Winter sports FUNday, May 15

I fell a little bit behind on the blogging.

This post is about the winter sports FUNday I got the pictures yesterday.

May 15 was the second winter sports FUNday for kids and adults with a disability.

Everybody who was looking for a fun day of skiing and/or snowboarding was welcome. There were clinics for beginners and for more experienced adapted skiers and snowboarders. The more experienced skiers and snowboarders had a chance to get invited for a training with the talent group. The first winter sports FUNday produced some young talents. This day was again a success, 60 people participated and they all looked like they enjoyed it a lot. Which was great because this day is all about the FUN for winter sports. It was great to be there and actually be able to ski with the participants because last time (in September) I had a broken ankle, it was the day before my surgery.

Listening to a presentation from one of the talents

Cool freeskiing pictures

skiing lessons

Last weekend I had a training weekend and the club champs of my ski club Snowsports Academy Racing in snowworld Landgraaf. It was a great weekend with a lot of skiing, fun, lots of pictures and movies. More on that in my next update.

Teddy Bear Hospital and Ringvaart Regatta

Today I was a surgeon at the Teddy Bear Hospital. This is a project for young children to help them get used to doctors (and for young doctors to get used to children). So the children won’t be that afraid if they get sick. The children bring their favorite stuffed animal which is ‘sick’ and we treat it together with the child.

They go to a radiologist for x-rays, to a surgeon, they can get a cast and go to a pharmacist it’s all very real. Today I was a surgeon so I got to wear scrubs, the best outfit of all the bear doctors. When a child came to me I first gave it a hat, a mask and gloves. After that we put the patient under anesthesia and usually just wrap dressing on it and give a shot (the children loved that part), if a stuffed animal actually had a hole I put stitches in it.

This was a great afternoon so fun to work with the children, they were so sweet!

Ringvaart Regatta, 100km rowing

I think rowing 100 km is insane… Although I have to admit that if my leg hadn’t happen I would have thought about trying. Not that I think I can’t do it now, it’s just not as simple (practically speaking don't think it's simple at all) anymore I would need adjustments and that’s not something you do for one ‘race’. I think it’s like running a marathon, I never was a good runner so I never would have tried, but I always thought how cool would it be to finish a marathon?! That’s what this race is about for most competitors, just finish, 100 km is a big victory, there are always some teams aiming for the record as well.

My sister and 3 other girls from her house (+1 one girl navigating the boat) went for it this year. Two girls including my sister trained there buts off, the other two had some aches, pains and injuries. This morning there were some problems at the start which led for them to have to start 40 minutes late in a field of boats with 8 people instead of boats with 4 people.

Right from the start they didn’t had any company rowing at the same pace, eights are much faster.

To stay in the race you have to reach a couple of points in time and after 75 km they got disqualified on just a couple of minutes (since they already lost 40 at the start this wasn’t fair).

My sister as determined as she is didn’t want to give up, so there was some discussion and they where commanded to stop by a motor boat.

My mom and I raced to the place where they got off the water to find my sister in tears.

Poor thing (I think) I know how she felt, she kept saying I failed (I thought I had failed when I crashed in the GS in March) , it was a good lesson for me to be on the outside. Because of course she didn’t fail, she didn’t quit she did all she could and she tried. I think my sister is amazing for trying as hard as she did, for training so determined to reach this goal, but isn’t it all about the journey? What you learn about yourself on the way?

Dear Barbara, I love you and admire you for what you did today (and the last 4 months in training)! No you didn’t finish but you gave a fight!

I have some sweet pictures of today not sure what to do with them because one picture is missing, my sisters boat.

Me and my mom 

(don't mind my hair it was totally messed up by the wind and wearing a hat all afternoon)

The guys from Delft know how to make a driving party

Just rent a pickup put a couch and speakers in the back and lots of beer

.... 

Vacation

My vacation is over, it was good to have some time off. We had amazing weather with high temperatures. I finally did some serious spring cleaning and my house is organized and neat again. My bike is still at the shop, hope to get it back soon.

In my new training program I do some exercises with my skiing-orthosis, like 2 legged squats.

It feels pretty good to be able to do that again and more natural than just the one legged squats, which I still do as well.  

When I was driving home from physio last week I got a flat tire, about 500 meter from home.

I was stranded at the university library, which made me think is this a hint? LOL.

On Friday I had a barbeque with my friends, always a good time.

Saturday I went to Landgraaf for ski training, it was really hot that day, so the long drive without air conditioning wasn’t pleasant. But skiing made up for it. I’m getting the power in my leg back and can make those short fast turns again. The trainer thought I had improved a lot in 2 weeks, which is always good to hear.

Summer Training

Summer training started with weather that made me think it was summer.

After pushing myself to hard to get back and race the same season in which I broke my ankle I reinjured myself. So now I’m going to do it differently still training hard, pushing myself to the limit but not going through the limit, or so I plan. I have 7 months till my first race which gives me time to get back in race shape better and stronger than before.

This injury was a lot different from last, starting with the fact that it wasn’t broken and I was able to walk. But the fact that there was a nerve problem made it a lot less predictable. I started skiing again a little over a week ago (Thursday April 21). All though the feeling is good and I have control over my ski’s getting back to skiing was a bit harder than getting back after my broken ankle. Mostly because my broken ankle was in my disabled leg and this is my good leg. Physically I’m pretty far away from where I left of, I miss so much power in my leg. But other than that skiing is going quite well, I’m making progress and off course I’m glad to be back on ski’s, in control and it feels good.

My physio is writing my new training programs for the gym and they feel good. I’m getting stronger but most importantly my coordination is improving and that has always been my weak spot.

My bike is at the shop because I had to get some adjustments for it. My hip started to bother me while cycling. I don’t have that problem on a spinning bike because on a spinning bike I don’t have to pull that hard to get the crank back up. I found someone who can adjust my bike for one legged cycling so it feels just like normal cycling, I don’t have to pull that hard anymore which irritated my hip. I hope to get it back next week, I’m looking forward to cycling especially with weather like this.

Easter

Last weekend I celebrated Easter with my family and with temperatures like it was summer. It was even to hot (for my grandparents) to eat lunch outside.

We had lunch at my aunt and uncles place and they have a pool! So after lunch we went for a swim. Even all the dogs joined us in the pool to bad my dog Bounty wasn’t there he would have loved it!

I have a two week vacation (just one week left) because there are retakes from some of the exams from last semester and I passed all my exams! I guess the university loves the fact that I broke my ankle ;-) Last year I had 3 exams in this period, 2 of them I hadn’t take the first time and the other one because I cut it short the first time, I had to catch a plane. I locked myself in for two weeks but passed all of them so it was for a good cause. Now I have two weeks off and I can put all my focus on my training and getting back in shape which  is nice for a change and gives me new energy for the last 3 courses of the semester. 

This weekend I’m staying at my mom’s house to take care of the pets (dog and cat) because she is on a weekend trip. Yesterday I drove to Arnhem and to avoid traffic jams I left home during the royal wedding, thought it was too traditional and boring anyway. But I wasn’t the only one with this idea and ended up in traffic jams anyway (3 in total which cost me 45 minutes).

There are way too much cars in this country!

Today it’s Queens-day which is a big party in the Netherlands, love it.

Four years

Today four years ago I had the surgery that changed my life in a lot of ways, but not all changes are bad, after all it did bring me some good stuff as well.

Yes I will always remember that day although back then I had no idea about what had happened. I remember waking up (from my second knee surgery in 3 months) in a lot of pain not just in my knee but in my whole leg. I didn’t know that some of that pain wasn’t normal post operative pain but caused by my muscles dying. I was told that my pain was normal because I just had extensive knee surgery and they shot me up with morphine and more morphine, until I quit breathing, they gave me oxygen to solve that problem.

Eventually my whole leg started to swell and I had a fever, but still they said it was all normal.

When I got home, after a week in the hospital, rehab started but I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t put any weight on my leg it was just floppy, weird, and I couldn't move my knee.

My physio didn’t know what to do, and my kneecap started to dislocate a lot.

I got a full leg cast, which was a relief for me because finally I could put some weight on my leg and get around easier.

Every time they removed the cast my kneecap dislocated again, so I ended up being in a cast for months. I went to the kneecap god of surgeons, if you ask me he was more like dr. House. His first words to me; “that’s a functionless leg” well that was true, the leg was very slim and the knee would only bend 15 degrees, which wasn’t that strange after spending months in a cast. I got another surgery (the third knee surgery in one year) and they removed lots and lots of scar tissue, there was no big anatomical problem what made my kneecap dislocate except for the scar tissue. After surgery I got a device of torture to move my knee, I used it for months and it worked I can bend my knee 90 degrees now.

Well “dr. House” was convinced he fixed me, but he didn’t because I still couldn’t move my leg or put weight on it. He told me I was just lazy (told you dr. House) and I needed a lot of rehab. I stayed 22 weeks in the rehab hospital, way too long! Well to make a long story a bit shorter, the first couple of weeks we tried everything to walk but my leg was just way too weak, the physio over there said your leg is too weak, I know that you did everything you can and you are not lazy, although deep down I already knew that was true it helped hearing it from him. Because I couldn’t walk I got a wheelchair. Well saying I was frustrated and mad is an understatement.

In August 2008 I got a third opinion and this doc was the first one to suggest that the problem might be in my muscles. That my muscles were severely damaged and that it wasn’t my fault, sounds strange because this meant my leg wouldn’t get better but it was a relief to hear that it wasn’t my fault. Eventually a neurologist confirmed this diagnosis with a full leg MRI and a EMG. My muscles are damaged by ischemia, meaning they didn't get enough oxygen during the surgery. I got my first full leg brace, a knee ankle foot orthosis (KAFO), in December 2008 and I started to learn how to walk with it. Because I was almost done with my rehab (they told me it wouldn’t get better, I just had to live with it, they were wrong…….) I mostly learned myself how to walk again.

With  my first orthosis, August 2009 

From this point everything got a lot better! I got rid of the wheelchair (most of the time, when I can’t wear my orthosis I still can’t walk). Now I’m able to do things I never had imagined doing again. Although four years ago I didn’t knew anything of this and I just planned for a normal ACL recovery…. Well if we knew what future holds it wouldn’t be any fun, I like some surprises! Recently (after I broke my ankle) I got the physiotherapy I needed to walk good, more normal and faster, that, together with the new orthosis I got last December, improved my walking a lot.

June 2009

July 2009

March 2011 

On another note my drop foot is gone! My left leg is back to normal, strong as ever and I started summer training, more on that in my next blog.

Fathers and Daughters

Last Friday I had a father daughter day with friends and our dad’s.

It was a beautiful sunny day and actually quite hot for April.

We played golf and had lot of fun with our dad’s and each other.

I invented (together with the instructor and my dad) a technique so I could have a good swing.

My right knee won’t bend because of the orthosis so I placed my right leg slightly more backward. I have played golf a few times when I was about 14 years old, but I still knew how to hit the ball hard.

After golf we had beer, off course, well the dad’s, and dinner.

It was an amazing day and I had a lot of fun.

me and my dad when I was 3 years old

I made a video of the day

Spring

Dear foot lifter muscles,

I know it’s hard being in my left leg, the leg that has to do it all and has to be at least twice as strong as a normal leg. Especially when the muscles in my right leg seem to be chilling all day, but doctors say they are damaged and mostly death so we have to deal with that.

I guess you deserved a break, but now after 4 weeks vacation is over.

Let’s get back to work so I can do amazing things (like skiing)!

Slowly I’m regaining more control over my foot, the drop foot is getting better. I’m now at the point where you can’t hear it, most of the time, it gets worse when I’m tired. Since there is progress it’s most likely that the nerve was ‘just’ compressed and that there is no leasion. I’m very happy with that. The thing with nerve things is that it’s hard to make a prognosis, but my physio is happy with the progress. So we go for a speedy full recovery!

This weekend are the Swiss champs and I was planning to race there, it would have been the last races of the season. It still makes me kind of frustrated that I can’t race. I just wanted to get my points so bad, I knew it was possible to get beneath the 200 points and now this will cost me a year. Yes it is what it is but I just wanted to nag about it for a little while, makes me feel better all ready.

My lovely old dog Bounty is staying with me for the weekend and we had 23 degrees and lot's of sun today so it’s a good weekend anyways. Bounty is 13 years old and is limping a bit, so when I walk him it’s a perfect fit, both limping and the same pace ;-)

I was planning on going to beach with Bounty today, but I guess that’s too much for him right now, his legs are hurting a bit since a couple of days. I found some nice pictures with Bounty on the beach from 2 years ago, he loved it!

My rehab training is going quite well my leg is still strong, except for the foot lifter muscles. So most exercises are no problem there are just a few things I can’t do at the moment like planking. I do some isolated foot lifter exercises and tried medical taping which worked well for me.