Our first summer tournament is tomorrow, but DD will be on bench-warming duty, because she sprained her LCL last Saturday during her very last rec game ever (she is in her second year of 14 U, and will be playing high school next year).
It happened when she tried to beat a throw to third in a force-out situation. There was no chance of her making it, but thanks to tunnel vision, she had decided that by foregoing the slide, she could get there quicker by taking those extra two steps at full speed, and come to an instant halt hockey player style - by swinging her body around the third baseman, hooking her right foot on the front edge of the bag, and use a stiff left leg to absorb the full momentum of her sprint. The ball got there before her anyway, but she was too committed to her crazy move to abort by then. Next thing she knew, something popped in her left knee, and she collapsed in pain. When she got up, she told me her knee was locked up, and she could no longer walk properly. We had the game won by then, so her costly gamble turned out to be completely unnecessary.
On Sunday morning, her pain got worse, and her range of motion was further reduced. We did the RICE thing, and went to see her pediatrician on Monday, who ordered an X-ray and did some range of motion test, and pronounced it a strained LCL. DD is to wear a knee brace and use crutches for a week. That's it.
I looked at the radiograms myself. Frankly, tendons and ligaments just aren't radio-dense enough to show up clearly on these, so any tear would have been essentially invisible.
We were given a referral to an orthopedic clinic, but our insurance plan requires us to wait to be contacted by the clinic; which I am told can take several weeks.
It's been six days since the injury happened. There is no longer any acute pain, but DD reports that the tightness of the injured area and reduced range of motion remain unchanged.
DD is eager to rejoin her summer team (she is one of only two pitchers on the team for the past two seasons, as we've had no luck recruiting a third), but we don't know when it would be safe to let her put more pressure on that knee again, or when to begin the rehabilitation process, given that there has been so little noticeable improvement in her condition so far.
Has anyone here experienced this type of injury before? Any suggestions as to what would be a safe way to proceed? I guess we can just sit around and wait, but now that the season has started, the other coaches and her teammates are as anxious to find out how much longer we'll have to wait as we are.
Many thanks in advance for any tip!
It happened when she tried to beat a throw to third in a force-out situation. There was no chance of her making it, but thanks to tunnel vision, she had decided that by foregoing the slide, she could get there quicker by taking those extra two steps at full speed, and come to an instant halt hockey player style - by swinging her body around the third baseman, hooking her right foot on the front edge of the bag, and use a stiff left leg to absorb the full momentum of her sprint. The ball got there before her anyway, but she was too committed to her crazy move to abort by then. Next thing she knew, something popped in her left knee, and she collapsed in pain. When she got up, she told me her knee was locked up, and she could no longer walk properly. We had the game won by then, so her costly gamble turned out to be completely unnecessary.
On Sunday morning, her pain got worse, and her range of motion was further reduced. We did the RICE thing, and went to see her pediatrician on Monday, who ordered an X-ray and did some range of motion test, and pronounced it a strained LCL. DD is to wear a knee brace and use crutches for a week. That's it.
I looked at the radiograms myself. Frankly, tendons and ligaments just aren't radio-dense enough to show up clearly on these, so any tear would have been essentially invisible.
We were given a referral to an orthopedic clinic, but our insurance plan requires us to wait to be contacted by the clinic; which I am told can take several weeks.
It's been six days since the injury happened. There is no longer any acute pain, but DD reports that the tightness of the injured area and reduced range of motion remain unchanged.
DD is eager to rejoin her summer team (she is one of only two pitchers on the team for the past two seasons, as we've had no luck recruiting a third), but we don't know when it would be safe to let her put more pressure on that knee again, or when to begin the rehabilitation process, given that there has been so little noticeable improvement in her condition so far.
Has anyone here experienced this type of injury before? Any suggestions as to what would be a safe way to proceed? I guess we can just sit around and wait, but now that the season has started, the other coaches and her teammates are as anxious to find out how much longer we'll have to wait as we are.
Many thanks in advance for any tip!
