Medical Maze

As tradition has it, Jillian continues to battle more than her share of medical ups and downs. So it turns out that no matter how hard she works out in the gym, her path is peppered with setbacks. I'm glad she continues to take it all in stride, but I wish it didn't have to be this hard for her.

Today she will return to the gym after being out for almost 2 weeks. She started with a viral infection that wouldn't go away. When we returned to the doctor, she was treated for strep, even though her strep test was negative. Her throat was obviously infected with "something". She improved slightly and was able to sneak in one day at the gym. However, that night she came home with a terrible headache.

This turned into the Heachache that would not stop. Twenty-four hours a day for four days her head hurt so bad she would not lift it off the pillow. Returning to the doctor again, we were elated to receive Tylenol 3 because I had tried every combination of pain meds I had at home with no success. We believed we had the cure.

The headache responded t Tylenol 3 by easing up for exactly one hour. Then it came back in full force. The next morning Jillian would not even open her eyes. She and I could not believe this pain was continuing for so long. She was discouraged and I was at my wit's end.

I called our doctor back and she said there wasn't much else she could do and that we should go to the Emergency Room. When we checked in there, Jillian rated her pain as a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst pain you could imagine.

She was given Toradol, and after 40 minutes her pain was only down to a 7. She had blood work and a CT scan. The doctor then explained to us that their concern was that she had meningitis and that the antibiotic she was taking for her throat might be masking the more serious symptoms with the headache being the breakthrough clue.

They could not, in good conscious, let us leave until they were sure. That meant they had to do a lumbar puncture, a spinal tap. Jillian was scared, and it really hurt her, but she was a trooper. She stayed very still and did everything they said. She received 4 doses of morphine, and six needles in her back. They had a hard time getting the fluid so they had to try three times.

After this procedure she had to lay flat for 48 hours. The side effect of having a lumbar puncture.....is a HEADACHE. Fortunately, Jillian said the headache she got from lifting her head was entirely different and the morphine had finally knocked out what must have been a horrendous migrane stemming from the infection she had a week ago.

By now she is back to normal with just a little back soreness. She will go back to the gym today and she is a little worried that he coach won't remember how long she has been out and expect her to be able to do everything. To be honest, I don't know what she can and cannot do. She hasn't missed this much gym in a long time.

So we started a journal and I'm encouraging her to write down all her feelings and we are coming up with some practical ways to approach her worries, as well as ways to chart the progress she makes over the next couple weeks.

Countdown to first meet is 8 weeks.

Evolution of a Vaulter

Vault has always been Jillian's toughest event and it's only natural that her ability to do a Yurchenko is pretty exciting news to us. Although this film was made before her illness, she is definitely not at her best in showing off her new skill. She was on bars and just ran over to vault a few times for Dad with the camera. So, don't judge too harshly, and I promise to put up new and improved vids as season comes closer. Try to see the potential here, don't get bogged down in the details....LOL

2006 Exhibition Leotard

The Myth of Achilles and His Heel

Jillian enjoyed hearing this story and explanation for why her achilles was weak!

http://www.wordexplorations.info/Achilles-heel-story.html

What Comes Around, cont.

So, to wrap up this little tale, let me explain that not only did Jillian have a red, tight, swollen heel, but she now had a virus called herpengina, similar to Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, only slightly more uncomfortable. We spent several days trying to find comfort. Imagine the worst mouth ulcer you've ever had and multiply it by 25. And now imagine that you have your foot in a bucket of ice. Makes you want to scream, doesn't it?

But Jillian was a trooper! She so rarely complains. And I'm not a mushy mom, but this time will go down in history as me at my MOST sympathetic. It took another trip back to the doctor to actually get the diagnosis and luckily he was able to prescribe some lip ointment that didn't make the sores worse and a mouth rinse that had a numbing effect, and Jilly was able to smile again.

And, lo and behold, we had gotten so focused on her top half that we almost missed the other amazing thing. She was able to walk again too. It happened suddenly. It happened overnight. It was as if the terrible achilles monster finally loosened her grip. And because her mouth was no longer on fire with pain, she shouted for joy.....and jumped a little for joy too.

Now I wish I could say this was the happy end of the story. Because this is the real world, we had real world complications. For the next 5 days Jillian continued to run a high, high fever that left her unable to do much more than sleep and ask when she would be better. A five day fever will zap anyone's energy, but it wreaks havoc on one who is expected to mount the beam with a press handstand.

She is back in the gym. It's the first of October. And somehow it feels like all our years start off like this. So, I'll hope for the best and I'll secretly believe that she's back to gentle tumbling already because of the week out of the gym. Because she was sick, she rested her foot like she could not have done still going to practice everyday.
Shhh..... I know that is blasphemy.... to say that being out of the gym is a good thing. LOL!

What Comes Around, Comes Around Again

I used to joke that "bad feet RUN in our family" until it started to sound like a bad joke, even to me! Wasn't it just about a year ago that Jillian put that ugly black ankle brace on. She wore it all Fall, all Winter and Spring, and almost all Summer, until the bottom of it wore completely out and it snapped in half. She said she'd try going without it and it seems that whatever was wrong with her ankles last year, had in fact, healed.

Apparently, that was just a chapter in our book on gymnastics feet. A week or two after her 12th birthday, Jillian started to complain that the back of her heel was sore. She didn't say it was too sore to train, so I didn't pay much attention to it....... Until she woke up on a Tuesday morning and she could not put any weight at all on her foot. She could only walk on her toes.
She was completely unable to stretch the achilles enough to put her foot flat on the ground.

That day she had a session with her private trainer ( Trainer Dave works with Jillian on core body strength, hip flexor stretching, reducing muscle adhesions, and lots of other cool stuff) and both her trainer and his partner investigated her complaint and they came to the conclusion that she was having referred pain and stiffness from a calf muscle pull. At about the same time, Jillian came to the conclusion that she wanted to kick the next person who touched her aching leg.

The following day she was no better, and we headed off to the doctor. We are thankful to have found a doctor who was an athelete himself and who understands the type of training a gymnast is required to do year round. He is, above all, one of the more optimistic people I've ever met. People feel healthier after just talking to him.

Kind Dr. E declared that Jillian probably had tendonitis, which seems to be an umbrella term for most of what ails young gymnasts who cannot remember falling or hearing anything snap in two. But we were glad to now have a name for the pain because that meant we could make a plan. The second best thing about this doctor is his ability to give us a plan for recovery that keeps us so busy, the time seems to fly by! LOL! The next 24 hours was a whirlwind of heat and ice, epson salt soaks, advil, stretching, and so on and so on.

Imagine our disappointment the next morning when there was absolutely no change. Okay, there was one change, but it wasn't on her foot. It was in her mouth. Her lips and mouth were covered in blisters, horrible ulcers and blisters. So now she couldn't walk and she couldn't eat. And I couldn't decide what I had done that had created this terrible reaction. Was she allergic to ibuprophen all of a sudden? Was the joint therapy syrup from the health food store actually poisen? Was she starting to fall apart at the ripe old age of 12? To Be Continued........

TwistinFull and Beam Skills

Yurchenko Madness

Amazing progress this summer! Jillian is taking it all very calmly as a matter of course. I am thinking my child is super human. She has a vault! A real, big time, serious vault. It's been a long time coming and there have been many stages and drills.

But this week Jilli started flipping yurchenkos off the real vault into the pit! To add to the amazement, her coach, who is never generous with praise, said that she has the best form in the state on this skill.

In a note of interest, vault has never been easy for Jillian. She has, in the past couple years, managed to place first or second All Around, but place next to last on vault. Do you know how difficult that is to do? Do the math. It takes alot to overcome a low score on one event.

And now she has a real vault that should carry her through this year very well. A great accomplishment for the summer before Level 8! A video will be posted soon. Meanwhile, I'm putting up a video of tumbling and beam. It's early but coming along.

Level 8 Summer Progress

Level 8 Summer Progress

Summer has been productive and not so hot since the gym installed air conditioning this year. Level 8 is looking strong with still 6 months to go.

Jillian has her floor tumbling ready.....LO full, FLO, FLO or FLO FT, and I'm not sure what else is in there.

Beam will have a press handstand mount, BHS BHS, wolf half-tuck jump, and RO tuck or LO or full dismount. She had never even tried a RO on beam until a couple months ago but it's ready now to take to the high beam.

Vault is the most exciting progress. Jillian is landing her tsuk and she is doing Yurchenko timers which are making progress daily. I'm thinking that this year she will have a tsuk and a FHS half twist as her vaults. The yurchenko probably won't be ready in time.

Bars has come a long way this year. She can do the entire Level 8 bar routine without spotting and without dragging her feet on the ground. Everything is to handstand and looks great to me.

New Bar Skills Video

Yearly Meltdown Time

I hope this only happens once a year. Jillian hesitated on her BHS BHS on beam and the coach got very upset about it and suddenly everything spiraled out of control. Out of nowhere came the "I don't know if I can coach her anymore" from the coach......the "I don't know if I want to go back" from the child, and "I don't think I can do this anymore" from me!

Luckily, my instinct took over and I told dear child she was going to do what her coach asked of her because this coach would not ask it if child was not ready and able. And now I can happily report that she has , in one week, progressed to nailing her BHS series on high beam 5-10 times per night. Once she did it the first time she said it wasn't even scary!

I hope to have a video to add soon so you can see how it looks.

Other new skills include a gorgeous clear hip to handstand on bars. When she practices her Level 8 routines she does two pirourettes and FIVE clear hips in each routine. WOW! Also, she was able to move her layout full onto the floor with no mat just today. And as fate would have it, just today her growth plates in her knees began to hurt. Osgood Slaters
affects most gymnasts at some point. Now I just learned that it can hurt for a little while, or for years.....we are hoping for a short visit from the Osgoods.

Seriously, if we were to wrap her knee, she would have a knee brace, an ankle brace, and a wrist guard on. Someone who didn't understand the reason for these ailments might consider reporting us as unfit parents. But she isn't "injured" so much as we are trying to prevent injuries". The next few years will be challenging, but they say that if a gymnast can get to 14 or 15, she will come out stronger than ever. Jillian is only 11, but she has alot of fight in her.

Early Tsuk, But Landed!

Jillian had landed 14 vaults before I arrived to pick her up this night. She was determined to show me she could do this. So this isn't her best, but she did land one for me. And for someone who has struggled with the front handspring vault, this tsuk is not too shabby!!!! Level 8.....Here We Come!!!