I have been updating on my injury, surgery and recovery on Instagram --> annikameer http://instagram.com/annikameer
Soon I will take all those posts and write a post about it, in the mean time you can check over there.
Annika van der Meer
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Knee stress
After the news about my surgery last week I had a lot
of strong emotions, I just wanted to go home crawl up in a ball under a blanket
and cry, yep that was basically it.
But we (I went to the hospital with my mom) had a lot
more scheduled that day, so I just had to suck it up, something that I’m pretty
good at in general.
We went and checked out the rehab hospital in
Amsterdam, I didn’t like it, but mostly I didn’t like the idea of it at all, all in all Amsterdam is a no go for those 6 weeks of rehab. Luckily I had 2
options. After that it was time to go to physio, I told her the plan and broke
down and cried, I was mostly upset about the long period that I had to be
admitted in a rehab hospital. She comforted me by telling me we would find a
good place where I would feel okay.
After that we went to my grandfather and all in all it
was a long day and I was exhausted by the time I returned home.
By that time I got in a state where I didn’t want to
talk about at all, I just wrote my blog and that was it for a few days. I
continued the prehab with physio, to get me in the best place possible for
surgery. But my knee gave out again,….. it is getting lame, come on you can
make it, it’s just 3 more weeks. I have been in an increasingly amount of pain
and have been put on painkillers and anti-inflammatories to keep my knee happy
and calm. Walking is not really happening anymore these days, well I guess I’m
just easing into the stage where I can’t use my leg for 6 weeks. And it is harder
than I thought since the other leg is of no use. So I do realize that those 6
weeks in a rehab hospital are extremely necessary, there is no way I could do
it at home, safely.
I checked out the other rehab hospital this week and I
liked that one better, so I guess I’m starting to feel better about the whole
thing. Heliomare is near the beach and has younger patients, the whole atmosphere
in general just made me feel better, and there are a lot more sporting options.
Wednesday I had my consult with the anesthesiologist,
talking through my options and what I wanted. General anesthesia, that is clear
there is no way I’m staying awake for this one, way to stressful considering
what happened in 2007. They wanted to give me a nerve block for the postop pain
but the surgeon doesn’t want that because he can’t test my nerves that way.
And that just makes me a little stressed, I have felt
calm about the procedure itself, comforted myself by saying it won’t happen
again. But the truth is that even though chances of it happening again are slim
there is no guarantee. The doctor has been honest about that, even though they
have an idea why it happened they are not sure. The surgery in 2007 left my
right leg paralyzed, the surgery took approximately 100 minutes during that period there was no blood flow in my leg,
my muscles didn’t got enough oxygen got ischemic and died.
So 100 minutes of surgery can’t be done, but with a
good planning that long won’t be necessary, but how long is safe for me? How
much can my muscles take? A hundred minutes is considered long for ACL surgery,
most ACL surgeries won’t take that long, it also is the maximum amount you can
have a limb without circulation during surgery.
So in general 100 minutes is safe, borderline, but
safe…. Not for me apparently. The thing is no one knows how long is safe for
me, it is to be expected that I should be ok if they manage to drastically
decrease the amount of time without blood flow. That’s why we chose for a
procedure with a donor graft, they can prepare that graft beforehand and that
way save a lot of time. Normally they will take a graft from either the
hamstring or patellar tendon and prepare a new ACL out if it during the
surgery, with a donor graft I save that chunk of time.
Doing the surgery without the tourniquet so with blood
flow isn’t safe because the visibility is not good enough and I will lose a lot
of blood that way.
I trust this surgeon a lot, and if anyone can do it he can. But there is no certainty and that makes me stressed. And I guess I started realizing that it freaks me out when they explained me that I couldn’t have a nerve block for pain control, because the nerve testing is more important than the most effective way of pain control in my case…
I trust this surgeon a lot, and if anyone can do it he can. But there is no certainty and that makes me stressed. And I guess I started realizing that it freaks me out when they explained me that I couldn’t have a nerve block for pain control, because the nerve testing is more important than the most effective way of pain control in my case…
Well I will have morphine and be very enjoyable for other
people.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Cathing up…. Injury update
Never ever has there been a gap this big in my blog,
oops.
I still owe you guys the story about my Whistler
adventure in July, I have tons of pics, but that still has to wait.
Usually when there is a gap in my blog it means that I
am either confused or injured or both…
Well I guess I am both.
All though it is not like I haven’t been blogging at
all, I have been blogging on my Vancouver blog. So there are a lot of stories
over there and a million pics, even the promised Whistler pics, just follow the
link pictures at www.annikainvancouver.blogspot.com.
Injury
On July 18 I fell while free skiing slalom, I was just
moving through a turn when one of my ski’s lost control, my left knee hyper
extended and I fell.
The coach on top figured that this was a bad fall and
worried, but I felt ok, no pain.
So I got back up and skied down, before entering the
line for the T-bar I went over a small bump and realized my knee acted ‘dodgy’.
I didn’t think too much of it but decided not to ski anymore that day. I went
home and iced the knee although there was no sign of swelling, I did have a
limp and a small problem with full extension.
Later that day I went to the club cabin for dryland and after 45
minutes of cycling my knee was as new, limp was gone and extension was fine, I
thought it was just a muscle thing and did the rest of the training with my
group, no problem.
At the end of the training we did some balance stuff
and walked the slackline, I had a lot of fun mastering the slackline.
I stepped on the slackline took a few steps but then realized
that holding my balance was a lot harder than it used to be, I ended up losing
it and jumping off…. To save myself from falling. I had jumped and landed on
one leg, my left leg, a million times before, but this time something went
horribly wrong. I landed and my knee totally gave out, there was a moment of
full seperation (according to one of the trainers that saw it happen), I felt my
lower leg move in sideways, my body move out and my knee sliding and separate. I screamed so loud and cried
an rolled over the floor holding my knee, that was back in place again at that time.
After icing for a little bit the pain faded a bit and
my muscle spasm kicked in, ultimately stabilizing my knee. I had it checked up
but my muscle spasm was to severe to say anything concrete at that time, also I
had a very limited amount of swelling.
So even though in that moment I was sure that my knee
was completely blown I started to think that it still could be ok.
I could still walk, with my leg spasmed bended in
something like 20 degrees, so I was limping badly, extending the leg more was
impossible.
Three days later I returned to the city, Vancouver,
and that was the moment my muscle spasm started to wear off. Walking became
more difficult and I started to get some pain and swelling. The next day I was
diagnosed with an ACL tear. Long story a bit shorter. The first month I was
doing fine, I had a brace and used the wheelchair but still walked ok.
Then after about a month my knee gave out again, on
the beach, even though I was wearing my brace and taking it easy. And from that
moment on my knee was bad. A long discussion with my health insurance, because
the doctor wanted to do an urgent mri. It was denied at first. Finally on
September 9 I got X-rays, and they found an ACL avulsion fracture, meaning that
my ACL broke out of the bone of my tibia, explaining my pain. And also putting me
on a none weight bearing regime, in the wheelchair.
Still the insurance didn’t think I needed a MRI, after
a long time with a lot of doctor’s giving their strong recommendations both in
Canada and the Netherlands, the insurance said ok.
The MRI was done the next day (October 4), in a place
with a 7 month waiting list that is quick. I got the results a day later
confirming I had what they called an unhappy tried or blown knee, The ACL was
broken off like I already knew but also sustained a full tear, the MCL was damaged
just like the meniscus.
Looking back it is hard to say what happened when, but
looking at the injury mechanisms the professionals have an idea. I probably
sustained the avulsion fracture during my ski crash, it is explained by the
hyper extension and high impact. Also this could have left my knee still reasonably
stable if the fracture stayed in place, that’s why I didn’t notice too much
problems.
But when I jumped on it, it couldn’t help but give out,
ripping up the rest of it.
It was a long road so far but in November I took my
first steps.
On November 10 I traveled back to the Netherlands in business
class because of the knee.
November 14 I had my first check up with the surgeon
in the Netherlands. We decided on a prehab period with a checkup after 6 weeks to decide on a plan for surgery.
Prehab; meaning pre rehab, before surgery to optimize
outcome.
I started a 4 times a week physio schedule and made
some great progress, starting out with Compex to get more control over my
muscles.
But soon I moved to the real stuff, with leg press,
squats and step up. I also started cycling and I even was able to do some track
cycling, that went very well (but I’ll write a separate post on that). All in
all prehab was going well, I am able to legpress 100kg. But balance,
coordination and walking remained bad. I can walk about 200-300 meters with a
very bad limp and a lot of effort, that used to be so much better and easier. Also the
knee remained unstable, it gave out again damaging my LCL leaving me with 3 out
of the 4 ligaments damaged.
So yesterday when I returned to the surgeon for my checkup
we decided on surgery.
I will have surgery on January 27, during this
procedure I will get a donor tendon in my knee for my ACL. The MCL and LCL will
get checked and repaired if necessary, both meniscuses are damaged and will
probably get trimmed. I will stay in the
hospital for the first 5 days and then move to a rehab hospital for approximately
6 weeks.
My situation is complex and with the other leg being
paralyzed I probably won’t be able to take care of myself properly during that period. After 6
weeks the new tendon will be grown in and I will be allowed to walk a bit on it
again at that point it is save to return home. I hate it to stay
hospitalized for so long I really value my space and freedom, but I do realize
that it is in my best interest to protect my knee.
That is the story so far, to be continued.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
June
June
came and went, almost. The last couple of weeks I have been on my bike a lot
more.
On May
27 I had a nasty accident in a bus here, after I got on the full bus as the
last passenger, I asked the driver to give me a moment so I could sit down,
because it’s hard for me to balance in a moving vehicle with my leg. He pulled
out anyway and I fell backwards with my right arm, just above the elbow,
hitting the fair machine. It was extremely sore and got swollen and bruised
rapidly, check up in the hospital showed a small crack in my humerus and I was
put in a sling for 2 weeks.
At the
one week check up there where some concerns about other damage and an
ultrasound was performed to check the status of the triceps tendon. Images were
also sent to Amsterdam for a second set of eyes, long story short, I didn’t
damage the tendon but damaged the muscle, luckily this heals better then a tendon injury
and I have a grade 3 tear in my ulna collateral ligament, that last one is
pretty nasty because it makes my elbow very unstable. So I got a big as brace
and I am back to normal life again, can’t do weights right now or use crutches but
other than that it’s ok.
So After
I got the brace I was able to bike again J I have made some great bike rides
around here, it’s beautiful. Vancouver is pretty hilly so my climbing skills
will definitely improve here. I joined 2 different cycling clubs. With one club
we train in Stanley park on Tuesday night, we circle the park 3-4 times (9k per
loop), there is a big climb in there too. And with Lululemon Kitsilano cycling
club I train Wednesday night, we usually ride up to UBC (last Wednesday twice)
which is a though climb, other than just riding we also do a lot of different
drills with Lululemon, a good
combination.
Both
clubs have long rides during the weekend, so enough options. And I have
made some good rides alone or with friends.
On the left side of this picture is UBC, Stanley Park is top right
Thursday morning means 7am yoga, always tough to
wake up but really nice once I have done it. Add some one legged squats and
jumps and I have a nice training schedule over here.
Also I
have been hiking a little bit, never expected that I would be able to do that
but my walking has been pretty good lately.
The next
Whistler camp I will attend starts July 8 at the glacier, excited to ski again
and get back in the gates, will see how that goes with the brace, maybe use one
pole, don´t know yet. I will see how it works out. This is a short overview,
there are a lot more stories in the Vancouver blog.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Whistler super camp #1
Returning to basics and fundamentals will be the focus
of the May camp, utilizing much of the mountain, groomed and off piste runs.
On-snow functional body movement, skills assessment and drills will create a
strong foundation for building skills on. Campers will be divided into 3 groups
by age/skill levels (I was placed in the highest group, performance level). Including fitness testing on
Saturday.www.wmsc.info
So Saturday was the day for GS testing, it was
raining, that added an extra challenge, the snow was so sticky, but hey it’s BC
spring skiing. For testing we also used a wave track, with 6 waves, 1 meter
high each and the tops where 12 meters apart. The goal was to absorb the waves
at GS speed while making the turns. After a few tries I got the hang of the
wave track and actually quite liked it. At the end of the day we also had to
tuck the wave track, well that wasn’t quite as successful, I almost crashed
after the third wave barely managed to keep standing but lost my pole and skied
out of the track.
That afternoon we did fitness testing, which started
with a beep test, that was the only test I couldn’t participate in. After the
beep test they build all the stations with the different tests, penta jumps,
both on one leg and on two, box jumps (ugh), 5-10-5 agility (‘running’ and
touching the floor), high jump and planking.
Overall I scored pretty good better than expected and
I was pretty happy with my results. Especially since I wasn’t allowed to jump
for 12 weeks after my ankle injury (torn syndesmose) in February (when I broke
my orthotic), this was my first time jumping again.
Sunday it was time for skills testing on slalom ski’s,
we did the wave track again and hourglass skiing (I got a 7 out of 10). The
group also skied on 1 ski without poles, quite a challenge from what I have
seen. Since I’m not able to ski on one ski I did a different exercise to help
me separate more, and it worked pretty well! Seems I have found the change I needed
at the Whistler mountain ski club, I have made quite some progress and definitely
stepped out of my comfort zone. Thanks to all the great trainers! It was
awesome to get training from a girl who was on the Canadian national team last
year.
After testing we went ‘free’ skiing, but as trainer
Ryan said there is no free in free skiing, always work on something while
having fun. We skied off piste, through the trees, this was definitely a
challenge for me, but the camp motto was accept the challenge, and I did it!
After that run, it was the end of the day already and my
good leg was so fatigued that I just ‘fell’
it was more like sitting down in the snow, time to download.
Sunday afternoon consisted of lots and lots of
stretching, I was so sore, I couldn’t sneeze anymore ;). Sunday afternoon also
means soccer, the team thought they had an actual Euro soccer player on their
hands, unfortunately I had to disappoint them with that… J
I'm so adopting this Canadian lifestyle wearing running leggings and bright running shoes in public, being outside and active every day
Monday was the last day of camp and we had the candy
cup duals, this was so much fun!
Dual slaloms always helps you to push that little
extra.
The drive down from Whistler to Vancouver was beautiful
again this time I could ‘enjoy’ it extra-long because of traffic jams, it
clearly has been a long weekend.
Yesterday I started working again in the lab and my
supervisor said ‘I see you have had some sun’ yep goggle face and helmet lines
which is impressive with mostly clouded weather.
Now back to work and dryland until July, when it’s
time for the next camp, more skiing, more fun times, more icebad’s and sore muscles
;)
Friday, May 17, 2013
Whistler day 1
I’m in Vancouver for exactly 2 weeks now, to read more
on those stories see my Vancouver blog www.annikainvancouver.blogspot.ca
Yesterday I made the beautiful drive from Vancouver to Whistler, taking me over highway 99, the ‘sea to the sky highway’ to view is so amazing that it actually doesn’t bother me that much that the speed is very limited. I have rented a car, and thanks to a little hand controlled car mix up, I got a free upgrade to a very nice car, I love it, I will miss it for sure when I have to give it back Monday night.
After skiing we had dryland training, some athletes were mountain biking, some were running or spinning for 20 minutes. I was spinning after which we did some yoga and stretching. We also did some balancing, and I walked a bit on the slag line as well. With poles it was easy even turned and walked back,then I tried loosely holding another girl’s hand while walking, and I even took some steps on my own, nice project for this summer J
Tomorrow GS skills testing we will see, I’m looking forward to another day on the hill!
Yesterday I made the beautiful drive from Vancouver to Whistler, taking me over highway 99, the ‘sea to the sky highway’ to view is so amazing that it actually doesn’t bother me that much that the speed is very limited. I have rented a car, and thanks to a little hand controlled car mix up, I got a free upgrade to a very nice car, I love it, I will miss it for sure when I have to give it back Monday night.
So today was the first day of skiing with the Whistler
mountain ski club. I skied with the FIS group and had a good time. The
conditions were very soft due to some high temperatures over the last few
weeks, but there still is plenty of snow left J
We did GS drills today, and all the drills were new to
me, the coaches mentioned that they saw a progress over the day, always good to
hear, I felt it as well. I felt very confident on my GS ski’s in the
soft snow. The motto of the day was accept the challenge, so I did moguls and
off piste and tons of more drills. By the end of the day my GS turns felt
really good and I was death tired in my good leg J. They have some high level coaches and a lot of their
athletes have made the national team over the years. I’m so happy to get the
chance to train with them, this might just be the change I need to step it up
next season. So a big thanks to topsport met zonder handicap a great foundation
who has made this possible for me!
After skiing we had dryland training, some athletes were mountain biking, some were running or spinning for 20 minutes. I was spinning after which we did some yoga and stretching. We also did some balancing, and I walked a bit on the slag line as well. With poles it was easy even turned and walked back,then I tried loosely holding another girl’s hand while walking, and I even took some steps on my own, nice project for this summer J
Tomorrow GS skills testing we will see, I’m looking forward to another day on the hill!
Monday, April 15, 2013
April Randomness
In march I skied my last international races of the
season in France but my national race season wasn’t finished yet. This season
they added an adaptive category to some of the national races in the indoor
circuit. The first race I managed to win, which wasn’t that big of a deal
considering a lack of competition but still nice.
Sunday we ski the second race and the third race is in
May which I won’t ski…. Because in May I’ll be in Canada! This summer I’ll be
interning in Vancouver general hospital for my scientific training period (as it’s
called at the university) for more information about that see www.annikainvancouver.blogspot.com
But interning won’t be all I do when I’m in Canada, because
off course I arranged for some ski training and I’ll be doing lots of other
stuff. But this is the skiing blog J
I have arranged for ski training at the Whistler
mountain ski club, they have 4 day summer camps during the weekends, I will do
the one in May and 2 or 3 in July. Hopefully I can stay with a family during
those weekends, that would be very nice.
These camps off course aren’t cheap so I’m happy to
announce that I got the funding for these camp from a great organization in the
Netherlands. They are called Topsport met zonder handicap, which means top
sport with(out) disability. The foundation is founded by Marije Smits she used
to be active in para-athletics and she is also a med student. Marije competed
in 3 paralympic games (Athens, Beijing and London), and she has founded her own
foundation to encourage talents with ambitions and goals. Just take a look at
their website (it’s in Dutch) www.topsportmetzonderhandicap.nl
I’m also still training at the indoor slope in
Landgraaf before I leave for Canada. Saturday I had a very good training, my
skiing felt so much better, much easier in slalom, I have struggled a bit in
slalom lately but things seem to go a lot better. I got a big help with this
improvement because I was bootfitted by Patrick Rademakers from ski center
edelweiss. He adjusted my boots so my feet are in a more natural position which
means I can turn the ski easier, it takes less strength.
Well that’s it for now, will check back later!
My first Whistler camp is May 17-20
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