<p>Thanks for the sympathy LoveMyMTGirl and Times3 - it really is a bummer. But Times3 sounds like your S or D has come out the other side, so hopefully we can too! Can I ask if the ankle is all recovered and OK to dance on strenuously? Or is it still a work in progress? I hope not! As I watch my S hobble around on his crutches, in obvious discomfort and with a huge brace on his knee, it is hard to imagine that he will ever be the same as he was before the injury. But it is inspiring to hear from others who have been to the brink and back! Fortunately S is just a sophomore, so he isn’t looking at trying to get ready for college auditions in the fall. But of course he would like to put this behind him as fast as possible and get back to his dance training! </p>
<p>As you say LoveMy, it is a good time to work on acting and singing. Unfortunately he has to be around here for PT, and there aren’t a lot of options here. Anything that is decent has already filled up. But I am sure we can find some things so the time isn’t completely wasted!</p>
<p>zebrarunner - One of my D’s classmates tore her medial meniscus last fall. She had the surgery a few months ago and is doing great! Hope your S has a speedy recovery!</p>
<p>Zebrarunner, short answer–my son is mostly recovered but has had to take things gradually; he incurred a high ankle sprain on the previously fractured ankle, which took him out of football permanently, but he was able to do some dancing for the winter musical and is continuing to strengthen the ankle gradually. I sent you a PM with more details. Glad to hear it’s only your son’s sophomore year; if you have to do something like this, at least it’s early on in high school!</p>
<p>zebrarunner, I am sorry to hear of your son’s injuries. I have had those exact same injuries to my knee from a ski accident and never had surgery but recovered through PT. I hope your son can avoid surgery as well. </p>
<p>Luckily he is just a soph, and while this is a kink in his summer plans, it won’t adversely affect things in the long run. Maybe he can take voice and acting this summer. </p>
<p>And to keep a positive outlook that his future will still be bright…my MT daughter, right after her final college audition, had many severe injuries from a car accident including an acetabular fracture (surgery) which means she has five metal screws in her hip (just like Chita Rivera!) and after a six month recovery, entered her BFA in MT program and went on to be a professional performer.</p>
<p>MTCA stands for Musical Theater College Auditions. They offer college audition prep. We have not personally used them, but many on the board have found them extremely helpful. The CC board doesn’t allow me to post the link to their website here, but you can easily find it by googling.</p>
<p>soozievt, Thanks for your response and stories of yourself and your daughter’s experiences coming back from serious injury. It is always so heartening to hear that this isn’t the end of the world (no matter how it seems!) The hardest part is all the conflicting information (I really need to stop reading the internet!!) and having to just sit and wait and see if surgery is going to be necessary. Obviously we would love to have him avoid surgery, but if it is really necessary to enable him to get back to dance and gymnastics at a high level, then I think he would rather go ahead and get it done and be able to focus on rehab. Instead we will have to wait another 3-5 weeks to see what the next step will be, and there is at least a 50% chance that the next step at that point will be surgery. </p>
<p>Can you tell that patience is not one of my strong suits? I realize that there are much worse injuries, and I also feel he is in the good hands of excellent orthopedists, so eventually this will be dealt with and be behind him. Even if it takes a year to get back to dance, he should still be in good shape heading into college auditions! Now I just need to repeat that to myself every day for the foreseeable future…</p>
<p>I’m attending CAP21’s 5-week MT and College Audition Prep program this summer as well as getting all my audition and application stuff set before the school year starts.</p>
<p>My D is a rising Junior and is doing the MT Workshop at Interlochen for three weeks. Following that, we will take advantage of being in the midwest to do campus tours of some of the schools she is interested in. We will be visiting Northwestern, IUB, CCM, Ball State and UM.</p>
<p>Zebrarunner - I have first hand experience with ACL injury, and I can assure you he will be as good as new! Several years ago I injured my knee in karate class. I knew it was pretty bad, but it took quite some time for them to agree I had torn my ACL, and as you know the initial trauma must heal before they can take corrective action. I debated whether at my stage in life it was worth the surgery, but I am a runner and decided I didn’t always want to worry about instability in my knee. I happen to have very loose, hyperextending joints and so I have that concern - but that also meant it would be more challenging to ensure that the surgeon could match the same level of laxity in my joints. Well, I had the surgery, did the PT (which even for me was super easy - so your son will breeze through), and haven’t given it another thought since then. He even cleaned up the meniscus and some arthritic build up in the joint. </p>
<p>One of the things they told me was really important was making sure you get that leg back to the same strength as the good leg. I was shocked at how much my thigh muscles had atrophied, so I hired a personal trainer to whip my legs into shape. I am a mom, and he is young and strong, so I am sure his recovery will be even easier.</p>
<p>I was on a lot of on line boards reading about these injuries and surgeries, and it scared the you-know-what out of me. I am happy to report it was a blip on the screen and not only did I fully and completely recover, I never ever think about my knee except once in a while to marvel at how perfect it is. :)</p>
<p>Best of luck to your son. I know I was terrified when my son was dancing in the summer before (and during) his senior year, fearing he would get hurt and jeopardize his college chances. Thank heavens he has time to recover!!</p>
<p>MTmama, thanks so much for your very encouraging response! S has a partial ACL tear, so right now both orthopedists he has seen have recommended against surgery for the moment - both are hopeful that he can make a full recovery just from doing PT three times a week, and as you say building the strength back up in the knee. I too was shocked at how much and how quickly the leg had atrophied once the swelling went down - it was like his thigh and calf had been shrunk, and that was just 2 weeks post-injury! His PT thinks he is doing well, and he might be able to start dancing on it very moderately in a few weeks. He was supposed to attend a week-long dance intensive in early August, but the jury is still out on that!</p>
<p>You have given me hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel - as you say looking at the horror stories on the internet makes one completely terrified, but hearing from people like you who come back just fine takes some of the worry away. Even if he does start dancing again and has problems so they decide he does need surgery, he will still have time to recover and build up that knee before his senior year.</p>
<p>Glad your S made it through the college audition process intact, and I am sure mine will follow suit in the 2014-15 cycle!</p>
<p>Although I have been following MT threads for some time, this is my first time to jump on board. My S had big plans to work hard at a 5-week ballet intensive this summer and to prep for auditions, but in May plans changed when he tore the labrum in his left shoulder while performing an MT number for a scholarship competition at his HS. After successful surgery, his arm is strapped in a sling for 5 weeks, then PT and recovery. He is depressed abut his change in summer/fall plans, but is using the “down” time to watch MT videos, read plays and work on piano skills. He has heard of similar stories from the principle male dancer for Cincinnati Ballet (shoulder) and also an awesome dancer with Pilobolus (complete ACL tear). We KNOW that in 5 months everything will be fine, but this is NOT the lead-in S had planned for his audition cycle. We can only say that sometimes a door closes so that you can take notice of another one that is open. . .</p>
<p>I’ll be a senior next year, and will be auditioning for CCM’s Summer High School MT intensive this weekend. My mother bought the “I Got In!” college audition guide by Mary Anna Dennard, which has definitely given me a lot of insight into the process.
I’m not sure if I’ll do coaching with MTCA or Mary Anna Dennard yet.
Along with CCM’s intensive this summer, I’ll be continuing dance classes & voice lessons and getting a personal trainer. My mother also had me build a website, which features my resume, videos, photos and things of that nature</p>
<p>For Zebrarunner- Near the end of my freshman year, I didn’t land a jump correctly and had pain in my ankle. I kept it wrapped during class and went along with class as usual. Finally I had pushed myself to the point where even walking was difficult. (Through out this, I was asking my mother to take me to see my athletic doctor and she told me it wasn’t anything to worry about.) Finally, I went to the doctor and the MRI showed that I had Ankle OCD, which means I took a chunk of cartilage out of my ankle and it took some bone with it. The doctor my injury was worse than the typically sees, they had to perform surgery to clean out the cartilage and drill holes. I was in a wheel chair for 2 weeks, then crutches for 6 weeks, and was in a boot one month into my sophomore year. That summer I was given the lead in a community production, showing up to the first rehearsal on crutches (by then I only had a couple more weeks on crutches) was not ideal for the director. My role was taken away from me, but I was still part of the show as an ensemble member. For a couple weeks I sat in on rehearsals and mentally learned the dances. The day my doctor told me I could start weaning myself off my crutches, I was in rehearsal dancing with my boot on. Doing a show right away was the worst thing I could’ve done for my recovery. It took longer for my ankle start feeling normal and I was extremely dependent on my boot. So coming from a student point of view, I wouldn’t start dancing right away. I would focus more on building muscle and restoring basic function before jumping right back in. After physical therapy ended, I neglected to focus on strengthening my ankle. It took me awhile to get endurance back. Like mom4bwayboy’s S, I focused a lot on voice and re-teaching myself how to play the keyboard, it’s also a good opportunity to work on college/college audition research and applications. Almost 2 years later, my past injury has no impact on my current life but definitely taught me that health always comes before theatre/dance. </p>
<p>@MTsingerdancer - thanks so much for your story - glad you have made a complete recovery, though I am sure at the time it was hard to lose your lead, and it probably wasn’t wise to try to jump in so fast. The good news for us is that S is now almost a year on from the ACL tear, and he is doing great. After several months of major physical therapy, the knee seems to be strong and so far he has been able to handle a rigorous dance season with no problem (knock wood!). Of course I am always worried when he does something that puts a lot of stress on the knee, but so far so good. He’s looking forward to an ensemble role in a local professional production of Thoroughly Modern Millie this June, and couldn’t be happier. We will hope he holds together this spring!</p>