09/08/2025
👋 Meet Alaina.
In November of 2023, Alaina fell out of a jump during ballet practice. She experienced pain immediately that continued to worsen over the next month as she danced through 23 performances of The Nutcracker. The following January, her pain had not subsided, and she was diagnosed with post traumatic Achilles tendinopathy. Alaina began physical therapy but when she found that she was not getting better, she visited her doctor again, this time to get an MRI.
The news was not what she expected. Alaina had built up fluid in the back of her ankle and had a stress injury in her talus bone along with a posterior ankle impingement. She was placed in a boot for four weeks and took an additional two weeks off from ballet.
Following her diagnosis, she began to work with Nationwide Children's Performing Arts Medicine Program and physical therapist, Aimee Heslop to regain her strength.
Alaina shares, "I slowly came back to ballet with help from Aimee. I graduated from physical therapy in May of 2024 and completely recovered from the injury."
Unfortunately, Alaina began to experience pain again. A second MRI showed the pain was caused by os trigonum, an extra bone behind her ankle. Between 15-30% of people have an os trigonum and repetitive stress on the ankle from activities like pointe can injure this extra bone.
After trying cortisone injections unsuccessfully, Alaina was scheduled for surgery in October 2024. The surgery was a success! She once again began working with our Performing Arts Medicine Program following surgery and has now completely recovered and is pain free!
Alaina shares, "Physical therapy and working with the Performing Arts Medicine Program was so helpful. I appreciated always having Aimee in my corner through the ups and downs of recovery and the exercises helped me regain my strength in a way that I felt confident in returning to ballet at the level I was before the injury!"
Learn more about our Performing Arts Medicine Program: https://bit.ly/467CGr0.
