Son with L5 Pars Fracture - college rower

[barrymere]

My 19 yr old son with just diagnosed with an L5 pars fracture. The injury happened in March- he is on his college crew team and the trainer sent him to ortho in his college town. Ortho said it was muscular so he rowed hard every day from March til end of may. He has continued to lift, run, bike all summer but wanted to see a hometown ortho as his pain never got better even though he has not been rowing. Hometown ortho said he can train in sept and row during his october season. Then she said rest and heal over winter. Why did his back not heal when fracture was 5 months ago? Can I trust a coach 6 hours away to ground my kid if he sees him in pain once he gets back in a boat? Can he do more or permanent damage? teen age boys are hard headed... would appreciate any advice.

 

[ibake&pray]

I can't say for sure, but my guess is that the reason he didn't heal is that he continued full boar with his rowing and his lifting and running. All of htis continued to stress his back not allowing it time to heal.

My guess is that the doctor knows how important the October season is to your son, and the damage is done already. If he promises to rest after the season, then his back has a chance to heal. He's young and has that on his side...as opposed to us older people! LOL....

If it were my son-and both of mine are stubborn to a fault, I would have them sign a contract that lays out what you are requestin gof them. If they feel extreme pain-above and beyond what they have had, they will quit and notify the coach and head to the ER. etc etc etc. Figure out what you want and then write it down. This way you son know that you are serious about this.

I would also have a face to face chat with the coach about this. A "Come to Jesus" meeting my friend calls them. Where you tell him exactly what you expect out of him in regarRAB to your son. You understand that he is in college, but you expect some guidance from him as a coach in regarRAB to pain and punishment.....nd so on. Or the wrath of Mom will visit. I'm sure you won't be the first set of parents to visit him nor will you be the last...

Good luck and keep us posted....

 

[nscrbug]

I'm certainly no expert, but if I'm not mistaken...if your son was diagnosed with a "pars fracture", then he likely has some vertebral slippage (spondylolisthesis) as a result of that. There are "grades" of severity with spondy, ranging from 1-5. I have a grade 2, which equates to a 50% slippage at my L5/S1 level. As far as I know, this condition will not heal on it's own. Some people that have spondy, don't experience much (if any) pain...but many (like myself) do. Usually the pain involved with spondy is a result of nerve compression. If conservative methoRAB don't help with the pain, then usually the last resort would be a fusion surgery.

 

[bjm007]

Pars breaks rarely heal themselves at that age. My advice is to have your son see an orthopedic guy who specializes in backs and a neurologist if he has pain or nurabness in is butt, legs or feet.

I'm 50 but i broke my pars racing motocross as a teenager. It didn't cause me any real problems until I was 45 and then it became a real problem.

See a specialist and find out really what's going on with his back. Get an MRI. Don't mess around with this. you need to take it seriously IMO.

 

[SheilaM]

Hi, I just found this website, so I am late in answering your post. Your son's condition sounRAB much like my daughter's. She is now 14 years-old and is a competitive soccer player. She had pars repair surgery Sept. 2009. The CT scan showed an older stress fracture on one side and a newer one on the other side. She was cleared to start playing about 6 months after surgery, but in her first tournament she overextended while scoring a goal, and went down. She has been doing pt 3 x week, and is hoping to be back to soccer by high school tryouts this summer. We have been told we should expect a full year, at least, to heal. I'm sure it is very difficult for your son to wait, because i'm sure he is anxious to get back to his sport. It is very difficult to see our daughter sitting on the bench, hoping to join her team again. i'd be afraid your son would try to push through the pain, and might injure it more. I hope he can wait until he is healed. Not sure if you'll see this, as your post was some time ago, but I hope your son is healing well.