Parents knee injury?

[mom2newgymnast]

Hi everyone. I'm not asking for medical advice here, just wanted to see if anyone has first hand experience to share.

My daughter hyperextended her knee about a week and half ago. She didn't hear a pop or feel anything that dramatic. But she was doing a FLO FLO on the floor and I guess just landed funny. She had some moderate pain and swelling and it felt stiff and hard to straighten. We took her to the urgent orthopedic care place the next morning. They examined her, did x-rays, and said they thought it was just a sprain. We scheduled a follow up which was yesterday. Over the past week, every day she said it was feeling better and better. Still a little hard to completely straighten and a still felt "tight" but she was walking on it and felt good about it. She still went to practice but was only doing core and conditioning stuff.

At the appt yesterday, the doctor said it was still swollen. He did a bunch of maneuvering of the knee and leg and there was a little pain in a couple of positions. But he said maybe it was just a bone bruise or maybe something else. He wants to do an MRI to check the acl and meniscus. They were supposed to call after checking with insurance yesterday or today, but I didn't hear from them. I'm pretty sure they are closed Monday, so hopefully I'll heard from them on Tuesday. Then we'll have to schedule and do the MRI and meet with the doctor to discuss, which will take who knows how long. All before she can do anything at gymnastics because we don't want to make anything worse, which I totally understand.

Of course, my concern is with meet season which starts in 2 weeks. If the MRI finds nothing and nothing is torn, I think she'll probably still need some pt, but shouldn't hopefully miss too much of the season. If something is torn, what could she be looking at? I've done a lot of reading so I know that it's possible to mess them up pretty badly without realizing it, but I don't think the doctor suspects it's that bad. I think (hope!) that this is more to rule that out. Has anyone had an MRI and realized that it was worse than they thought? Anyone had it show nothing and been able to compete relatively soon after. Ugh, the waiting is the worse part. I'm already past the cancellation date for the hotel for the first meet and the second meet involves flying. I just dislike the uncertainty and am trying to understand the different possible outcomes here if that makes sense.

Oops, I meant to add that she is a level 10 and in 9th grade.

 

[JBS]

If something is torn, what could she be looking at?

If it's an ACL she could be looking at missing season and most of her summer training.

 

[Ty’s Dad]

Last June right before elite season my daughter got off the beam like all the time, but said something didn’t feel right. Coaches called us to take her to the hospital just to check it but nothing was swollen. We got to the hospital and they ordered a X-ray and a MRI (just in case). Doctor got the results to the X-ray and said “yep just like I thought a sprain” so basically a boot and ice at night and stay off of it for about a week. As soon as we got back home (like 15 min) they said we need to come back. Got back and the MRI showed that she had broken her big toe in her growth plate and needed surgery asap

 

[Madden3]

My son had an MRI after injuring his shoulder, and on initial read doctors thought it was likely a tear (of something, don't ask me what now as I have long forgotten) that needed surgery. Weeks later finally saw pediatric orthopedist for a physical exam and he said previous diagnosis was an "over read" and diagnosed bone bruise. We were relieved. But as we discovered, bone bruises can be much more serious than the name implies and in fact it took months to heal and he missed that whole season. Two years later injured the other shoulder and that time he did need surgery and of course missed that season (and never returned to gymnastics as this was near start of shutdown as well.) Both years we lost plane fares as these injuries both happened at start of season. My suggestion, do not drive yourself crazy trying to anticipate anything before you have all the facts and a treatment plan. If you must make travel arrangements while waiting, maybe consider purchasing travel insurance.

 

[raenndrops]

Has anyone had an MRI and realized that it was worse than they thought?

Good luck with the MRI.

On November 8, my brother FORGOT that I was getting out of the car (I was in front passenger seat). I had my right leg out, and I was standing on it. My left hand was on the door and my right hand was on the frame between the front and back doors. Brother decided to park the car, so he drove forward. He did stop when I screamed.
My knee was jacked up to the point that I couldn't put weight on it without severe pain.
I went to the ER for it. It hadn't dawned on me that my right wrist and shoulder both hurt too, so the ER only looked at my knee. It was sprained. A couple days later, when the knee pain wasn't nearly as bad, I realized my wrist and shoulder hurt.
I had done PT/OT over the spring-summer for the wrist and over the summer, we added my shoulder to the PT. Both issues were better before the incident.
I had a scheduled appointment with my family doc on November 22, so that was when I had my "follow-up" from the ER. She wanted me to see the ortho about my knee and shoulder. My wrist resolved itself in the interim (I braced it for 10 days).
I saw the ortho on December 6. I had shoulder x-rays before the appointment, and he had the knee x-rays from the ER visit. For my knee, it was mostly just my arthritis. I got a cortizone shot. For my shoulder, the x-rays showed arthritis, but the ortho wanted to rule out soft tissue injuries. He ordered an MRI just to be safe. Since I had done therapy over the summer, they were able to skip right to the MRI.
I just had an MRI on Tuesday and had my follow-up with my ortho on Thursday. I was expecting him to say that all of my shoulder pain was from the arthritis and give me a cortizone shot in the shoulder. At worst, I figured it might be a mild sprain.
The doctor came in and told me that I have a torn rotator cuff and need surgery to fix it. He showed me the images and then explained what he would need to do to fix it. Because I am me, he needed my pulmonologist and the anesthesiologist to sign off on the surgery. We have to hold off until I am 6 weeks post-Covid (asymptomatic, diagnosed on December 14). The first available surgery spot he has after Jan. 25 is February 27. Recovery will be a minimum of 6 weeks (in a sling for at least the first 2 weeks).
I definitely can't do any spotting until at least mid-April.

 

[Madden3]

raenndrops that is a bummer! So sorry.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Thanks for the replies. Not very encouraging, but oh well. Any positive stories out there?

 

[RTT2]

Thanks for the replies. Not very encouraging, but oh well. Any positive stories out there?

Well, not knee related, but DD hyperextended her elbow on the last day of summer practice. Initially, it seemed pretty bad, but, despite being stiff and sore for a few weeks it turned out to be nothing serious and healed with just some rest. Fingers crossed you get good news!

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Well, not knee related, but DD hyperextended her elbow on the last day of summer practice. Initially, it seemed pretty bad, but, despite being stiff and sore for a few weeks it turned out to be nothing serious and healed with just some rest. Fingers crossed you get good news!

Thanks! I'm really hoping for something like that. When she broke her ankle, it was obvious it was broken. Which sucked, but I knew what to expect. With this, it seemed like a minor problem and she went into the follow up appt thinking they would say it was fine. And the doctor really didn't seem terribly concerned, other than for the swelling. So I'm still trying to be hopeful that he's just being extra careful. It seems like if it was an injury that would take her out for 6+ months, there would be more pain or something you know? I know there is no point in worrying until we know more, but could anyone here honestly say they wouldn't be worried if it was their kid? lol.

 

[RTT2]

Thanks! I'm really hoping for something like that. When she broke her ankle, it was obvious it was broken. Which sucked, but I knew what to expect. With this, it seemed like a minor problem and she went into the follow up appt thinking they would say it was fine. And the doctor really didn't seem terribly concerned, other than for the swelling. So I'm still trying to be hopeful that he's just being extra careful. It seems like if it was an injury that would take her out for 6+ months, there would be more pain or something you know? I know there is no point in worrying until we know more, but could anyone here honestly say they wouldn't be worried if it was their kid? lol.

I was really freaked out when DD hyperextended her elbow- it was the last day of summer practice and had been a fantastic summer of training. It was a fluke thing and very painful initially. I thought it was possible the whole season and all of that work was just gone. Luckily, that wasn't the case. You know you've done all the right things in getting it checked out, it's just stressful waiting to hear the results. Hoping you have the same type of situation we had, and everything is a-ok and she goes on to have a great season!

 

[Madden3]

Thanks for the replies. Not very encouraging, but oh well. Any positive stories out there?

Yes, my older son (not the shoulder injury son) once had a scary hyper extended knee injury- both knees were involved, but one was much worse- so bad he had to be carried off the floor by the coach and into the house by my husband when they got home- and it was a sprain and he recovered quickly. I don't think he even had physical therapy that time.

 

[CuriousCate]

@mom2newgymnast sending you a DM.

 

[ProudGymnast]

Something like this happened to me a little while ago. At a summer camp I decided to throw a front tuck front tuck after not having done them in a while (my tumbling was at the time a fhs front layout). I landed the first front tuck with straight knees. One was overextended and one was just locked. The locked one just didn't feel "right" and was slightly painful, however the over extended one was very stiff, painful, and I couldn't bear weight. I never got it checked out, but I only did bars for a couple weeks and wore a knee brace for a while. It completely resolved itself in 4 or 5 weeks (I honestly don't remember the exact time).

I am assuming it was just a sprain. Mind you, I didn't get it checked out as that same thing had happened a couple times in the gym and been fine. Nowadays, I would to be safe. Wishing you good MRI results if it happens!

 

[breeannthomas]

Time off could range from nothing to months depending on the diagnoses. Our daughter suffered knee pain and found that her quad strength was putting excessive strain on her knee tendons/ligaments. PT for 3 months and babying it at practice was all it took to get her back to top performance, however she continues to focus on her PT exercises to ensure the pain doesn’t return. I on the other hand blew out my ACL a few years ago and didn’t got to the doctor for almost 2 weeks as I didn’t think the injury was anything significant. I ended up with 4 weeks of prehab, surgery and 15 weeks of post surgery before I was cleared for sports activities which still required an ACL brace for at least 2 years.

Good luck! Hoping for a positive diagnosis.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Time off could range from nothing to months depending on the diagnoses. Our daughter suffered knee pain and found that her quad strength was putting excessive strain on her knee tendons/ligaments. PT for 3 months and babying it at practice was all it took to get her back to top performance, however she continues to focus on her PT exercises to ensure the pain doesn’t return. I on the other hand blew out my ACL a few years ago and didn’t got to the doctor for almost 2 weeks as I didn’t think the injury was anything significant. I ended up with 4 weeks of prehab, surgery and 15 weeks of post surgery before I was cleared for sports activities which still required an ACL brace for at least 2 years.

Good luck! Hoping for a positive diagnosis.

Thanks. It took quite a while dealing with scheduling and insurance to get the MRI, so she missed about 5 weeks of training. She still went to practice and PT, but didn't do much but bars. When she finally had the MRI, they said she had had some ligament sprains (ACL and something else I can't remember) and a possible small meniscus tear which the doctor thinks was overread, but that they were already doing fine since she had been resting them for 5 weeks. The pain she was still having was mostly from bone bruises, but the doctor said she could resume training (along with PT) and to just be aware of and avoid what was causing pain. Pretty lucky I guess and she really only has a little tightness/pain still which is great. Unfortunately, the timing sucked and what was looking to be a decent season is pretty much not happening. She's just not at the age/level/whatever to recover, regain all of her skills and be competitive that quickly after missing that much time. Lots of her tears, annoyed coaches and bad feelings going around. She's trying her best though. I have to say that after over 10 years of her being in this sport and 9 years of her competing, I am officially over it. I'm honestly starting to hate gymnastics.

 

[JBS]

@mom2newgymnast That is great to hear that it's not a full ACL tear. Unfortunately she did it at the worst time possible for season... however... she will be back in full swing for summer so she will be ready for next season.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

@mom2newgymnast That is great to hear that it's not a full ACL tear. Unfortunately she did it at the worst time possible for season... however... she will be back in full swing for summer so she will be ready for next season.

The summers have usually gone well for her, but 3 of the last 4 seasons, she's been hurt in the November-January time frame and not had the meet season she has worked so hard for and hoped for. So I guess we'll see what happens this time. I'm honestly not sure what she'll decide. But thanks for the encouragement.