaks at gym, including elbows. Good news is, they are kids; they tend to heal really well. Their growth plates are still open and that helps with healing.

One thing we found with dd is that she needed three different casts over six weeks, as her first two casts kept coming off. The swelling went down, and the cast was too loose and would fall off. So if you see any cast movement or it appears loose once the swelling goes down, take her back. It is better to re-cast it than to let it be loose.

With ds, it was hard for them to align the breaks, so he needed to have his arm re-set twice and it was a longer process. He still healed, though. You just have to give it time and listen to the doctors.

I hope your dd is already feeling much better. Be sure she takes a sharpie with her to gym to get all of her teammate signatures.

 

[triplethreat+1]

I have no experience to share but am sending healing prayers your way! Your dd is the cutest little gymmie. I hope she heals well and continues better than ever!

 

[e'smum]

your poor kid! (((hugs))) to her. i hope she heals quickly!

 

[profmom]

Very sorry to hear this! My daughter had a similar injury (full displaced fracture of the humerus just above the elbow) due to a beam fall toward the end of her sojourn at L5. Here's our story. She had pins placed the day after the accident. Her arm was immobilized (but not casted) for three weeks. At the end of that time, the pins were removed surgically and she was in a sling as the healing continued. Our orthopedist believed in minimizing the time that the elbow was immobilized, as the longer it's locked up, the harder it is to regain full mobility in the joint.

As soon as the pins were out, she started PT for the joint. At first, bending it at all was very painful and difficult, but after a few months, she had regained almost the same degree of mobility as she had before the accident (her left elbow went about 10% to hyperextension and the injured right one got to around 7%). The bone healed perfectly.

The thing we were not expecting is that in the course of breaking the arm, she also incurred significant nerve damage. We first became aware of this after the swelling went down and she had a maddening tingling sensation going into her hand. Then she discovered that she could not move her thumb through her ring finger at all. We consulted with her doctor and were advised to wait and see what would happen. Fortunately, the nerve path regrew. Unfortunately, this can take a long time. The neuralgia she experienced from about a week out to about three weeks out was actually far worse for her than the pain from the break. She had to relearn how to move her whole hand -- her dominant one, of course -- and was in a hand brace for months to keep the tendons in her hand from shortening. She was in PT to recover hand mobility due to the nerve damage for far longer than for the bone break.

Her accident was in April. In November, she competed a L6 bars routine. Her right hand was fully functional, but she had no feeling in it at all, so she could not feel the bar when she caught it after her squat on. I'm still amazed that she was able to do it.

She still hates doing full turns on the beam on which she fell, but she never looked back from the accident and is now a L8 gymnast, a very good artist, and a modestly accomplished violinist.

Best wishes to your daughter. If they'll let her come in and do a little conditioning every practice, it will help a lot to keep her spirits up. Gymnasts don't thrive when they are cut off from all workouts! Plus the social support from teammates is critically important to stave off depression.

 

[NY Dad]

profmom, Thank you for sharing. It’s very helpful to hear your story. I sent you a PM.

Initially we were told that pinning wouldn’t be necessary but after the bone was aligned in the ER the doctor said that there’s a good chance it will need to be pinned (today is the follow-up) and if he was 100% certain that it needed to be pinned he would have done it when he aligned the bone in the ER.


Regarding PT, we thought we would look for a PT that specializes in sports medicine (we haven’t found one yet but that hasn’t been a priority) to get her back to the gym and recovered quicker.


When we were in the ER I asked about nerve damage and the doctors said there was none. (I was under the impression that they would already know if there was damage). I didn’t realize that it might not be known until later. I have been concerned with nerve damage so I’ve asked my DD to move her fingers every day and I also asked her if her fingers hurt. They are purple and swollen but she can move all her fingers.


My DD was hard casted in the ER but they used a saw to fully cut through the cast on both sides (and wrapped it in something like an ace bandage) to allow for swelling. Saturday night I was worried b/c her arm above the cast was puffing and a little purple and her fingers were a little purple. This morning I can see the swelling has gone down enough to give her are a little room. She’s got her follow up appointment today (to check if the bone slipped and as far as I know, recast since the swelling has gone down they don’t want too much wiggle room in there.


The gym has called me and told me that as soon as she gets doctor okay they would like her back to the gym they would like her to come. It sounds like she’ll work on conditioning. I think that’s a great idea.

 

[NY Dad]

I just got a quick update from my DW. DD's Bone is still in place so no pins for now. They won't recast for 2 weeks b/c they are concerned that could cause the bone the slip. (They will X-ray again next week too). Ortho said no activity for 4 weeks and PT won't be necessary (but we can do it if we want).

I feel much better now. Thanks for listening.

 

[NY Dad]

Minor edit, doctor said no activity (including gymnastics for 6 weeks). I'll have my DW ask again at the follow-up next week. It sounds like others have had similar/worse injuries with less than 6 weeks of no activity.

 

[NY Dad]

I'm not seeking medical advice.

I was okay with 4 weeks off but after all the comments from others who's DD/DS were back in the gym within a week, 6 weeks seemed like a really long time so I called the doctor and asked.

He said she can do non-aggressive activities at home as long as there's no risk of her falling (except weeks 4-6 when the cast is removed she shouldn't do any activity) but she needs to wait 6 weeks to go back to gymnastics and dance.

I said that at gymnastics she would just be conditioning, stretching, working other parts of her body. I told him there was no specific risk of her falling. She's part of a team. I want her to be there for her morale to stay connected to the team and gymnastics, give her an outlet, give her something to do.

He repeated that she shouldn't go to the gym for 6 weeks. When I asked him to explain why he said that if something happened and the bone slipped she would need surgery and risk further damage and it would just be because I wanted her to get back to gymnastics too quickly. He said at a gym the kids are going to be horsing around and an accident is more likely to happen.

I told him they are all disciplined athletes (at least I think they are). I said there's more horsing around at a birthday party (I didn't tell him but she was at a birthday party on Sunday). She's a cautious kid. I said there are coaches that will oversee her conditioning, they often work with injured athletes and understand when a parent tells them what their child can and can't do.

He said that he doubts that my child is heading to the Olympics and 6 weeks shouldn't be an issue. Finally he said (he was frustrated) to use my judgment but I'm really going to regret it if something happens and they need to do surgery and risk permanent damage.

I'm not sure if he's ignorant about gymnastics or if I'm totally off base. The only time I've been to the gym was to watch a private lesson which was during the holidays so the gym was empty. I know no one can address the gym my DD goes to but am I right? I get the sense that its a pretty controlled atmosphere.

 

[Texasmomof3]

Honestly, I see plenty of kids is casts and braces doing things the doctors would not be pleased to see. When my dd broke her hand, she did zero tumbling, zero apparatus work. But i see girls in arm casts doing front and back tucks. I see girls in foot boots doing front and back walkovers on low/floor beams. I cannot imagine any doctor actually approved any of that.

Dd had a friend with a broken shoulder who would try to swing the bars with one arm while in a cast on the other one. The coaches would tell her to get down, but these girls do push limits all the time, and plenty of coaches are willing to look the other way.

 

[skschlag]

I agree. I see girls take boots off to swing bars, ad they say it is no big deal because they aren't tumbling. Or they do full turns on beam with a cast on an arm. Gymnasts are not always the most careful

eta: Not just girls, honestly. Boys will push thru injuries too, or do things that are ill-advised. Sometimes it is best to stay out of the gym, or just go in to be a part of the group, with no activity.

 

[sce]

Each injury and child are different. Sounds like for proper healing she should stay out of thegym. She is young and level 2, she will catch up once she heals. First priority though is proper healing.

 

[NutterButter]

You really aren't in a position to know from an online forum whether other children here have had a worse injury than your DD. It's two more weeks than you were expecting. Your DD is young and a L2. Listen to the doctor and give her body time to heal.

 

[duyetanh]

Um...ok....here goes...
You have to know your child. If you are not watching her practice, you cannot monitor....so it's the honor system...I honestly don't know of any gymnast out there would not be tempted to at least try some things they probably shouldn't do yet. So....if you can't monitor it, you have to trust your kid not to push the limits. Please don't take offense when I say that your child, from what you have posted, seems like one who tests the limits, as that is what most gymnasts and other athletes do...and even the ones who don't get tempted do this if they are stir crazy. If you are concerned that your daughter won't stick to the program the coaches set, I would talk to the coaches...it sounds like they are eager to have her come back, so you can talk about what she is able to do....bearing in mind that when girls are injured, there are times (often!) they are on their own while the coaches coach those who can participate in everything. I am sorry for your child, but it does sound like a promising road to recovery, and in the big scheme of life, if she has to do stuff at home instead of gym, I am sure you will see that she does it and doesn't test the limits. Good luck to you all...sometimes it is harder on us as parents I swear....

 

[duyetanh]

I agree. I see girls take boots off to swing bars, ad they say it is no big deal because they aren't tumbling. Or they do full turns on beam with a cast on an arm. Gymnasts are not always the most careful

eta: Not just girls, honestly. Boys will push thru injuries too, or do things that are ill-advised.

This. I see it all the time and I cringe!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

My child has had 2 injuries. Wrist and foot. Foot was a fracture (a tiny one).

My experience the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I lean toward the doctors advice.

As a side note even if your child is going to the Olympics, 6 weeks will not make much difference. If your girl is Olympic bound she will get there.

Have her do what she can and what you all are comfortable with. Umm that means, her, parents, doctors, finally coaches. Us, here on CB (while we have lots of opinions and experience relative to us) are the least of it.

I will tell you from my one childs perspective. She was miserable with the wrist injury and found it much more limiting then her foot injury. She didn't like practice with the wrist as there was not a lot for her to do. She begged me not to go for the foot and I said lets see what you can do. She found out she was fine. And she went to practice in her boot, and no she did not take it off until she was medically cleared to.

She is 6 weeks out, missed a meet. Next meet coming up, just started full out floor tumbling. May be the meet will s*ck, thats fine she qualified for states. Maybe it will be business as usual. States next, probably wont do as well as she would of if not for the injury. Thats fine, its not the Olympics, Nationals or even Regionals.

What is important is she tumbled on floor this week, on her terms without pain. Little affected regarding her "standings" or "level". And her skills are progressing. That is what is important, her skills are progressing.

Let her heal, use this as an opportunity to learn how to deal with limitation and get a feel for what are physical issues and what are mental.

For us the biggest lesson in all this is my kid is getting an idea of what is a I'm working out pain and what is an "issue" pain. That and a good understanding of that pain scale.

I know it s&cks now but down the road it will matter less and less. Here is to her quick recovery..

 

[Deleted member 18037]

You really aren't in a position to know from an online forum whether other children here have had a worse injury than your DD. It's two more weeks than you were expecting. Your DD is young and a L2. Listen to the doctor and give her body time to heal.

This

 

[gymgal]

Most orthos give that advice when asked. That's why we don't ask. ;-) seriously though, if your child's injury isn't stabilized, you have to be a lot more careful with it, but know that she could injure it just as likely in school at recess or playing in the house. Ultimately, the decision rests on you and you have to be ready to accept responsibility is another injury occurs. She is a level2. It won't take her long to gain her skills back even if she stays home the entire time. You could have the coach give you a list of conditioning for home use