Parents Spondylitis

[Really]

So... we found out Halloween morning. This has been the hardest thing she has ever gone through. Her back doesn’t hurt but the X-ray’s definitely show a stress fracture or pars defect. We caught it very early and it’s only on one side. She’s now in a brace and has been out of the gym for almost a month. I need to send her back!! She’s reading, cooking, and playing the saxophone but she’s completely lost her spunk. (I catch her crying all the time) Is there anything she can do while she’s there?? The Dr wants her to sit on the couch and do nothing!! Help!

We are in a state of limbo now with my DD. She started experiencing back pain a week ago so I took her in to the pediatrician yesterday. She got x-rays taken. The ped and radiologist are concerned as they see signs of spondylolysis. We've been referred to a sports medicine doc/orthopedist, but of course they can't even make the appointment for us until Monday. DD is beside herself because the pediatrician says no gym for her until she gets the ok from the specialist. This is so stressful. I can't even imagine what a wreck DD will be if she has to go a month without gym, let alone 10 months the way some of you are describing for your kids!

 

[Klaws]

Get a second opinion if you’re not happy.

 

[Millerleslie27]

We are in a state of limbo now with my DD. She started experiencing back pain a week ago so I took her in to the pediatrician yesterday. She got x-rays taken. The ped and radiologist are concerned as they see signs of spondylolysis. We've been referred to a sports medicine doc/orthopedist, but of course they can't even make the appointment for us until Monday. DD is beside herself because the pediatrician says no gym for her until she gets the ok from the specialist. This is so stressful. I can't even imagine what a wreck DD will be if she has to go a month without gym, let alone 10 months the way some of you are describing for your kids!

I truly hope she’s okay!! And does not have to go through what we are going through. When our orthopaedic surgeon saw our X-ray’s he called us Immediately and told me to get her off the floor. Hopefully “signs of spondylitis” means your DD doesn’t have it yet! Sending good thoughts your way!!!!

 

[Really]

I truly hope she’s okay!! And does not have to go through what we are going through. When our orthopaedic surgeon saw our X-ray’s he called us Immediately and told me to get her off the floor. Hopefully “signs of spondylitis” means your DD doesn’t have it yet! Sending good thoughts your way!!!!

Sad news. The sports doc/orthopedist confirms that it is both spondylolysis AND grade 1 spondylolisthesis (slippage of about 20-25%). DD is out for at least 12 weeks. She's "served" about 3 weeks of that time and will miss the entire competition season. Luckily after the initial shock and tears, she seems to have settled into her usual optimistic determination to soldier on, and is looking forward to rehabbing the injury and regaining all her skills as necessary. Any success stories about recovering from these types of back injuries would be greatly appreciated, as well as any cautionary tales that wiser parents have to share...

 

[Millerleslie27]

Sad news. The sports doc/orthopedist confirms that it is both spondylolysis AND grade 1 spondylolisthesis (slippage of about 20-25%). DD is out for at least 12 weeks. She's "served" about 3 weeks of that time and will miss the entire competition season. Luckily after the initial shock and tears, she seems to have settled into her usual optimistic determination to soldier on, and is looking forward to rehabbing the injury and regaining all her skills as necessary. Any success stories about recovering from these types of back injuries would be greatly appreciated, as well as any cautionary tales that wiser parents have to share...

I’m am so sorry. I’m glad you posted to give an update... I’ll be sending good thoughts your way! We are still at home in the brace. We visit the gym and bring treats once a week to spread Christmas cheer. It seems to be helping... we are currently 7 weeks out.

 

[IreneKa]

Sad news. The sports doc/orthopedist confirms that it is both spondylolysis AND grade 1 spondylolisthesis (slippage of about 20-25%). DD is out for at least 12 weeks. She's "served" about 3 weeks of that time and will miss the entire competition season. Luckily after the initial shock and tears, she seems to have settled into her usual optimistic determination to soldier on, and is looking forward to rehabbing the injury and regaining all her skills as necessary. Any success stories about recovering from these types of back injuries would be greatly appreciated, as well as any cautionary tales that wiser parents have to share...

I'm really sorry. I'm probably going to sound harsh, but I don't think she should go back to gymnastics with this injury. Spondylolysis is one thing, but spondylolisthesis is much more serious. I don't have any personal experience with it, but I've done a lot of research while my DD was battling her back issues, and spondylolisthesis seemed to be the injury which is almost impossible to come back from.
Even if she does come back, she would need to be very careful with what she can or cannot do, keep up with her strength\flexibility exercises (constantly, not just until she is better), relearn the way she does certain skills, avoid the back bending skills, etc.etc. She would need a very knowledgeable PT who is familiar with gymnastics and can lead her through recovery (those are very hard to find), and she would need very supportive and knowledgeable coaches. Without all that there is a good chance she will damage her back further and will be in pain for the rest of her life (ask @bogwoppit ).
Again, I'm really sorry, I know what you are going through, my DD had to quit gymnastics because of her back and we were all devastated. But gymnastics is only for a few years, while she will need her back for the rest of her life.

 

[NutterButter]

The spondylolisthesis would be game changer for me in keeping my DD in the sport. I would not be comfortable risking further slippage. My DD is 10 months post-diagnosis with spondy. It was a tough comeback. She was out for 3 months and did PT for several more months. She had to re-learn landings and how she moves so that the correct muscles are engaged. She still has to keep up with all the exercises she learned in PT. She still has discomfort and has to modify training as needed. Along her journey she has learned what is 'normal' feeling for her back and knows when to pull back. She is managing her injury. A couple months ago her back pain increased more and the usual training modifications weren't working. She was also experiencing pain in different vertebrae. She stopped all tumbling and went back to the ortho and had another MRI. No new fractures and her old ones have healed. There was some swelling which the ortho said was to be expected. Since then she has started tumbling again and is feeling pretty good after taking a rest from tumbling.

The reality though is that this has been so stressful on my DD, DH and I. I question myself whether she should just retire. Every. Single. Day. I question this. My DD does not want to quit. She's a junior and only has 1.5 years left and I've resigned myself to doing what I can to help her finish the sport on her terms. It's hard though. All the uncertainty around her pain and wondering whether her back is broken again. All the frustration DD has because she's going to be a 2nd year L9 and she feels like she has nothing to show for it in terms of upgrades. The sadness of seeing DD come to terms with the fact that her goal of L10 her Sr year won't happen and also her goal of possibly competing D3 won't be an option either. Yet with all of this stress and frustration and I still consider DD to be fortunate. Fortunate because she has an ortho and PT who are experienced with gymnasts. Fortunate because her coaches are supportive. Fortunate because she has made a successful comeback despite the struggles. This is all for spondy which clinically has 'healed'. I don't think I would have the comfort level to send DD back to the gym if she had spondylolisthesis. You can't reduce slippage. That sounds like a whole other level of stress.

 

[thefellowsmom]

My dd is almost five successful years out from a spondy diagnosis - no slippage - she was 9 at the time. She has not had any back pain in years and we no longer consider this an injury she has to worry about going forward. Even so, she still does her back PT several times a week (along with knee and ankle PT exercises she has aquired along the way) even this far out. She still limits her back walkovers and does no front walkovers or limbers or bridge down and back ups etc.

We have always had the rule that if her back slipped even a little she would be done. She has known this and is very diligent in caring for herself in order to keep going. Our rehab story is somewhat different than others, she never took any time off and never wore a brace (several different reasons for all this very specific to her circumstances).

I know exactly what it is like to have a kid that isn’t ready to give up and to be a parent ready to do whatever to find a way forward. We went through many practitioners before we found the right ones and her ortho told her she should quit gymnastics. She wasn’t ready and I did a ton of research. We found a chiropractor/manual therapist that was able to help her rehab through this injury. I don’t think she would have made it without him. She still sees him at least once a month and will continue to until she goes off to college or is done with gymnastics.

Finding the right practitioner and doctor is absolutely vital if you are going to give this a go. Not just someone that will run through the protocols but one that will actually address and fix whatever caused the problem in the first place (the actual reason, not just the assumed reason) and who will see her through all the way back to the extreme stress of gymnastics.

But, honestly the slippage diagnosis would be a deal killer for me. I know it is hearbreaking. I can feel all of our heartache even as I type this. I’m so sorry.

With all that said I think there was one person on here who’s daughter came back with a slippage diagnosis but I can’t remember who or whether they are still here or even if her daughter is still doing gymnastics. If they are still here maybe they will chime in.

Good luck and please keep us posted. Hugs!

 

[Really]

My dd is almost five successful years out from a spondy diagnosis - no slippage - she was 9 at the time. She has not had any back pain in years and we no longer consider this an injury she has to worry about going forward. Even so, she still does her back PT several times a week (along with knee and ankle PT exercises she has aquired along the way) even this far out. She still limits her back walkovers and does no front walkovers or limbers or bridge down and back ups etc.

We have always had the rule that if her back slipped even a little she would be done. She has known this and is very diligent in caring for herself in order to keep going. Our rehab story is somewhat different than others, she never took any time off and never wore a brace (several different reasons for all this very specific to her circumstances).

I know exactly what it is like to have a kid that isn’t ready to give up and to be a parent ready to do whatever to find a way forward. We went through many practitioners before we found the right ones and her ortho told her she should quit gymnastics. She wasn’t ready and I did a ton of research. We found a chiropractor/manual therapist that was able to help her rehab through this injury. I don’t think she would have made it without him. She still sees him at least once a month and will continue to until she goes off to college or is done with gymnastics.

Finding the right practitioner and doctor is absolutely vital if you are going to give this a go. Not just someone that will run through the protocols but one that will actually address and fix whatever caused the problem in the first place (the actual reason, not just the assumed reason) and who will see her through all the way back to the extreme stress of gymnastics.

But, honestly the slippage diagnosis would be a deal killer for me. I know it is hearbreaking. I can feel all of our heartache even as I type this. I’m so sorry.

With all that said I think there was one person on here who’s daughter came back with a slippage diagnosis but I can’t remember who or whether they are still here or even if her daughter is still doing gymnastics. If they are still here maybe they will chime in.

Good luck and please keep us posted. Hugs!

I don't know if the responses were to the OP or me, but I'm going to respond like the last 3 posts were addressed to me, so pardon the narcissism Your points about an experienced orthopedist and PT are well taken. The ones we are working with are on-staff for the local D1 university gymnastics team, and they are cautiously optimistic about DD's "recovery". Recovery is in quotes because the orthopedist thinks that we could actually be dealing with a congenital spinal deformity (grade 1 spondylolisthesis) that afflicts 3% of the population; most of that population is asymptomatic, of course, because they don't do gymnastics and so never have the stress put on their spine that gymnasts do. That being said, the orthopedist did outline a course of action for us if we want to pursue gymnastics for DD, as he has not ruled it out entirely for her (particularly if we never push her to upper optionals), but it would require PT and modifications of training and routines on her part. This injury has cut short DD's L6 season. In fact, she didn't get to compete at all. My goal for her at this point is to have closure on a joyful and confidence-building gymnastics career. I don't think DD will have closure unless we rehab this injury and let her have at least a few meets competing as a L6 or L7 (she was on the cusp of competing L7 when the injury hit). So the current plan is to have her rehab the injury for the next 9 weeks, see where we are, then proceed with caution for another year with the goal of hanging up her grips and transitioning into another sport or areas of interest. DD is leaning towards trapeze and circus, although there's an Olympic and World Champion diving coach who's expressed an interest in coaching her. The hard part is that DD's true passion is gymnastics, and it will be hard to convince her that giving it up is in her best interest.

 

[Millerleslie27]

My DD was cleared! Of course with restrictions... only 3 days a week 2 hours a day, and no hypertensioning. DD also gets to go to PT!!! We have a long road ahead of us please send good vibes our way!

 

[Really]

My DD was cleared! Of course with restrictions... only 3 days a week 2 hours a day, and no hypertensioning. DD also gets to go to PT!!! We have a long road ahead of us please send good vibes our way!

Congrats! That is FANTASTIC news! Hopefully it lifts her spirits, but not so much so that she rushes into training. My DD started PT on Monday, and has been cleared to do light conditioning (ride a stationary bike, climb the rope, do chin ups/pull ups) after 6 weeks of "rest" from the gym, as well as dance-throughs of her floor routines (taking out any archy poses and leaps and jumps), do her PT exercises to lengthen her hamstrings which were apparently super short because she was keeping them tense/contracted all the time, resulting in her having to use her lower back to extend her body fully, thereby contributing to her injury. The definition of our sports doctor for what was "rest" was basically: no gymnastics. She was still allowed to run and play like a regular kid at recess and after school, so very different than your doctor, and may be why my daughter never got in a big funk or started showing signs of depression. We still have to get 2 more xrays to see how the pars is healing, and to make sure no further slippage is occurring. Then will come the tough part for her dad and me: to decide if we will let her continue with one more season of gymnastics or move on to another sport. DD is definitely wanting to stay in gym; her father and I are leaning towards pulling the plug due to the back injury. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Really]

Gymcastic has a podcast episode where Peng Peng Lee discusses how she quit gymnastics at age 14 because of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis, but then came back a year later to make a run for the Olympics and eventually compete for UCLA. So I guess gymnastics is possible with both, just probably still highly inadvisable... https://gymcastic.com/346-peng-is-here/