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........