We ordered a foam roller and a roll of bright blue Mueller tape. And although from the parent bench practice didn't look different she stopped doing anything that crossed the red line of pain.
Her beam took the brunt of it- no aerials and no flick lays. Instead she started connecting a double-down, double-down as her series.
She learned to vault without hurdling. She even tumbles without one. Using a bounder instead AND still is flipping double pikes!!
Rumor has it a pulled hamstring injury has 3 stages. Collectively they take about 6 weeks. We accepted that and we iced, we heated, she used a Tenz, she conditioned, she took it "easy".... and at 5 weeks nothing had changed.
With a college showcase camp looming and all those weeks of not doing her major beam skills, she tried a front aerial. Just on the floor but with beam feet. She was in so much pain she didn't even try to land it.
She cried on and off for 2 days after that. She was a little hurt but more scared that something was really wrong. I think we all were. It was baffling.
That was when I scheduled an appointment with a sports med doctor. There was a week or so wait. We saw her yesterday (and loved her!). Shout out to Dr. Emily Harold at the U of U.
Good news, bad news, turns out Beach has an avulsion fracture along the apophysitis in her hip.
An avulsion fracture occurs when a tendon or ligament pulls or shears off a piece of the bone at the attachment point. Luckily for Beach hers is minor and/or healing without any invasive medical intervention.
She has about 2 more months of modifying her workouts. Both the Doctor and the PT who saw her and her X rays agree she should be good as new with no long term damage IF she lets it heal.
We are glad to have answers. Answers that make sense. We aren't on the other side of this yet but from here I can admit I was afraid we were looking at something that could end her journey within the crazy world of gymnastics. I have talked about the heart breaking retirements from gymnastics, the ones when the body quits before the heart & mind do.
I guess I have always assumed Beach would retire from either fear (tired of always being afraid and under pressure) or competing interests in the outside world. I knew the risks but I never thought it would happen to her and I didn't even realize I felt that way.
When we were sent to X ray, having already ruled out a muscle tear, we knew what they were looking for; a fracture. We had a few minutes to talk about what might be ahead of her. Had her fracture interfered with the growth plate she would have had to stop "everything" for 5 to 6 months to become pain free and not damage the growth plate.
Had it sheered off a large piece of bone or for other reasons needed a surgical pin she would have been out 6 months!
She has been so miserable these past weeks I wondered if her love of this sport was dying. The short answer is; not yet, not here, not over this.
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