My daughter injured her knee on Friday, and as of yesterday, she was still complaining that it hurt.
Ironically, she did NOT hurt herself in gymnastics. No, she strained or sprained a ligament during one of the 20-minute runs she's forced to do during her school PE class. (You know - the one I maintain she DOESN'T NEED because she spends four hours a day in gymnastics.)
My child is tough - and I continue to thank God that after nearly six years of dedicating herself to this sport, she's never had a major injury... not that I would be able to notice right away. She rarely complains of pain after her workout -- even when it includes some serious conditioning.
That's how I knew I needed pay attention to this one. I spent much of yesterday trying to figure out if we needed a doctor to look at it... and then, how and when to get her to one.
I don't have a lot of experience with this. My own mother was extremely protective. It helped that I am a natural-born couch potato and didn't WANT to participate in any sports. Therefore, I am one of the few people I know who made it to adulthood without ever breaking a bone. (I was in my 40's when I finally did break my little toe - but that's another story.)
So I haven't a clue how to take care of a sports injury.
Fortunately, my circle of friends include other moms who do. So many of Megan's teammates have had bouts with knee problems that I felt relatively secure sending her to gym -- but I asked her coach if he would tape her knee for her.
He did me one better. He called in the mom of another girl on the team, who happens to be a physical therapist.
She looked at Megan's knee, asked her to stand, checked out her legs. Megan told her that as long as the knee was taped up, she didn't feel any pain while doing her gymnastics moves - but it did hurt to walk.
She pointed to Megan's feet.
"They're relatively flat," she said. I had never noticed that before!
In fact, few of the girls on the team have much in the way of arches.
"It's a gymnast thing," she told me. "They're really strong. But if they don't have proper arch support when they run, they end up putting too much stress on their knees, and this kind of injury is common."
She suggested we take Megan to an orthotic, a medical professional who could fit her with an insert for her athletic shoes (and she has promised me a referral to one in our area).
In the meantime, she made the following suggestions:
- Ice the knee twice a day or the rest of the week.
- The best way to make a cold compress: Freeze water in small Dixie cups. You can then peel back some of the paper to expose the ice (while still having something dry to hold on to).
- Rub the injured spot in a circular motion for 10-15 minutes.
- In a pinch, you can use a package of frozen vegetables, like peas. Wet a dishrag and wrap it burrito-style around the vegetable package and hold it on the injured spot.
- Take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory product for the next 72 hours. Aleve was her first choice (because it's strong and only needs to be dosed twice a day - important when the patient goes to school and can't carry over-the-counter medicine), but if Megan has trouble stomaching it, she suggested we switch to ibuprofen.
- Don't over do it, even if she's feeling better. That means, no more running for the rest of the week.
I wrote a note advising the school of her knee injury and requesting that she be excused from running. Megan says that will keep her off the track for three days. Anything longer than that requires a doctor's note. As she's due for another 20-minute run on Friday (and has PE last), I may end up getting her out of school early that day.
After all, she has another meet on Saturday -- and she wants to perform well.
The other team mom has promised to tape her knee for her then, too.
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