Who's At Fault? Freestyle Etiquette .1

Today I witnessed an interesting crash between two skaters.

Visualize this: A skater is working on her double lutz. She is 'in lesson' with her coach watching from the boards. Let's call her LutzGirl. There's another skater, also in lesson, at the same end of the rink. Let's call her BackwardSkater.

LutzGirl is doing an approach to the lutz circle. She raises her pick-in leg and then BackwardSkater skates behind her, through the lutz circle.

LutzGirl's free skate rams BackwardSkater in the stomach (edit) with her skate. LutzGirl falls forward onto her knees, lets out a small scream of pain and rolls in agony onto her side. BackwardSkater is bent over moaning.

Who's at fault?

Here are some thoughts:
LutzGirl had the right of way to the lutz circle, but shouldn't her coach have been watching the area around her?
BackwardSkater did not have the right of way, but LutzGirl would do a lutz then skate to the boards and confer with her coach. So the lutz circle would be open for say 5 minutes at a time, then LutzGirl would abruptly keave the boards and do a lutz approach.
However, LutzGirl had been doing lutz approaches off and on for 15 minutes.
Neither coach called out a warning.

Again, who's at fault?

(FYI; Both skater's recovered and finished freestyle)

Things I Hate About Skating.9

The tops of my boots tear up my leg when I skate more than 2 hours.

What I think:

What you think:

(Is all okay now, I have doubled bunga gel tube over it.)

Which Works Better for Acute Injuries, RICE or MEAT?

A couple of days before Christmas I did an ankle rollover off the edge of my porch mat and flopped around in pain in the rain on my front sidewalk for a couple of minutes. Then I got up and limped into the house.

My fall was much less graceful

Fortunately, since I'm a figure skater I had ankle compression, Advil, and ice packs ready to go!

You're all familiar with RICE aren't you? Rest Ice Compression Elevation? It's the mantra I grew up with. Rest-get off my ankle, Ice--put ice on it, Compression--well, put on a compression bandage, Elevation--prop my foot up.

Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation!

There I am lying in bed, and I start researching. It turns out that RICE is now in a contest with MEAT!
 
MEAT says I should do the following:
Movement-rotate the foot to keep the blood flow to the injured area
Exercise- get up and walk around
Analgesic--hooray! Advil!
Treatment--physical therapy

Movement,Exercise, Analgesic, Therapy!

Basically, I have to be a doctor to tell when RICE is better than MEAT! I'm not kidding! One is for muscle injury, the other is for ligament injury. How ya gonna know?   Since I'm not a doctor I can't know if it's muscle or ligament, I have to make some decisions on my own.

Let's call my personal method BEANS.

Basically, put some compression and ice the injury followed by heat a couple hours later
Exercise--get up and walk around; if I can't, then stop and go to the weekend clinic, also rotate the ankle to keep the blood flowing to the ligament and/or muscle that's injured
Analgesics--sweet, sweet advil
Note how I'm feeling and adjust my treatment,
See if there's any bruising or swelling and monitor it for increasing pain

So what do we have after an injury?

Booyah! We've got a meal!  Rice Meat AND Beans!

Ice Packs for Injuries

I'm in the middle of a back spasm.

All hail ice packs.

I have a bottom freezer half full of them, left over from my injured knee recovery. Damn, those things are handy.

For injuries that don't involve actual spillage of blood, the first thing that first aid seems to recommend is 1. Stabilize, 2. Ice Packs.

Since I'm not in the medical profession I'll bypass 'stabilize' and move on to Ice Packs.

What I learned during my knee injury is that I'm supposed to ice my injured part no longer than 10-20 minutes. Take the ice pack off and wait a while (half hour to an hour) then repeat. Usually, I only use the pack for 10 minutes and don't have to repeat it. However, in the middle of a back spasm (too much overhead weight lifting) I'm using them for 20 minutes.

After 36-48 hours I've read to alternate the ice pack with heat. I prefer a hot shower, but heating pads or a hot water bottle work just as well.

Icing Phase

So for the last 36 hours I've done as recommended. Intermittent ice packs (not to exceed 20 minutes per session) along with rest, slow walking, and gentle stretching.  It worked and I'm close to pain free today.  I start alternating ice with heat this evening.

Warming Phase

If I can pass on some of my experience with ice packs, here they are:

1. I found the bendable ones from the drugstore made of cubical cells filled with blue liquid to leak.  I don't recommend those. These are sometimes called 'ice blankets'. Note, some brands contain propylene glycol and can raise a rash if they leak. If you go to the hunting section of Walmart or Target and find bendable ones with little square cells, check to make sure they contain water. Even if those don't leak they won't raise a rash or stain your clothes. The ones from the hunting section haven't leaked so far. They appear to be sturdier than the ones from the drugstore.

2. In the drugstore, the ones that I like are filled with a mixture of clay that makes them bendable even when frozen, and are pretty sturdy. Other than clay I don't know what's in them, but I've never had one leak. The ones I bought have a fabric bag to hold the ice pack, and a stretch belt. These can be worn while you're walking around.

3. I found some heavy duty square ice packs made for food storage. The small ones are okay to stick behind my back while I'm driving.

4. The ones that have little 'peas' inside them. Bought one. Used it once. Threw it away. Held the cold about 15 minutes.

So there's my little survival tips for injuries for when you need an ice pack.

The Never Ending Construction Project--Me

I'm a FO3 flinger. When I'm doing a LFO3, I fling my right hip around during the turn. Apparently, I do this going up stairs in just regular life, so there's an underlying disability. Rapunzel the Cruel, my physical therapist, has been working on strengthening and stretching muscles around the hip, and the  effects are starting to bleed through into my skating.

"I've been working on not letting my right leg  open up too much on FO3," I tell Miss Bianca. "I think if I keep my hips square it seems to help me with the back edge."

"Hm, let's see." Miss Bianca says.

I demonstrate.

"No," she says, "The issue is that you keep your right hip hiked up and fling it around the turn. So when you go backwards, you're off balance. Let's fix that right now."

I think every coach I've ever had, has told me a variation of this. I just didn't know how to process it. Now with the new awareness I've gained from physical therapy, and stronger muscles around the hip, I'm ready to work on it consciously.

I spent my lesson, getting my hip to un-hike. It's not just a matter of lowering it a little, it's a matter of lowering it a lot. To get my hips even, I have to lower my right hip to the point it feels scary.

"Lower," Miss Bianca says, "Even lower than that."

"Eeeeee!" my brain goes. But it works!

We do some edge exercises, and for the first time on an inside edge, I can feel a sense of power as I get the hips even.  What's happening, is that when I hiked my hip up, I was either on the flat or an outside edge ("How do you DO that!" one coach said) when I'm supposed to be on an inside edge. Unhiked, I'm finally on the inside edge.

Nothing's 'fixed' yet, but I think I've had a breakthrough.

Miss Bianca says, "Oh yes,
that looks much better."

Me and the MRI

Well, the imaging center did both knees today. Just in case you ever need an MRI, let me make some comments.

First off, it wouldn't hurt to wear some socks. Even though they gave me some paper foot covers and wrapped me in a heated sheet, after a while my feet were freezing (probably because I couldn't move my legs.

They're really particular about what you wear.  Nothing can have any ferrous metal in it. I was permitted to wear my stretch pants, but not the bra since it had metal in it. If this happens again, I'll wear one of those all stretch bras without any underwires.

An MRI is really loud---and then it gets much, MUCH louder. After the first go round on the right knee, I asked for ear plugs. The second time around with the earplugs, it was much better. Rather like going to a boring early Philip Glass concert. The technicians offered me music to listen to, but loud music on top of loud MRI sounds was just too much. I was better off with the ear plugs.

When they asked me if I was claustrophobic, I said 'no' on the paperwork. Then I met the machine. I don't think I could have stood it if I had to put my whole body in there. However, only my legs went in, and  I was okay.  So, really, really confining space. Far more confining than I expected.

Before I had the MRI I had to list all my surgeries and implants in case I had stainless steel  in me. I read up on this last night, and even if they don't explicitly ask about a particular body part it's important to list every single possible clip, stent, implant etc. Mine turned out to all be titanium (as most are after 1995). I had some surgical clips from the 80's so there was a little frisson of worry, but I'm here to write about it so obviously nothing happened.

A slice of an MRI of somebody's knee
(not mine)

So after the MRI (took about an hour all told), they gave me a CD of my images. I give that to the orthopedic surgeon on Monday and find out what's wrong with me.

And then maybe I'll find out if I'll skate again.

And Now For the Traditional New Year's Resolutions Post

Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way.....

Let's move on....actually let's not. The left knee is fine, but the right knee is still bad, so the weight loss may be a necessity. Maybe limping everywhere will be a motivator.

Resolution 2: Get back on ice.

Resolution 3:

I'm going to set my goals low for this year.  I tried to skate Monday, but my right knee is so wonky that I only made a single circle of the ice before I had to get off. Fortunately, my rink has an unofficial 'boot testing for free' policy, so I didn't get charged for a freestyle session.

So, still off the ice. No skating. I feel so bored with nothing to do on the weekends....however, my car is really, really clean.

Bored Skater Is Ready to Skate

Off Ice-- :-(

So, I went skating yesterday and I still have pain in the right knee when stroking or doing CCW forward crossovers. I don't think there's any muscle weakness there, but the pain is so sharp it's hard not to flinch when I stroke or step down on the crossover. If I put the weight on the leg while it's straight, and bend into it (like a 3 turn) the pain's not so great, so no idea what's going on. I need an ortho who's a hockey player, but none to be found.

I called Coach Cruella and told her to take me off her list of students as I didn't think I'd be back on the ice anytime soon.

For the first time in years I'm coachless.

I don't know what to do with myself on weekends. I don't have to rush to the rink. I don't have an excuse to buy new skating clothes.

I did notice yesterday, that swizzles and a few other moves didn't cause me problems. Also, I experimented with old-fashioned English style 3 turns, where you do the 3 turn with a straight leg through out and three turn based on a leg swing (yes, it's tricky). So maybe, I will go back on the ice. I could work on my back crossovers probably, and a few other things that don't involve deeply bend right knees.

 I'll still continue to post, but I'll be limited to figure skating history. While those aren't my most popular posts, at least I'll be able to keep my hand in while I'm waiting for further knee workups. (MRI next!)

Walking Wounded

Once every few years, I'll do something to throw my back out. The first time was in my 40's when I bent over to pick up a pencil, and couldn't straighten up for an hour  (my face was stuck within licking distance of the dog and I was too impaired to push her away. 60 minutes of 'sit', 'lie down', 'stop it, damn it').

This time I'm able to move, but I've been in pain and had some difficulty standing up from chairs for 3 days. It's gradually improving, but I had to be helped off the ice tonight as I felt fine walking, but couldn't stroke more than halfway round the rink or extend my legs while stroking.  Cruella just sent me home.

The exact problem has always been unidentified but it's probably an iliotibial band problem, plus a chronic case of 'snapping hip'. There's tests to identify the really bad stuff (herniated discs has clearly been eliminated and it's not piriformis syndrome either), so I'm stuck with the 'it will get better with time' treatment. Time for home remedies!

Fortunately, my pain is your gain. Stuck with an annoying pain in the lower back and hip? Here's some stretches that have worked for me.

Although these stretches are directed at piriformis syndrome, I've found figure 18 (below) to be amazingly effective over the years whenever my back pain pops up.

I cross the leg on the sore side over the leg on the good side.
I sigh with relief

Since I also have 'snapping hip' (a popping in the hip when doing certain rotations with the leg while it's in extension) I have to take care of that too. The Army (!) has a whole document on this, which you can download here. (Note the overlap with the piriformis syndrome stretches, those things have so many applications!).

I think this problem popped up for me because of Hurricane Sandy. Since I wasn't on my regular schedule, I neglected my daily stretching regimen, and I'm paying for it. 

The internet is useful in finding these helpful home remedies for problems like this. I've rounded up a few for you to look at, but if you have similar issues, just google a description and root around in the web pages until you find something promising.  At the very worst, if you try a stretch and it causes more pain, you know it's time to stop. At the best, if you find the right stretch---ah, it's wonderful.