Thursday, October 22, 2015

Back on the ice.

Last weekend diaristdaughter and I decided to return to the scene of my crime, the Bowie Ice Arena, for the Sunday 2 to 4 pm public session.  I went to my bedroom closet and dug out the two tote bags which held my skates and various bits of gear.  I hadn't looked at this stuff since the 7th of July: padded shorts, knee pads, bunga sleeves, elbow pads, wrist guards.  It all seemed so alien, so disconnected from my recent existence which featured emergency rooms, CT scans, operating rooms and IC units.  I found myself wondering if I really wanted to do this.  I didn't seem to have the same drive that I had after recovering from breaking my radius three years earlier.  I idly wondered if since my latest injuries included my brain, that perhaps my brain was making me hesitant in the attempt to protect itself from further injury.  Sort of like HAL trying to prevent Dave from interfering with the mission in 2001, a space odyssey.   I also struggled with the inertia from a wife who was not keen on having me resume skating.  After getting dressed I paused at the door for one bit of new kit: a green skateboard helmet.

We arrived at the rink later than I normally would since I normally like to get in every possible minute of ice time.  Value for money kind of thinking.  This time I figured I might have the gumption to skate for a half hour, so a few lost minutes wouldn't matter.  Was this my brain still trying to influence the outcome?

But once I walked into the lobby it seemed like every other person I saw was a skating pal and I'd taken them quite pleasantly by surprise--sort of like a surprise visit from a minor celebrity like the Keebler Elf.  I must admit it was good seeing some of my familiar peeps.  My hesitation started to evaporate.  The young woman at the counter smiled, gave me an ice pass and refused my money.  One of the rink directors came out of the office and half joking, asked me if I'd brought a release form from the surgeon clearing me to skate.  I told him I'd already given that form to the HR folks at work.  He asked me to not louse up his ice with blood again as he returned to his office.  It was good to be back!  I took my skates out of the bag and laced them up.  The session had started five minutes earlier and it was time to find out what skills I had retained before the ice got too chewed up.  I removed the terry cloth soakers from my blades and stepped through the entrance.

The first few glides told me that I hadn't lost everything.  After perimeter skating for five minutes I started to explore t-stops, 3-turns and inside Mohawks.  I still could do them and still had the annoying bias against left side/CW direction elements. For some reason inside forward 3s didn't want to happen at all (I eventually got them to work) and I also couldn't remember how to enter a single foot spin from an outside forward 3.  Little by little things started to come back.  Forward edge pulls were weak even on my normally good side. As I mentally took stock I decided to leave jumps to another day.  I finally remembered the entry for a single foot spin and after doing a couple, I fell out of a awkward slow spin and I think the entire ice rink exhaled as I quickly got back up on my skates. 

Mid way through the session I spied my dance coach.  We briefly exchanged hellos and she said she'd been watching me and I didn't look too wobbly.  Since she had another student in lesson I told her I'd be in touch about lessons once I'd knocked some of the rust off.  I tried to skate a couple of the low level pattern dances that I had known well only to discover that I couldn't recall the entire series of steps--most annoying since just before the fall that took me off the ice, I'd been very close to testing those dances.  Another thing to add to the "they'll come back"  department. 

After the session ended (I skated the entire session rather than the thirty minutes I'd planned) I called my wife to ask if we needed a bottle of wine for dinner.  I think she appreciated the call.  It served two purposes: she didn't have to wonder if she'd get a call from an emergency room, and we did need some wine.  No doubt about it, living with me leads a woman to strong drink.




9 comments:

  1. That you have retained virtually all your skating skills is fantastic news!

    What is even better is that you've retained your humour & appreciation for wine ; )

    Hoping things keep improving.

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  2. Thanks. Yep, I'm still fat 'n sassy.

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  3. How wonderful that you are back on the ice! All those good things will come back to you--your body is just telling you to take it easy right now. Hooray for you, George!

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    1. Thanks Jo! My main problem will be finding ice time that doesn't require taking a couple hours off from work here and there. I need to be mindful of how much leave I have left on the books with the holidays coming up.

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  4. Keebler Elf indeed. Inspiring and funny, GPA. Glad you are finding your edges.

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    1. Thanks Amy! Yes, the Keebler Elf wearing a hard hat.

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  5. Hi George! I'm glad to hear you are back to things, including skating. The website for the Force Field headband I use mentions that it could be used inside a helmet for extra protection, an interesting idea if I ever add a helmet to my regime. This is weird, but a family friend is in the hospital with the same thing (a chronic subdural hematoma) and that is the fourth person I know of who has had this. Besides you the other three are all people who I know in person. One other skater, this friend, and a relative. All men. Supposedly this is so rare (1.7/100,000 per year) so how would I know four people? This friend had no known fall. And he has been very unlucky in needing three procedures, the most recent a craniotomy, apparently that is extremely rare to need more than two procedures. I hope very much that that is the end of it because brains don't like being disturbed several times in a row like that.

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  6. Wow, three craniotomies, (I'm not sure about the plural of craniotomy and hope I never need to figure that out), anyway, as you probably know, brain hemorrhages can be caused by high blood pressure. No doubt his neurosurgeon has that under control at this point.

    I noticed that the Force Field headband has been tested to ASMT's F 1045 standard and looks very much like an Ice Halo. I have yet to find out what, if any, standard the Ice Halo or Crasche Middie comply with. The skateboard helmet I'm currently using does have an EPS (expanded polystyrene) liner that is good for one impact, after which the helmet must be retired. This helmet is a fairly tight fit already and I'm not sure that it would fit over a Force Field headband, but there's only one way to find out. Thanks for your kind thoughts and thanks again for reminding me of this product. I'll order one and see how it fits.

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    1. I have the Ultra Force Field which is thinner and might fit into a helmet better. Yes, I like that it is actually certified and that's why I chose it over the Ice Halo, though I wonder whether the Ice Halo could be thicker. I think this friend is getting good care, I don't know why he has been so unlucky as to need two repeat procedures. I'm not aware of high blood pressure being a factor in this particular type of bleed, I thought it was just from trauma (recognized or unrecognized).

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