Tag: injury

Roller Derby My New Life

It Happened

gcamwhite

Well, I have skated for 8 years and it finally happened, I got a roller derby injury.  Thursday night November 15th, I broke my ankle jamming in a scrimmage for All Star tryouts.  It was bad, scary and oh so painful.

Thursday night after emergency room

The league mates at Yellow Rose Derby Girls were so awesome.  They made all the calls to family and got the ambulance there for me and waited at the hospital with my husband and daughter when they couldn’t see me right away.

I saw the surgeon, and I had a dislocated ankle with a trimallolar break (3) places, so I had to have surgery to put in a plate and screws. Surgery was November 26 and I was out of commission until December 11th. At that appointment I got a boot and was told to start weight bearing on it immediately. That was scary. It was a month since I last walked on it and it was numb all across the top of my foot, big toe and the incision places. I started PT the next week.

My next visit to the surgeon was January 8th and off with the boot and into regular shoes. I had already been walking without the boot in shoes and PT was teaching me how to walk again. It was still unnerving since my boot was my protection. But I did it and I have awesome physical therapists.

I am serving my league as the Head NSO and we had our first home games February 23rd. It was really different knowing that I would not be skating again anytime soon. But I was ok with it for now. It was fun to watch and arrange all the NSOs jobs and I like doing the paperwork for the stats. I may start learning to ref but that is a big job too.

This Thursday is my hopefully last appointment with the surgeon. I expect to be released without restrictions but you never know until it happens. Probably means the end to PT as well and back to training on my own. I have learned a lot about getting my muscles back and that I need to ramp up the endurance. But I have learned to use the elliptical so that will be a thing now. There will be lots more weight training also. I plan to roll but I won’t be doing too many skills. I have also been so busy with work and family that a step back from derby has been a good thing.

After Surgery and stitches out
Roller Derby My New Life

Injury Recovery-The Long Road Back

gcamwhite

I am 8 weeks out from my shoulder surgery.  I have to say it has been just as hard as they told me it would be.  I am still having to manage pain and do all the exercises.  My physical therapist shows me what to do and I push myself to do it, but it is still slow going.  I am elated at being able to use my right hand to feed myself and type again.  I still cannot open doors and I am maybe 3/4ths of the way to full range of motion and that is being generous.

Every athelete that gets injured knows what is like to go through the recovery process and it totally sucks.  My surgeon assures me that I will be much happier on the other side of this.

Set backs are all a part of life and there are so many other things that are worse or more important than my injury and recovery, that I am still thankful to have my health and the ability to recover.  Team mates have been supportive and I know how hard it is to know what to say to someone who is off the track and struggling to get better so they can be back out there with everyone.  We have had our share of injuries this year.

It has made me do some research on preventing injury.  There is such a thing.  Extra protection gear is one way to help, I wear padded shorts and shin guards which are not required.  But I think that especially for fresh meat learning how to skate it is advisable.  Tailbone injuries can end your strive to be a derby girl and the shins getting kicked is just common sense.  Not everyone is going to be the same and some accomodations have to be made to focus on what is good for you and your body.

The coaches shout about our form and yet, 90% of even the most experienced on the team do not have good derby stance form, however all of them think that they do.  I had some newbies argue with me that they were in good form so I had them do their skating around the track and I filmed them, then I showed them.  It was an eye opener.  We need more sprints and squats while on the track, and sprints are not a race in which you sacrifice form to beat a team mate.  And when the someone tells you are you not low enough, believe them and work harder to get lower.  Remember that training is just that, you are not competing with your team mates, you are competing with yourself and the track and the drills.  You must work on the things you do not do well and not concentrate on doing what you already know how to do. 

We are just about to end our season with our last bout and take a quick break for holidays and then it is back at it to get ready for the next season.  I have had a very long break and am so ready to get back on the track with my team mates.  Hopefully, try outs will go well and I will be able to try out when we have them.

Watching from sidelines, I have seen our girls progress and the training intensify and it is an awesome sight to behold.  I am suppose to have all my range of motion back in 4 more weeks and my therapist and I will be working hard to get there.  In therapy, pain really does mean gain.  I have had to learn that the pain I have now is not injury pain it is healing pain.  But I will be back stronger than ever, there is some serious weight lifting in my future!!

Until next time – Love you guys!