Dr Hive & Dance Moms...

[shinyhappypeople]

For about 10 days DD has been having leg pain in her right leg, on the inside side of the calf (does that make sense?).  It starts an inch or two above her ankle and stops a few inches below her knee. It always hurts a little (very mild, slightly annoying pain), but when she dances it hurts more and more until, by the end of class tonight (a 2 hr class) she said it hurt enough that she was thinking about sitting out the rest of the class.  

 

How it started: she had dance camp last week, 3 hrs a day for 5 days.  On day 1 she walked there (about a mile) also.  She hasn't had any dance class or strenuous exercise since then, until today.

 

What could this be? Google is failing me.

 

(Yes, if it doesn't heal with rest we'll go to the doctor, but until then....)

[slackermom]

My dd's dance pain is in a different spot, but the injury sounds similar.

 

I just took my own dd to the doctor today. She had 18 hours of dance camp the first week of August, and on the 9th, halfway into her first practice post-camp, she started to feel significant pain in her foot around the ankle, and spreading. There was no specific fall or twist. She sat out the rest of class after giving it a couple more attempts.

 

We had her skip dance and rest/ice/compress/elevate it since then, without improvement. So, today they said they were concerned about a possible stress fracture, but the pain was not specific to an expected bone location. Thus, we should assume a sprained or torn muscle or ligament, and they have dd in an air boot for a couple of weeks to see if that does the trick.

 

I hope your dd feels better soon. My own dd is very bummed about not being able to dance for a while. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it goes away.

[Guest]

Stress fracture?

[Ali in OR]

The "inside the calf" reminds me of shin splints--yeah, I know, a running injury. Still, you can google it and see if anything sounds like a fit. Whatever it is, the treatment is probably rest!

[shinyhappypeople]

So... shin splints (probably) or stress fracture (maybe?) ...

 

Last night I found out that she can't properly flex her right foot, her ankle is really, really stiff.  Could that be part of a shin splint?  

[gingersmom]

Patellar tendinitis?

[Pippen]

My dd's dance pain is in a different spot, but the injury sounds similar.

 

I just took my own dd to the doctor today. She had 18 hours of dance camp the first week of August, and on the 9th, halfway into her first practice post-camp, she started to feel significant pain in her foot around the ankle, and spreading. There was no specific fall or twist. She sat out the rest of class after giving it a couple more attempts.

 

We had her skip dance and rest/ice/compress/elevate it since then, without improvement. So, today they said they were concerned about a possible stress fracture, but the pain was not specific to an expected bone location. Thus, we should assume a sprained or torn muscle or ligament, and they have dd in an air boot for a couple of weeks to see if that does the trick.

 

I hope your dd feels better soon. My own dd is very bummed about not being able to dance for a while. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it goes away.

 

If this were my dancer, I'd also try above advice to sit out completely for a week, rest/ice, etc. If still no improvement I'd take her to the sport clinic.  

[lollie010]

I agree with rest, ice and Epsom salt baths for a few days. If not significantly improving, I would head on in for an evaluation. We just spent our entire summer in physical therapy because we allowed DD to push through the pain during spring showcase.

[shinyhappypeople]

Doctor at the clinic said it was muscle strain and to rest it for 4 days and use warm compresses. I'm not convinced, but we're going to do what he says and see what happens.  I'm not convinced because she HAD been resting it (4 days!) between dance camp and her next dance class and it got worse, not better, so... yeah.  That's that.  I hope she gets better.  She loves dance and would be so bummed to have to quit (the group she's with is a year long commitment, so if she can't dance this fall, she's out until next year).

[Guest]

Doctor at the clinic said it was muscle strain and to rest it for 4 days and use warm compresses. I'm not convinced, but we're going to do what he says and see what happens.  I'm not convinced because she HAD been resting it (4 days!) between dance camp and her next dance class and it got worse, not better, so... yeah.  That's that.  I hope she gets better.  She loves dance and would be so bummed to have to quit (the group she's with is a year long commitment, so if she can't dance this fall, she's out until next year).

 

If that's the case, I would take her to a sports doctor or a different clinic who will listen to you/her.  If you don't think it's a muscle strain and it turns out you're right, then she could be out much longer than a year recovering.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

If that's the case, I would take her to a sports doctor or a different clinic who will listen to you/her.  If you don't think it's a muscle strain and it turns out you're right, then she could be out much longer than a year recovering.

 

 

I think I agree with this.  

 

If it IS a muscle strain, I would encourage some muscle rolling.  Interestingly, I went searching for a calf rolling youtube video for you, and found this video:

 

 

 

What is interesting about it, is buried in the comments, someone asks about their inner calf muscles being strained from running (The Posterior Tib) and what to do about it.  The expert in the video responded with "Roll and stretch".  Then she also recommended a link which was broken, but I dug around and found this insanely informative blog post.  Maybe it will help you and your dancing DD to pinpoint the pain and how to treat it.  With the pictures and diagrams it's really informative!

 

http://athletestreatingathletes.com/posterior-tibialis-strain/  

[dancingmama]

My dancing daughter is also dealing with an injury on her leg, ankle. I'd definitely get her in to see a specialist. We put it off much too long. She ended up in a boot for a month and limited dance since then and it still bothers her even after physical therapy. All that to say that they discovered that her right femur is longer than her left and is causing her to smack one leg harder into the ground then the other. If she wears a lift in her shoe, she's ok. But dance, lift... Yeah, it's been fun adjusting her dance shoes. Anyway, before all that there were a million things it could have been and it took quite a bit to figure out what it was.

 

Also, my daughter also dances competitively. Will her studio not give her a pass if she's injured temporarily? At ours, you have to come in and watch but you're still on team and they do choreo with and without you. MOF, we have one girl who was out the entire audition process due to back surgery and she was still placed on team and is fitted into dances with the understanding she might not even be able to dance this year.