Yes. I took her to the doctor last week and got it x-rayed; he said she'd be fine, she should do as much or as little as she thought she ought to, that it wasn't a serious injury, just a sprain of some kind.
I'm not entirely convinced because I'm not happy with the doc but he was handy.
You know, it's not so much that THIS particular injury concerns me. She's 14, she'll heal. My worry is that these juvenile sports injuries have a way of compounding and bothering you for the rest of your life. She's been very lucky all the while she's been involved in gymnastics and cheer, which she started at the age of *five.* She competed in gymnastics, she's done competition cheer for three years now, she's really buff! But has had no major injuries till now.
And I guess I wouldn't call this a *major* injury, but it's the worst yet and sort of a sign that maybe she's not as young or well-conditioned as she used to be. Seems like in the past the various teams she was on were emphatic about good physical conditioning, muscle strength exercises to prevent injury. The ones she does now (this all-star team plus her school sidelines squads) don't put as much time into conditioning, they just want the practices that'll get them wins. Skills are great, but you've got to have the conditioning to back them up, or this is what happens. Injuries. I've seen it happen again and again, especially in gymnastics when a kid progressed too quickly through levels.
She's been wearing a knee brace to practices, not so much because she needs it, but because it reminds the coaches that she's recently injured and needs to take it easy. They're real boneheads sometimes.
Oh, and she also gets scrapes and gouges on her hands and arms, bruises on her shoulders from stunting. Imagine having a kid only slightly smaller (and not even smaller, necessarily, just a tad more limber with better balance) towering above you, trying to balance on your and three other teammates hands/arms, sneakers kicking, limbs flailing. It's amazing nobody's broken a collarbone. (knock on wood) Or a nose. Wait, last year someone did get her nose broken. My dear daughter is a BASE.
She's a beautiful girl, about one inch taller than me (that'd make her 5'3"), with my build (broad shoulders, kind of curvy) and weighs a good 30 lbs. more than I did at her age. Don't get me wrong - it's all muscle (which weighs more than fat, I'm told) whereas I was really scrawny at 14; she's not fat at all. But 125 lbs. is a lot of mass to throw into a back handspring without good muscle tone to back it up and hold joints in their proper place.
I think it may be time for some sports therapy and strength training on her own time. I'll join her, because I could use some toning up too. Ha, understatement.
