Personal Notes - July/August 2002

Well, July started off kind of hectic for me as I was preparing for the Monica Brant Fitness Classic. I was very excited about doing this show because after I attended last year's show, I made it a personal goal to do this show this year.

I placed 6th in the short class division. Some may feel I am disappointed with that placement, but not really. It is not always about winning. My physique scores were actually pretty good and I feel I was given a fair assessment. I think I could have done better with the routine round had I not been dealing with so many injuries this year.

First of all I had an impingement in my back that was restricting my range of motion and causing my legs to go numb when sitting. Also, I was starting to experience a radiating pain from my lower back down through my tailbone. I couldn't sit properly for any length of time without pain. I started going to a chiropractor and it started to help almost immediately. However, it took some time before I was pain free and I had full range of motion back.

Then one day while practicing my routine, I tore my left hamstring. My gymnastic coach heard the snapping noise when I went to do a high kick. It didn't feel like anything at the time, but I very quickly realized what the noise was. To this day it still feels kind of funny and I have to be very careful with that left leg.

However, the most serious injury I had been dealing with since the beginning of the year dealt with my wrist. My right wrist was causing me a lot of pain. After several doctor's visits, xrays and then finally an mri, I finally found out what was going on with my wrist. I had microfractures in my right wrist and a little tendonitis in my left wrist. I found out just before Monica's show, but I decided to go ahead with the show against my doctor's advice. Yes, I know very foolish, but I had worked so hard for it and I just had to do that show. It was my goal.

After the Monica Brant Fitness Classic, my trainer strongly advised me to take the rest of the year off and let my wrists and body heal. It was a very good thing that I decided to listen to him. I went for follow up xrays to see if the microfractures were healing and it was these xrays that finally showed what was causing me so much pain. Not only did I have microfractures, but I had a chipped bone fragment floating around in there. The bone chip had reattached itself. I don't understand exactly how, but my doctor said it had reattached itself by cartilege and will eventually fill in with new bone. This bone chip never showed up on any of the previous xrays nor the mri. It took me laying off of it and allowing it to heal for it to finally show up.

This was a very important lesson for me in listening to my body. I could have kept on pushing and pushing and turned a bad situation into a disaster. I am so glad I finally listened to my doctor and my trainer and took a break.

I'm still weight training and sticking to a strict nutritional plan, but in gymnastics I am working on skills that don't impact my wrists so much in order to give it more time to heal.

I'm enjoying my time off from contest preparation and I'm already planning my routine and competitions for next year. I'm also enjoying going out and supporting my fellow competitors at their competitions. It's kind of nice not to be able to relax a bit and not have all the precontest pressure for the moment.

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