Son is playing football and plays outside LB. He's starting on JV and the Soph team, and he suits up with the Varsity on Friday's (but is only the emergency 3rd string LB - hasn't played). He's played full time defense in 4-games in the last 8-days (JV and Soph). Probably way too much. So far this season he's played in 8-games in 5 weeks.

He got a stinger in his neck/shoulder. During his last game, it was obvious he'd hurt it more than once and the trainer finally took him out and he did not play the 2nd half. I thought it had only happened a few times but learned from him that it's happened 10-12 times this fall between practice and games!

Trainer gave us a name of a chiropractor to get him examined. Took him in, did some x-rays, he looked him over, did some strength tests and his left side is obviously weaker than his right b/c his nerves are compressed. The x-rays looked good (no bone damage) but because of the number of stingers he's had, and to avoid permanent damage, he recommended he should be done for the season (~4-weeks left). He also wanted us to come back for treatment...30-visits.

I was a bit shocked by that number and called a family friend who is a PT and she was a bit stunned by that number as well. She commented that any PT who is worth a darn could get his problem healed in 4-6 visits tops. It may take a several weeks and he is likely done for the season (because he's had so many), but no way it should take 30-visits of 'treatment' to get his stinger repaired.

Hopefully he's learned his lesson and will tell his trainer and parents when he gets hurt. If he'd have told me when it first happened several weeks ago, we could have gotten it treated and he maybe would have missed a week. Now he likely has to sit out and miss the rest of the season. Sucks for him b/c he was playing well and his coaches seem to like him a lot.

EDIT: Just to add, the chiropractor was very thorough and explained everything he was doing and what is going on with his neck/shoulder and the nerves. Even pulled out some diagrams of the shoulder and spine to explain what was happening. I know some are not fans of chiropractors, but I used one for my TMJ and he helped me immensely...but it was 4-visits, not 30.

I would take him to his doc and get a referral for PT, but I am biased towards MD. Also start aleve twice daily with food for two weeks.

Sucks though, pretty distressing if he is having weakness. I would actually recommend pursuing a c-spine MRI and consultation with a neurosurgeon if there truly is neurological compromise.

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I would take him to his doc and get a referral for PT, but I am biased towards MD. Also start aleve twice daily with food for two weeks.

Sucks though, pretty distressing if he is having weakness. I would actually recommend pursuing a c-spine MRI and consultation with a neurosurgeon if there truly is neurological compromise.

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Thanks for the reply. No one thinks their is any permanent damage at this point and everyone wants to PT/Treat and restore his strength. The weakness is from repeated blows and the swelling is pinching his nerve. If things don't improve, a trip to a neuro will likely be the next steps.

EDIT to clarify, he told me the stinger would happen, then go away and he's be fine for days or even a week or more (practice started ~8-weeks ago). It's been the last 8 days (when he played in 4-games). When it has not gotten better. The 1-day rest between games 1&2 and 3&4 did him little good. Not to mention he plays on all special teams and played H-back for the offense last Saturday...he's basically had no break. Being a LB also means he's been in on plenty of tackles.

It does suck for him b/c he loves to play and is a good player and his coaches really like him. But he's only a soph. and has plenty of football left and will likely be starting on the varsity next fall. I'd rather he miss 4-games now than suffer permanent damage to his arm/nerves.

I would also look at his equipment and form, unless there is something abnormal with his body there is no reason he should be getting that many stingers. If you play for long enough you will get them, just not at that frequency.

My advise would be to go to a specialist, and not one the school recommends. Too much politics and good ole boy to just go to anyone, especially with anything pertaining to the neck.

Why is he playing on two teams? Sounds like the coaches care less about your sons safety and well being.

He is a sophomore. In our district, only a few teams have V, JV, and Soph teams. The Junior class this season is very small and not as talented as the current seniors and sophomores. Only a few juniors start for V or JV. Mostly soph. starting on the JV squad. Some start on the V squad (don't play soph or JV games). Next year probably 15-17 of the starters on the Varsity squad will be Juniors.

When they play a school that does have a soph. team, almost all the sophomores suit up for the game. We have 9 JV games and 5 soph games. It just so happened we had several weeks of teams on the schedule with sophomore teams back to back. Honestly I was happy to have so many chances to watch him play and he was excited to play more.

I can't blame the coaches too much. My son admitted he didn't tell anyone about the injury b/c "I didn't want them to take me out".....So instead of missing a week or two, he's going to miss a lot more. Once you get a stinger, the chances of a repeat are pretty high. Especially since he continued to play in games when it would happen, so he just kept aggravating the injury over and over. He should have come out immediately after it happened and gotten some ice/rest on his shoulder and neck. But he didn't. He just continued to play. I never noticed until this past week when I saw him come up twice and he was holding his arm right before the half. At half time and the trainer checked him over and he sat out the rest of the game. She told me he did not protest at all when she told him he was done for the game.

He is going to see a PT our friend recommended that specializes in sport injuries and neck and spine. She also said they will look at his posture and form and make sure he gets his strength built back up. The school trainer said we'll have to look at him using a neck roll and pads under the shoulder pads. She also said he needs to talk to his coach about his form when he tackles.

If he does not start to get better, we'll have to find an ortho and possibly an MRI as doc suggested above. Stingers are pretty common, but will get a lot worse if you don't treat them and continue to play. Now that we know what is going on, we'll get him treated and make sure he's back to strength before he plays again. It's just going to take longer than it should have b/c my son tried to ignore it for too long.

Take this in the time frame it happened. I started getting stingers as a freshman in 1986. I was taken to the doctor and out of football as they did tons of tests. I was diagnosed with stingers. All the symptoms you say he experienced, i had them too. I got them repeatedly after that - 3 years on varsity. Sometimes I'd get them 2-3 times during a game. There was noticeable strength difference, but that went away after time.

I am fairly sure I suffered no long term damage. It hurts and it sucks, but the other option I had was to quit football and that wasn't going to happen. I just sucked it up and played.

As that was 30 years ago (dang I'm old), I don't know if anything has changed. I can see where a stinger would hurt a quarterback's ability to throw the ball, but for anyone else, I wouldn't worry about it.

Understand, but his head coach had them in College and says sometimes they flair up. The chiropractor also said he had them in college and sometimes his fingers can go little numb. Everyone is worried about long term damage.

He goes to a PT tomorrow to get evaluated and for therapy. I obviously don't want him to be hurt, but and there is still 4-weeks left in the season. If 2-3-weeks from now he's pain free and the strength has returned, we'll talk to his coach about playing in the final game of the season. But if I don't think he's better, then forget it. He's got a lot of football left in HS.

Going forward he needs to work on his form, and maybe get some better shoulder pads and collar (I realized this afternoon he has complained that his strap keeps coming loose of the buckle...in fact on Monday when he had the biggest issues he was repeatedly lifting his jersey trying to fix his strap on the left side).

All in all it's probably not a big issue. But you only get one set of nerves.

Hey, Mom and Dad went all out trying to make sure I was okay. I'm not criticizing at all and completely understand. I had, for a Rio Grande Valley 3A school, specialized pads that the coaches ordered just for me. I'm not sure they helped.

If anything, I'm trying in my awkward way to give you some comfort in that as one who had the same problem I did not experience any long term issues. I played A LOT of football and had A LOT of stingers.

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Hey, Mom and Dad went all out trying to make sure I was okay. I'm not criticizing at all and completely understand. I had, for a Rio Grande Valley 3A school, specialized pads that the coaches ordered just for me. I'm not sure they helped.

If anything, I'm trying in my awkward way to give you some comfort in that as one who had the same problem I did not experience any long term issues. I played A LOT of football and had A LOT of stingers.

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understand thanks