All-Star Your Worst Cheerleading Injury?

[a_cheer_leaderxo]

I have a ganglion cyst in my wrist. However, it's really small so they can't use surgery to remove it and it is not going away on its own. Pretty much every time I tumble or stunt, it hurts.

I literally just got back from having an x-ray to see if I have a ganglion! It feels quite small as well so I'm worried they'll say to just leave it because it hurts every time I put pressure on it!

Sad to hear it's your last year cheering though! :( Who knows, the time off may help your body heal and maybe you could return? :)

 

[Hannahbanana418]

i'm pretty lucky cause all of my injuries have been minor. Most of them i still competed with, like tearing the ligaments in my hand and spraining my knee. I also broke my finger during a summer and was out for 6 weeks with a tiny cast on, but i still can't straighten my finger all the way since i broke the top of it where it bends. Last year before the season started i had 2 stress fractures in one ankle and was out for 6 weeks. i hurt it and tumbled on it for a month before going to get it checked out. i also strained my back a month ago and continued stunting and tumbling before getting it checked out. i've been out for 2 weeks now and i start physical therapy soon

 

[BuegeSmalls]

Not my injury, thank god, but on Reddit a couple of weeks ago I saw a cheerleading injury that had made it to the front page: So one of my best friends broke her ankle at practice the other night... [Graphic] [NSFW] : WTF (warning: the link is just a text discussion, but if you click on the picture at the top of the page it's incredibly horrible and gory and not safe for life). The girl literally broke her foot off at practice D: Tumbling, apparently.

Oh my god. It literally looks like it was cut off. I should not have clicked that link...going to have nightmares about my feet being cut off.

 

[Kelli Nicole]

I tore ligaments and hair line fractured a bone in my foot in 2010....which didn't get treated at the ER. They told me "Well, since you can walk on it, it's probably not broken. But due to the swelling we can't say there aren't any hairlines."

Well, I sat out for about 4 months, when I returned I had constant pain in my ankle. Went to the doctor who sent me to get an MRI done. Due to waiting to get into the MRI and then waiting for results, about a year had gone by (so around August 2011). Came to find out, that I had a hematoma in my ankle the entire time and they couldn't decipher if the pain was coming from the ligaments or the joint itself.
Orthopedic surgeon I was at gave me a shot of pain killers into the ankle joint which would help reveal what was causing the pain.

Well, I went through the season with this (the pain meds last for about 3 months) and the rest of the time I just fought through it since we had nationals etc.

I finally went back to my doctor early 2012 who told me "Did you go to your 6 month re-check MRI?" "Um, what??" No one had told me I was supposed to go back after 6months to get it rechecked. So MRI #2 was done. After getting the results, my doctor sent me to a surgery center for further consultation.

While talking to the orthopedic surgeon there, she told me that due to all the trauma to my ankle, all of the cartilage etc. in my ankle joint had died off and the problem was that the bones were rubbing on nothing.

A few weeks later, I had ankle surgery (July 2012) which removed all of the dead tissue in my ankle, cleaned up the torn and frayed ligaments and drilled a hole into the bone in my leg which should generate regrowth of something to replace the removed tissue. I'm not exactly sure how it all works, but afterwards I was on crutches for 8 weeks, with physical therapy. BTW, my surgery was with local anesthesia, so I got to watch everything on the screen! Haha, that was weird but cool.

I still have no returned back to cheer, but hoping to get into open gym starting next week. We'll see how my ankle takes to being back in.

 

[NoDramaCheerMama]

Not my injury, thank god, but on Reddit a couple of weeks ago I saw a cheerleading injury that had made it to the front page: So one of my best friends broke her ankle at practice the other night... [Graphic] [NSFW] : WTF (warning: the link is just a text discussion, but if you click on the picture at the top of the page it's incredibly horrible and gory and not safe for life). The girl literally broke her foot off at practice D: Tumbling, apparently.

Holy #%*t....I seriously feel nauseas. That is HORRIBLE! Great...as if dealing with my child flying wasn't enough stress for me, I'm going to have to take a Xanax before I can watch her tumble.

 

[cmpayne]

I never got anything major, but I got some bruises. :cool:

 

[Brooks44]

My mom wanted me to try out for high school cheer my freshamn year, and as much as I didn't want to, I did. I was a flyer and my bases dropped me 10+times a day. And I know flyers can be at fault but my backspot only tried when she wanted to and my bases just let me slip through their arms.. it was awful. I started having a lot of back pain when I tumbled.. and eventually it got to the point where I could physically not go backwards except do a standing tuck, it was wierd. Everyone told me it was a mental block and they tried to get me through it. I still held my spot on my sr.5 team because I could still do 3 jumps to tuck and do foward twisting skills. My mom never believed that my back hurt that bad until one day, 2 years later, I couldn't get out of bed. After going to a chiropractor, a physical therapist, and a orthopedic.. Turns out I fractured from my lumbar down, cracked my scaral (the part that lets you go backward and foward), andI had a herniated disk. It never healed because I never took a break off of cheerleading. All the damage done to me over my freshman year of cheerleading will probably effect me for the rest of my life.

 

[kickdblcj]

Fracturing my ankle at spirit sports last year was definitely my worst injury. I never let it fully heal and it created minor fissures in my tibia which led to me shattering my ankle at worlds, tearing my achilles while getting out of my car, and most recently dislocating and tearing almost every ligament in my ankle.

 

[MaineStar234]

My worst injury would probably be the sprained ankle I'm healing right now. I've been very lucky to have minimal injuries throughout the 13 years I've been cheering.

 

[Twinklilstarsmom]

Watched a girl from CEA jr 5 (who I think crossed to SE) blow out her femur at BATB in 2010. They took the floor directly behind my CPs JR2 and had been dance partying it up backstage with them before they went on. The most awful injury ever. Anyone know how she's doing these days? I've wondered about her.

I remember that. It's was scary.

 

[brandon0309]

When I was 14 I was tumbling straight down the panel and I usually tumble out of the corners because I tumble long (Im almost a 6 ft tall girl!) and when I landed my pass I landed half on/ half off the spring floor.. it was just the straight 6 inch drop. Well you could see the bone broken.. I passed out so I don't remember much.. but they reset it & casted it.. then being the hard headed die-hard cheerleader that I am I decided to compete 3 days later at Tournament of Champions (I was in a cast, I had this grandma shoe looking thing that would keep the cast cleaner but I used it to walk somehow && I only stunted.. well on 2 of the teams I only stunted) Anyways I was on on 3 teams at this competition (Lg Sr Advanced, Large Senior Excel & Large Junior Novice-- yes that was the divisions back then!) I made it through the first two routines good, just crutched to the mat-- did my stuff and crutched off.. Then when the last team competed I did all the stunts && the dance.. bad decision, but I was a focal point for the dance well i did this move where I went from turning to the back to the front.. re broke in the cast.. passed out round 2.. To end this part of the story quick Dad made the decision that I was done until it was healed. Got back in it again but tumbling was never the same, I would fracture & sprain my foot and ankle constantly & I cheered at brandon for another 3 years (1st yr back I double teamed on silver & black) & filled in here and there for an additional season.. 7 years later when I turned 21 and about 2 breaks, 10 sprains later and several doctors. I went to a 6th doctor and he took a different angled xray from the back of my heel.. come to find out when I rebroke it I also broke my heel and since it was never set back it regrew sideways.. kinda like the shape of a banana. So a year and 1/2 ago I had complete reconstructive surgery while trying to start my senior year in college. The heel was cut off and replaced, arched reconstructed, all the ligaments and tendons including achilles that attaches to the heel were reconnected. Worst surgery and recovery of my life. Took me 3 months to learn how to walk after being on essentially bed rest/wheel chair for 2 months. Didn't run for another whole year. Still recovering & retired as a cheerleader but I coach now! :)

 

[mdmetromom]

I don't want to shimmy any of these posts, because I don't want it to seem I am actually liking any of these injuries. What I do want to say though is that the dedication and extreme love for the sport that I am reading in all these stories is simply amazing. So Shimmy a thousand times to all the athletes that pushed through the pain and worked hard in recovery to come back strong, coaches included.

 

[cheerforceone]

my left wrist......dislocated bones inside of it while basket tossing my flyer like dropkicked my wrist.... and now i need to see an orthopedic surgeon..... no cheer until further notice....

 

[Emilily]

I literally just got back from having an x-ray to see if I have a ganglion! It feels quite small as well so I'm worried they'll say to just leave it because it hurts every time I put pressure on it!

Sad to hear it's your last year cheering though! :( Who knows, the time off may help your body heal and maybe you could return? :)

I don't know, maybe. I have 2 more years of high school and I'm not cheering in college, so hopefully I will at least be able to cheer my senior year. However right now, I am helping coach one of the rec teams in my area, so I'm glad I at least get to do something with cheerleading. :)

Hope everything goes well with your x-ray! :)

 

[youbetterwork]

Broke my nose last fall. Not that uncommon in cheerleading.. Especially for backspots lol! But it really BROKE. It almost touched my cheek... When they fix broken noses the person is usually awake, but they had to sedate me down and do a surgery. It really sucked because it made me an alternate on the team and I missed our whole choreography camp.