January 26, 2012

Down she goes...So yesterday I was composing my blog post during my lesson, but thensomething way more interesting happened. I was hoping that this lesson isthe typical 'horrible lesson before a performance', because while nothorrible, it didn't go well. My backspin seems to have disappeared. Iblame the ice. I'm not used to smooth ice which makes the spin harder toenter. Or something... I can still spin if I put my foot at my ankle, butnot otherwise (and Carson doesn't allow foot at ankle). My scratch spin isWILD. I'm entering it with WAY too much speed, but Carson wants power inthe crossovers. You can't have power and no speed. My sit spin was mostlygood, but I missed it a few times. If my spins are missing, what do I haveleft? A toe loop? (Which is weird- when did that get good?) My loop was,well, my loop. My salchow wasn't behaving. My waltz-toe wasinconsistent. It was a bunch of bad runthroughs. The weirdest thing iswhen Carson had me do the program with my entrance, my legs immediatelystarted shaking in the opening position. So apparently it isn't theaudience that makes me nervous, it is the entrance. I had to stop hockeylines after the program (to make me good and tired before we do my"reskate") because my legs were literally twitching, spasming like a sewingmachine needle when I didn't have two feet on the ice..After Carson left I ran through the trouble spots - sit spin to salchow tobackspin. It did NOT go well. Then waltz-toes, okay a little better.Then I was getting ready to do something, based on where I was on the ice,I assume a waltz-toe, which leads me to believe I was skating backwards,but best I can tell, I was skating forward. Maybe I was turning around?Anyhow, next thing I knew, I could hear myself half-grunting, and thenslamming onto the ice. I think I caught the tail of my right blade, and Ifell HARD onto my butt and back. My head touched the ice, but I think itonly tapped down, I don't remember hitting the ice with my head, so I musthave tucked my chin.The first thing I remember thinking was that I was in too much pain to getup, but I wasn't actually hurt, so I sat up, getting the weight off mybutt. J, a skater, came over to check if I was okay. I was trying not tocry, but assured her I was fine, it was just going to take a second.Apparently, a second is too long, skaters are supposed to bounce right backup, so after maybe 30 seconds Carlos (a coach) came over to check on me, Igave him a thumbs up as he skated over, but he still came over. As soon asCarlos got there, I think Burton realized he should probably make sure Iwas okay. I felt silly. I'm FINE I told them all. Thank you for theconcern. I just need a second. I had probably been sitting on the icefor about a minute, and was able to get up.The pain was in bottom and my back, and weirdly, unlike every other fallI've had, I wasn't shaking. Not even a little bit. I usually get offthe ice after a fall because I shake so badly (like during hockey lines) Iworry that it isn't safe for me to skate. But I didn't have any of that.So I immediately went and did the jump I was going for. The waltz jump wasfine. But twisting to pick in the toe loop was too much- my butt couldn'ttake it. Uh oh! I have an exhibition on Friday. I ran through all myprogram elements. Everything hurts, but I can do everything.However, the more I skated, the more my head started to throb, and I wasgetting nauseated. It was about 15 minutes until the end of the sessionwhen I fell, and I got off about 5 minutes early. I was feeling prettyawful by the time I got off the ice, but not disoriented in anyway. WhenI got home, I half laid down on the couch, and iced my head and bottom. Istayed there for about 45 minutes, then went and layed in bed watching TVfor an hour, then decided I was fine to go to sleep. Laying in bed wasfine, my head prettly much stopped hurting. I woke up this morningfeeling fine (well, my bottom hurts, and the muscles in my back are reallytight- but that isn't exactly a new thing). However, now that I've been atwork for an hour, my head is starting to hurt again. Apparently holding itupright is too hard. I don't feel nauseated, just uncomfortable. It'sjust so weird, because I really do not remember hitting my head, exceptmaybe a teeny bit after I finished falling.Any tips on making the pain go away? If it is still bothering me tomorrow,I'll call the doctor (since otherwise I have to wait to Monday or go to theER), but I really am not exhibiting any concussion signs. Just the back ofmy head is lightly throbbing.TL;DR I fell, badly. It hurt.