Parents OCD of elbow stage 1

[CB_gym]

Need some advice please! Anyone has any experience without OCD’s surgery and early stage ? It’s your DD still continue gymnastics in progress healed ??
My Dd have been diagnosed OCD elbow stage 1,she’s 11 year old And also she want to compete next week and the last on early December,and the doctor said she need to rest her arm up to 3 months,also he want her stop/ retire gymnastics because if she continues possible ocd will go back,we also discussed with her doctor about her meet and he agree to give her ibu profen and wrap her elbow during meet/practice.
Is my DD will still be able continue her gymnastic after she completed meet the last on december doing conditioning or she need to retire gymnastics like her doctor said. Its broke my heart when I heard he want my DD retire gymnastics.it’s hard for me to make decisions right now.

 

[gymjunkie]

You didn't share enough info about your daughter's situation for me to for me to really form an opinion, but are you going to get a 2nd opinion from a different ortho? What level is your daughter and was there an injury or is this overuse?

 

[Aussie_coach]

Yes, one of my gymnasts has OCD of the elbow and had surgery. She was not allowed to use her arm for 1 year after the surgery.

It was fine, she continued to train. We did lots of strength and conditioning and flexibility. On floor lots of leaps, jumps, turns, lots of saltos and aerials.

On beam again lots of leaps, jumps and turns. On vault we switched up all her handsprings and Yurchenko drills with saltos, layouts, twisting, 3/4 layouts etc. the others would handspring over the table and she would layout over for an example.

We did lots of trampoline drills, twisting etc.

She couldn’t do bars at all. So every day I wrote her a seperate conditioning and flexibility program to do while the others were in bars.

At the end of her year of no arms she was the strongest she had ever been. All the extra time spent conditioning and developing her salto skills made her into one of the best and strongest gymnasts in the gym. Once she was back to full training, she just flew.

She continued to train for many years after and never had a problem with the elbow again.

 

[CB_gym]

You didn't share enough info about your daughter's situation for me to for me to really form an opinion, but are you going to get a 2nd opinion from a different ortho? What level is your daughter and was there an injury or is this overuse?

Oh sorry!! she had a Chondral injury in the capitellum in her elbow and still stage 1. and this is her first time get injured. She’s level 5 right now, and she started gymnastics when she was 7 years old. No I didn’t get the 2nd ortho yet,because we just got this diagnosed 2 days ago.

 

[CB_gym]

Yes, one of my gymnasts has OCD of the elbow and had surgery. She was not allowed to use her arm for 1 year after the surgery.

It was fine, she continued to train. We did lots of strength and conditioning and flexibility. On floor lots of leaps, jumps, turns, lots of saltos and aerials.

On beam again lots of leaps, jumps and turns. On vault we switched up all her handsprings and Yurchenko drills with saltos, layouts, twisting, 3/4 layouts etc. the others would handspring over the table and she would layout over for an example.

We did lots of trampoline drills, twisting etc.

She couldn’t do bars at all. So every day I wrote her a seperate conditioning and flexibility program to do while the others were in bars.

At the end of her year of no arms she was the strongest she had ever been. All the extra time spent conditioning and developing her salto skills made her into one of the best and strongest gymnasts in the gym. Once she was back to full training, she just flew.

She continued to train for many years after and never had a problem with the elbow again.

I’m glad to hear this story, My DD still don’t need surgery, hopefully she doesn’t get it in the future. Her ortho said she need to rest up 3 month,especially avoid weight bearing and get back to him for following up. I’m worry when she continues gymnastics,ocd will get back to her.

 

[txgymfan]

Tell her and her coaches she is not allowed to use her arm in practice. If she does, pull her from practice for 3 full months. If you know any staff members or parents of other gymnasts that are there ask them if she is using her arm.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I’m glad to hear this story, My DD still don’t need surgery, hopefully she doesn’t get it in the future. Her ortho said she need to rest up 3 month,especially avoid weight bearing and get back to him for following up. I’m worry when she continues gymnastics,ocd will get back to her.

We went through the same process with our gymnast. When the OCD was first diagnosed, she was told that she was not allowed to use the arm for 3 months and it would then be reassessed.

We did the same program as what we did after the surgery. I adjusted her training so she did not use her arms. The 3 month break did not do the trick, so she then had to take the surgery and by that time she was quite used to the programs I had set for her and we had no issues carrying on as we had been previously.

Issues like this can be hard, but they can also be wonderful, if we look at them positively. This gymnast was quite average, until she had to have the year of not using her arm. Once healed she went from being an average gymnast to a phenomenal gymnast as she had done so much additional flexibility and strength and tumbling work. She equates so much of her success as a gymnast to having this injury.

It is now about 8 years later and she has stuck with the sport and gone on to become a coach and earn an income from the sport.

The OCD built her strength mentally and she learned not to let anything stop her or get in her way, she learned to be flexible and she learned that all set backs can be advantages in life if you allow them to be. What great life skills to take with her into the future.

 

[Gym Monkey]

My daughter was diagnosed at 13 with elbow OCD. She was Level 8 (Australia).
She had a small piece of cartilage tear off, so she had to have surgery to have it removed, and had microfractures done to the OCD area to encourage cartilage repair. She did no weight-bearing on her arms for about 6 months afterwards, we decided to take a very cautious approach. She did plenty of strength, flex and aerial skills in that time, her coach and gym were very supportive. She had a rehab program from a sports physician and physiotherapist who were familiar with gymnastics. She did not do any bars or vault for 9 months. I was amazed at how well and how quickly her skills returned. Some skills she had struggled with, were even better than before, eg giants on bars. After only being back training on bars for 3 months, she won a bronze medal at state championships. She has now just turned 18. Her elbow has not given her any more trouble, she does full training, but avoids some skills that put a lot of stress on her elbow eg yurchenko, front hand spring. This year she achieved her dream of qualifying for the state team, and competed at Australian championships, winning two silver medals. (just before COVID locked us down again!) It is possible to return from this injury, but my advice is to be very patient and don't rush the recovery.