Hip Injury/Dance physio?? - and upcoming audition

[Motomum]

Hello all,

my son injured his hip in his JA class yesterday. He ‘heard’ a sound, then excruciating pain, then pins and needles hip to thigh for a few seconds. Dance teacher checked it and he carried on with class unable to do pirouettes, developpes, grand battements.

Teacher didn’t tell me, he did about two hours after we got home.

Today it is tight, but no big pain, just twinges if I press in.

He has his preliminary audition for MA/WL on Sunday, I am at a complete loss as to know how to proceed with this next week, dance classes, daily exercises etc. audition attendance.

Sorry for my ignorance, all I know for sure is I want him to be ok, I don’t care about the audition, he does obviously 🙄, but is there anything I should be doing other than making sure he rests up??

How long before he goes back to class etc, next class his on Tuesday afternoon.

Should I let RBS know.

I also as an aside feel really upset that the teacher didn’t let me know. 😔

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, I don’t want to make any mistakes as it’s his hip and dancing is his absolute passion.

Thankyou.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Motomum,

 

We would always advise that you seek medical opinion if you are at all concerned.

 

I have added a couple of tags.  If you know a good dance physio they can be worth their weight in gold.

[Motomum]

Thank you.

The reality of a GP apt for what would be a non-urgent condition is a four weeks wait where I live. I do intend to ring in the morning regardless.

I will have a look at the tags. 

[goodtoes]

I would go straight to a physio, to be honest, and not bother with the GP.

[balletcoach]

Yes, as said above to see a physio instead of GP. Then let him do the audition, but let the panel fully know / aware of his recently injury. But not to much exercises right now, no jumping etc whatever hurt. 

The good news is, as he is a JA - they know him, as they observe children during the years (esp. year 6), so they know about his abilities / potential,  so maybe he don't need to do some jumps etc and explain it to him as well, so he don't have to worry. Good luck 🍀 

[Anna C]

Excruciating pain, a “sound” and pins and needles sounds urgent to me.  Is he limping at all? If so, I would get it checked out ASAP; either at a Walk-In clinic or a sit and wait appointment at the GP.  If not, do you have a good trusted Physio? I wouldn’t worry about speaking to RBS at the moment, see what the medical advice is first. 

[Anon2]

1 hour ago, Anna C said:

Excruciating pain, a “sound” and pins and needles sounds urgent to me.  Is he limping at all? If so, I would get it checked out ASAP; either at a Walk-In clinic or a sit and wait appointment at the GP.  If not, do you have a good trusted Physio? I wouldn’t worry about speaking to RBS at the moment, see what the medical advice is first. 

I have to agree. He could well have less pain today as resting, tomorrow when active at school could be a different story. 

[taxi4ballet]

Don't let his school make him do PE this week!

[Motomum]

Thanks everyone.

He is Home Educated, so luckily I can have a quiet week. He had no pain today, but says the whole area feels very tight.

We went to the cinema this afternoon and he has no pain at all walking.

My main worry is that I know in an audition like the one on Sunday he will push himself to the limit of his capabilities, even if it hurts. I don’t want him to do that.

He spoke today about feeling under immense stress (like a build up of exam pressure) which has taken all the enjoyment out of his ballet atm. He said even his associates teacher is different from usual which is making him sad. I explained to him today that they will be feeling lots of stress too.

i have a physio number I am going to phone in the morning.

The injury has been a bit of a wake up call for me and has alerted me to how much pressure he is feeling, and worryingly how hard he has been pushing his body in classes.

[LinMM]

I would also advise physio first ....though often better to have a personally recommended one if at all possible

I would say physio first because it they think there's anything really serious about the injury they will tell you to see a GP anyway who,in turn would probably refer to the appropriate consultant. But let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

The physio may be able to give appropriate exercises to do as well to stop the area stiffening up too much. It does sound like a hip flexor injury when it's very painful doing developpes and grand Battements especially to the front....and could be difficult holding the leg up in a retiree position to do pirouettes. But a good physio should soon be able to work out what's wrong.

Hope it goes well.

I also think the teacher should have told you. Perhaps it didn't seem that serious to her at the time but nevertheless she should have mentioned to you that your son had had a problem in the lesson and to keep an eye out for him.....things can sometimes worsen a few hours later etc. 

By the way a hip flexor injury may not necessarily be so painful when just walking.

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by LinMM

[annekh510]

There are things in the description that make me wonder about the possibility of a labral tear, so I would mention this to a physio as it's something they ought to be able to say is either unlikely or likely, diagnosis is not really their job though they are often very good at it. The reason I say mention is possibly paranoia, but I had one and it took a long time to get diagnosed, at first failure in primary care to refer to a hip specialist and then at least one specialist not testing for it. It's the hearing a sound that makes me wonder about this possibility, I hope it isn't, it probably isn't, but I want you to know about it know about it as it is an injury that is more common in dancers (and a few other sports) than the general population and is fairly rare anyway. Good Luck, I hope it is something simple that rest will help and that auditions will be possible even if not done full out - personally, I would inform the school tomorrow as if they do have a later audition date available you will probably want to take it and I don't think it will harm his chances if they know he has had an injury, injuries are part of dancing, though it is very unlucky this young.

[LinMM]

I've had a hip flexor injury and have to say I didn't hear a sound or anything like that....it was just a suggestion. .....When the OP said he had probs with developpe etc 

[Motomum]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

I would also advise physio first ....though often better to have a personally recommended one if at all possible

I would say physio first because it they think there's anything really serious about the injury they will tell you to see a GP anyway who,in turn would probably refer to the appropriate consultant. But let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

The physio may be able to give appropriate exercises to do as well to stop the area stiffening up too much. It does sound like a hip flexor injury when it's very painful doing developpes and grand Battements especially to the front....and could be difficult holding the leg up in a retiree position to do pirouettes. But a good physio should soon be able to work out what's wrong.

Hope it goes well.

I also think the teacher should have told you. Perhaps it didn't seem that serious to her at the time but nevertheless she should have mentioned to you that your son had had a problem in the lesson and to keep an eye out for him.....things can sometimes worsen a few hours later etc. 

By the way a hip flexor injury may not necessarily be so painful when just walking.

 

Thank you.

The pain is in the movements to the front and with his leg in retiree.

I found an osteopath mentioned in the tags above that is actually the resident osteopath on the London CAT training where he is an associate, so I will ask if she can see him this week.

I am also going to ask RBS in the morning if it’s possible for him to attend a different audition date. If not he can try again next year.

I shall let him rest until he has been seen by a professional and I know exactly what has happened and what he can and can’t be doing.

[drdance]

While well meaning, suggestions of a possible cause of the injury (hip flexor, labrum tear etc) can be alarming and so MotoMum I would advise against thinking the worst until you've seen a professional. Any mention of pins & needles makes me think that there is nerve involvement so it may be that he did something in the class that caught a nerve and due to his age, it's likely that he's had a growth spurt recently and some shortening of muscles can happen then. Tight /short muscles can catch nerves every now and again so it might be something as innocent as that. But definitely see a professional asap!

[annekh510]

3 hours ago, drdance said:

While well meaning, suggestions of a possible cause of the injury (hip flexor, labrum tear etc) can be alarming and so MotoMum I would advise against thinking the worst until you've seen a professional. Any mention of pins & needles makes me think that there is nerve involvement so it may be that he did something in the class that caught a nerve and due to his age, it's likely that he's had a growth spurt recently and some shortening of muscles can happen then. Tight /short muscles can catch nerves every now and again so it might be something as innocent as that. But definitely see a professional asap!

 

As I mentioned in my post, the reason I wanted to put the word "labral tear" out there is simply because when it happened to me it took so long to diagnose, to the point where I was googling looking for the name of specific types of hip injuries and eventually went to the physio asking "could it be a labral tear?". I certainly did not mean to scare anyone and would not have mentioned it but for the description of "heard a sound". If it were my kid I'd rather a slight concern now that it could be something that often requires surgery rather than them go through years of pain and the possibility of further damage because no one spoke up with "could it be X". Also I note you criticise others suggesting a cause of the injury (which is incorrectly phrased, a labral tear would be the result of an injury), you then go on to offer another potential diagnosis, which to me sounds like something that would not happen suddenly, when the initial description seems to describe an injury taking place, not pain with no apparent cause.

[Motomum]

Hello all,

 

i want to to thank everyone for the lovely advice and support.

everything that you have all said has been very useful. I haven’t felt scared or worried by the advice, I understand it was given with the best of intentions from each ones own experience.

My son was ok after 3 days resting and a trip to the nurse who feels he just overstretched it. His hip felt tight for two days after, but no further pain and yesterday felt normal.

He went to his 1:1 Ballet class last night and did some gentle movement with no issues at all.

I am waiting on an a callback from the osteopath who was recommended to me that works out of LSCD. My son is also an associate there.

I am being super cautious, luckily though he is not his usual bouncy self due to this horrible virus that is doing the rounds.

i checked his height today, he has grown 3cms in the last 9 months, plus he has hypermobile joints, so there are many possible contributors..

I think however His ‘overstretching’  out of competitiveness with other children in his class, and the huge emphasis placed on flexibility in his ballet work, most definitely informed what happened; it has given me the opportunity to chat with him about just working within his own abilities and that that will always be good enough no matter what the outcome of auditions.. 

Hard lesson for a 10 year old perfectionist though. 

Thank you all again.

[annekh510]

Very glad to hear he is doing better. Good luck to him in the upcoming auditions.

[LinMM]

Ah that sounds more positive. Glad he seems to be on the mend and can attend his MA audition with confidence.

I definitely set my hip flexor injury off by over stretching........( well for me ) ....at a time when I hadn't been doing many classes ...so a bit unfit. 

I wasn't trying to scare anybody either ....just sharing what was the result of this injury.....and in fact hip flexor injuries are not that uncommon in dancers! 

Like all injuries they can be more or less severe ....so recovery times taking more or less time etc. 

I eventually saw saw a very special physio here in Brighton ( who I would be very happy to recommend to anybody here) and she was recommended to me by another physio I had  been seeing as she had more specialist skills. I only had to go three times to this second lady!! 

Anyway looks like your DS is recovering well......make sure he is only stretching when fully warmed up etc.

Good luck with the MA audition hope he gets through 🍀🍀🍀

 

 

 

[drdance]

I did not mean to be critical of any individual post - everyone here comments with the same well-meaning intentions however injuries in young dancers, aren't the same as injuries in teenagers or adults, and lots of information regarding the child (not limited to, but including PMH, growth, hours of dance, hypermobility, current strength and fitness levels, mechanism of injury, current health level etc) needs to be taken into consideration. Potential injuries can be scary things, especially if Dr Google gets involved (we've all done it!) and few well-meaning suggestions can sometimes appear alarming, and before you know it you've convinced yourself it's something hideous requiring hours of surgery when actually it was merely a tweak or a twinge. 

 

If in doubt - see a professional, and go armed with all the facts. I'm pleased to hear that the young man in question is now pain free (in spite of the virus - I hope he's back to his normal bouncy self soon!) and wish him the best of luck with the upcoming audition!

[Anna C]

42 minutes ago, drdance said:

I did not mean to be critical of any individual post - everyone here comments with the same well-meaning intentions however injuries in young dancers, aren't the same as injuries in teenagers or adults, and lots of information regarding the child (not limited to, but including PMH, growth, hours of dance, hypermobility, current strength and fitness levels, mechanism of injury, current health level etc) needs to be taken into consideration. Potential injuries can be scary things, especially if Dr Google gets involved (we've all done it!) and few well-meaning suggestions can sometimes appear alarming, and before you know it you've convinced yourself it's something hideous requiring hours of surgery when actually it was merely a tweak or a twinge. 

 

If in doubt - see a professional, and go armed with all the facts. I'm pleased to hear that the young man in question is now pain free (in spite of the virus - I hope he's back to his normal bouncy self soon!) and wish him the best of luck with the upcoming audition!

 

Great advice.  I’m so glad it’s nothing too serious, Motomum. 😀 It’s great that it’s given you an opportunity to have an in-depth chat with your ds; especially about over-stretching.  That competitive stretching can be a dangerous habit to get into, especially if a student has hypermobile joints so is accidentally overstretching joints that are too flexible anyway (I was forever having to tell my daughter off at that age for sitting “in froggies” with all the other girls when she already had flat turnout!).  Shirley Hancock, her Dance Physio, gave her a prescribed set of exercises to do before class and auditions and told her to turn her back on all the people overstretching, shouldering their legs and so on and to just do HER warmup.  Every body is different and every body requires different warmup exercises.  

 

Anyway! Fingers crossed that the nasty virus goes very quickly and that auditions go well.  Best of luck! ☺️