Adam Rufa - 9/27/2006

Question
Hi. Perhaps you can tell me what you think about this. I have an 8 year old daughter who does team gymnastics 3 times per week, and she plays softball as well. She had a half hour private gymnastics class last week on Thursday, and shortly afterwards she started complaining that her knee hurt. Over the weekend she was unable to completely staighten out her leg. It would go most of the way but not all of the way and that it hurt when she tried to straighten it. She said her left knee hurt on the inside side of her leg. We've tried hot baths followed up with some Bengay cream and an ace bandage before she goes to bed at night. She continued to go to gymnastics on Friday and Saturday, but when she was still complaining on Monday, I made her skip. She says she can now straighten her leg, and she says the pain is not really her knee any more, but more in the calf area just below her knee on the inside part of her leg and that it hurts when she runs.

I talked to her doctor's office on Monday. They told me to wait and see and send her again to gymnastics, and if it still bothers her to come in for a visit. I guess I'm wondering with stuff like this, how long do you take a wait and see approach, and at what point do you know that something isn't right and get it checked out? Based on what I've told you, do you have any ideas what might be the cause? She didn't do anything specific in practice on Thursday that appeared to hurt her at the time. She worked a lot on bars, so I thought she might have knocked her knee on the bar kind of hard and bruised the bone, but the way she is saying that it isn't her knee anymore has me wondering.

We were at softball last night, and the coach asked me if something was bothering her with her left leg because he could tell she was favoring the other one when they were working on batting drills. Should I have her lay off all of the sports and running and see if that doesn't help to clear it up, or do you think we need to see the doctor? We would need to go to her regular doctor, but I don't know what they could do. They would probably need to send us out for a x-ray or a referral to a specialist. Sorry for lengthy mail.

Answer
Leslie,

Sorry about your daughters knee and sorry I did not get back to you sooner. It is a good sign that her knee pain is getting better. My suggestion is to not do any activity that makes the pain worse. If she feels a significant increase in her pain after sports she should stop.

It is hard to tell what the problem is without seeing her. X-rays may be indicated if her pain levels do not continue to decrease.


Adam