Women Sprained toe recovery / travel meet

[kimute]

My DD (13 yo level 9) sprained the toe next to her pinky toe when it tucked under on a vault landing three days ago. X-ray confirmed no break and she can walk on it, do trampoline, no problem. It is a little swollen and hurts to tumble/land. Not a big deal injury, but we have a travel meet in a 1.5 weeks. I'm not going to change plans yet, we'll see how it feels in a few days. Curious though if anyone has experienced a similar injury and can share the recovery time. Thank you!

 

[2G1B]

OMG. Yes. My DD sprained her big toe in December. I think that she will be scratching her meet next weekend. It won't heal. It seems like such a minor injury but it won't get better. No advice since we can't get past it. She has done a boot, chiropractor, laser therapy, rest...

 

[Muddlethru]

Two things come to mind 1) sometimes if you get x rays too soon, hairline fractures don’t immediately show; so she could still have a broken toe; and 2) if she doesn’t have a broken toe, she might have damaged and stretched the ligaments in her toe. Unfortunately, in my experience, broken bones and stretched/damaged ligaments have very similar recovery period. In fact, bones heal more completely and sometimes faster than torn or stretched ligaments and tendons.

Lastly, in my experience it is better to let injuries heal, no matter how minor they are. This may not be what you want to hear but continuing activity with minor injuries can prolong healing and lead to more major injuries.

All that said, and I hope this is your daughter’s situation, minor strains can lead to quick recovery, sometimes a week or two. But I’d still be very careful not to injure it further.