Women Pain after injury healed

[gymmomtotwo]

Has anyone's gymnast had lingering significant pain after a fracture or other injury has healed. We've had 2 experts confirm that she is healthy and cleared for gymnastics yet she is still in pain, and can do very little. Any experience with this. She is beyond discouraged, and way too young to have to give up her passion.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

A little more info. She has had 2 mris, been seen by two experts, the fracture is clearly healed, ocd has been ruled out twice. She completely rested for over 3 months and has done a significant amount of pt.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

How old is she.

Is this "pain" inhibiting anything else in her life.

Could fear be presenting as pain

 

[curlygirls]

Has anyone's gymnast had lingering significant pain after a fracture or other injury has healed. We've had 2 experts confirm that she is healthy and cleared for gymnastics yet she is still in pain, and can do very little. Any experience with this. She is beyond discouraged, and way too young to have to give up her passion.

I’m so sorry that your dd is going through this. Both of my daughters have returned to gymnastics after fractures. They both experienced pain that they had to work through when they returned. They said that they had to learn the difference between “sore pain” that comes from reusing parts of the body that have been inactive, and “injury pain” that tells them that they need to stop what they are doing.

If you don’t think that’s the case for your dd, could it be nerve pain? Is that something her doctors have looked into?

 

[Jacy Keith]

I just came back after my bones got sings in them in my ankle and the first few times I did my back handspring it hurt but you have to figure out what your comfort level is with different skills you will have to work through the soreness or pain and it will ease up a bit but you may still have some pain

 

[Aussie_coach]

As curlygirl mentioned, it is very possible that the pain is related to the under use of the area. Certain muscles and ligaments will have been completely active for the entirely of her recovery. Working with a physiotherapist may be the solution, they will have seen that type of thing many times before.

Perhaps an evaluation for Pedeatric Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, if the physio is unable to help. We have had gymnasts with this condition. It often occurs after an injury has healed, the gymnasts brain starts to misinterpret pain, starting in the injured limb the child is feeling actual severe pain, with no physical cause because the brain is registering it incorrectly. We have seen it get very severe if not caught early enough, to the point of kids being in a wheelchair. Not wanting to alarm anyone, but if a child is experiencing ongoing pain with no diagnosable cause, it is quite important to make sure this is looked into.

 

[Mommyo2az]

Elbow fracture? My DD fractured her elbow in January and has experienced pain on and off since coming back. Mostly with specific skills (back handsprings) so she has eliminated them as much as possible. Doctor said it could partially be extensor tendinitis and probably a little fear about reinjury.

 

[kecks]

pain is always generated by your brain. certain neurons are firing in a certain pattern which makes you feel "pain" of this sort in this part of your body. most of the time the brain does this to alert you of an injury in the body so you no longer use this body part and give it a chance to heal. if an injury has been around for some time - longer than a few days, let's say the injury and thus the pain has been around for weeks or even month, the brain has learned that this "pain pattern" of neuronal activation is the new normal. there is no set "normal" for the human body. the body and especially our brains always adapt to current situarions. they evaluate these situations by using the patterns that they have been using for some time and of which they think as "normal" because these are the pattern the brain is used to at the moment. it even molds in a plastic way into these activation patterns, neuronal connections which are used often (f.e. because you are experiencing pain in the injured body part") get stronger just like a muscle you are training every day. basically this is how we remember anything at all, memories are certain activation patterns and if you are using them more often (train more often a certain move, repeat every day the new vocabulary you wish to commit to memory, practice makes perfect) they get stronger every time.

problem is, pain works the same way. the brain has activated the pain pattern connected with this injury so many time over the last few month it continues to do so even if the injury is already healed. it does this now even without being prompted by the injured body part that it is injured and therefore now hurts. feeling this pain just became the new normal for the brain. it takes a lot of time to overcome this "pain memory". mostly you get over it by working through the pain, accepting it, not avoiding it, once you are cleared by the doc. the brain has to learn that there is no pain anymore, that all is fine. this is tricky and can lead to reinjury, especially with young children who are to young to understand the process.

the pain experience is therefore very, very real even if the injury itself is no longer there. pain is pain, the neuronal patter in the brain is the same no matter if the pattern got activated because of a still exitisting injury or because it is just the new normal, the memory of the pain from the injury. this is not fear or anything like this. it is probably just the brain being itself. it needs time to adapt to a new normal far away from the old pain pattern it got used to over the last few month.

 

[txgymfan]

Kecks, thanks so much for your input on this thread. In future posts, please use capital letters. Correct grammar makes posts much easier to read.

 

[mls529]

I don't have advice, but my DD is dealing with the exact same thing after a broken foot. She has had xRays and MRI, and is completely healed and cleared based on doctor, but says "it still hurts when I tumble or run." This is still happening 2 months after being out of her boot and back at gym. She pushes through, but I am also struggling on what to do.

 

[Gymbird4]

My daughter also had lingering pain after she was cleared from a very severe hand injury after lots of recovery time and pt. She just pushed through it and practiced like normal and she said it got better after a while and now it only hurts her occasionally. How much has your daughter used her hand after getting hurt?