Injuries I Have Seen-Unintentional

As some of you might have noticed I haven’t posted anything in a long time and this is because I left several stories in drafts feeling as though they weren’t finished enough to be up on the blog. It wasn’t until I decided to write this particular post that I felt everything finally had a place. I have talked about lots of different sports injuries but had never really went into the details of what was causing them and I believe this is what had me stuck. I couldn’t just keeping writing about stories and never searching for the details. The truth is most injuries have quite a back story because they are done unintentionally, or in other words, are accidents.

How do these accidents occur? And what sort of injuries am I talking about you wonder? Here is a list of just a few of the things I am referring too:

Ø  As some of you may recall I talked about a head on collision that occurred between myself and a teammate a few blog posts back. I talked about how much pain I had felt but didn’t describe in detail why it had happened. The truth is it was a complete freak accident that occurred because we were not aware of our surroundings enough. This is a golden rule in all sports. I can just hear my coach saying it over and over in my head when I think about this event. This little lapse in judgement sent two people to the hospital, caused two concussions, a broken nose, and a cracked skull.

Ø  Falling is also another unintentional injury that can be very detrimental to any athlete’s game. Just think of the occurrence of Taylor Hall falling during warm-up which resulted to getting a skate to the forehead and taking him out of the game for quite some time.(video above) These types of injuries cannot be prevented because it is not in our control when gravity takes over but the overall effect of them can be reduced greatly by adding more protection for the players. For example in the Hall case if he would have been wearing a helmet his head would have been protected from the skate.

Of course I could not possibly list all the accidental injuries that occur in sports because the list is endless. I will save some injuries for other blog posts further down the road, I’ll call it something for you to look forward to.

Injuries I Have Seen-Intentional

There are several injuries that can occur when playing sports. They can be self-inflicted or caused by someone else. No one is ever really completely protected from getting hurt, no matter how hard they try. I have decided that I would make a list along with examples of injuries that I have seen. So here it goes…

Intentional Injuries (injuries inflicted on someone else on purpose):

Ø  Swinging elbows-I have seen this occur multiple times in all sports. A player usually gets angry with another player and purposefully, either in front of or behind the referees back, throws an elbow at them with full intent to injure and/or slow down the opposing player. This can lead to concussions, black eyes, broken noses, and even the occasional broken rib.

Ø  Tripping- This is a common occurrence in hockey and soccer. Tripping may seem like it’s just a minor thing but a trip could lead to many things. I have seen people get concussions, break wrists, and hurt knees from them being tripped and landing wrong on that particular part of the body.

Ø  Charging- This occurs in both basketball and hockey. It is really just an out of control run at the opposing player with full intent of knocking them over. Charging can cause many injuries such as concussions, fractured ribs, broken noses, and so on.

These offences I have listed are only a few of the things players do to hurt one another while on the court. They can all be life altering even though they may seem innocent at the time. Players need to try and control their feelings while playing and protect each other by not putting others in danger. Rules need to become stricter to ensure that players are not put in harm’s way, especially within professional sports such as the NHL. Referees need to pay closer attention to the players and not let them get away with offences no matter how minor because after you get away with it once you will continue to do it from then on.

Weight Classes

Picture this, a five foot tall, 120 pound girl in grade ten playing basketball against a 6 foot, 180 pound girl in grade twelve. What’s wrong with this picture some of you may ask? Well let me tell you from someone who speaks from experience, it sucks! I was on the short and light end of sports all my life. I got thrown around very easily, and got laid out every game. This is very dangerous even if it seems like it is just a part of the game.

I played a post position, this is the position that is usually played by taller and heavier players. I was always the one who got the blunt force of every ones pushes and elbows, which there were a lot of. The posts play under the net, this is the most aggressive place on the entire court because its where you really need to get the ball, either to get it out of your zone, or try to score again.

For any of you who don’t know this already, girls are vicious players. You would probably be surprised if you heard all the times I left the court bleeding from being scratched or saw all the bruises I would have from all the thrown elbows and hips. I was constantly on the floor every game. The girls would seem to gain up on me because I was the smallest player on the court, in other words I was the easiest target. There was a specific case where I got thrown into a wall, quite literally. I was jumping up to get a rebound and a larger girl came up beside me, hip checked me out of the air, and I went flying head first into a wall. This concussed me instantly. This is just one of many examples of where weight was not on my side but this particular instance was one that really got me thinking. What would sports be like without weight difference? What if we divided all sports like wrestling, with weight classes? Some would say this would make sports more equal. Whereas others would say it takes the competition out of sports. What is my take on it you are probably wondering, and if I answer that I feel as though I would sway your decision so I am just going to leave the conversation and decision up to you guys. Should weight be considered in sports or not?

Oh Snap

Keegan was in the third period of his hockey game against Fairview. He was on fire! He had just scored a goal to tie the game 2-2. After this goal, Fairview won possession of the puck at centre faceoff. Keegan knew that he could not let them score if he wanted his team, The LaGlace Ice, to win the game. He noticed an unmanned player in front of the net so he started skating hard to intercept the puck from getting to that player. Without any warning the player moved just as Keegan was about to hit him. This sudden movement took Keegan by surprise and he ended up getting his arm jammed up against the player causing his wrist to snap. The sound was so loud that parents claimed to have heard it from the bleachers. Instantly Keegan knew something was wrong, he felt a slight, but yet constant, pain in his wrist so he got off the ice as fast as possible. Unfortunately this led to Fairview scoring and eventually winning the game 3-2.

            After the game concluded Keegan was able to get off the ice and get down to his teams change room. It is here that a parent, who was also a paramedic, was able to assess Keegan’s wrist and equip him with a proper brace.  After he got changed his parents rushed him to the hospital. It was a 45 minute drive that seemed like it took years for Keegan. Every small bump that they hit Keegan felt a shooting pain up his arm starting at the wrist. Once they arrived at the QEII hospital and checked in they were surprised by how short they had to wait. It felt as though they had barely sat down by the time the nurse called Keegan in. Seeing as he was only 12 they wanted to help him as fast as they could.

            Once Keegan was in his individual room the doctor came to assess him. He poked and prodded at Keegan’s wrist to find out exactly where the pain was coming from so that the X-ray would be a more accurate representation of the break. After the doctor had marked out the area they took him to X-ray to see exactly what they were dealing with. Once the X-ray came back the doctor told Keegan and his Mom that his wrist was broken and he would need it to be reset and casted. They then went to an operating room where Keegan got an IV with morphine and a drug that would knock him out for the procedure. Once he was asleep the doctor reset the bone and casted the arm with a Plaster cast.

            After Keegan woke up he was in a lot of pain but his arm was set and he was able to go home. He would have to come back every two weeks to get a new cast on but besides that he just had to relax and let his wrist heal on its own. He said that the worst part about the injury was not being able to play the sport he loves. So now when he goes to hit someone he makes sure his hands are not in the way.

A Trip to Weber Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy was the only fix after years of over exertion of my hips joints. The hip, knee, and joint specialist told me on one of my regular trips to see him. It was no surprise to me that the sports I played that were the cause of the pain. In fact, I suspected it all along. The trips to the physiotherapist would have to begin two years after my senior year of basketball to start to rehabilitate my body to normal motion. My muscles had been overworked for years and now that they were able to relax because I had stopped playing sports, they shortened and knotted, putting lots of stress on my joints, particularly the hip joints. A diagnosis of physio was a good thing; it meant the joints were still intact and all they needed was a little bit of stretching to feel better again. Physio was no new thing for me, in fact I had been to several physio sessions for other injuries, but no physiotherapy session had been quite like this…

I had never heard of Weber Physio Therapy (link to website) before my specialist directed me there after my appointment and, man, was I in for a surprise when I got there. All of the other physio places I had been to previously were small, laid back, and almost comfortable, but when I pulled up to this place I was shocked because it was big! I had no idea where I was supposed to go and could not remember the name of the therapist I was supposed to see for the life of me. Good thing I was twenty minutes early! Thankfully though there was a nice lady at the front desk downstairs who was able to help me out and direct me upstairs to see M (ah yes that was his name, how did I manage to forget that?). After a long trek up the stair case that seemed to take forever to climb (And ironically hurt my hips even more) I was able to check in at the proper place and sit down in the waiting room as I was still about ten minutes early for my appointment. It was a relief when my name finally got called as the waiting room chairs weren’t the most comfortable things ever. I guess that’s because people usually do not show up so early for their appointments, or maybe they were just trying to show me how much I really did need this therapy, by making me suffer more before the appointment began.

The lady who called my name led me back into a small room with only curtains as walls and gave me a pair of small shorts (I’m not kidding, these were so small if you bend over too far you might moon your therapist!) to put on so that M could properly assess my hips. As this was my first appointment before they could start with any treatment, M would have to come and meet me and decide exactly what areas to focus on. No one told me this was going to be such a personal experience but maybe that was to be expected as it was the muscles in my hips, butt, and lower back that were the problem. I do not know how anyone else feels but I for one do not like to be touched, especially by strangers, so when M came in (the most attractive and young male therapist I have ever met, he actually told me he was a male model and a body builder!) and started poking and prodding me I was very uncomfortable. Thankfully this only lasted a few minutes as he was only pre-assessing (Good thing because I couldn’t handle having his elbows jabbing me in the butt anymore!). After he had decided that the best route was to tackle the hip joints first he called his assistant back in to hook me up to the first machine, the Inferential Current Machine (IFC).

When the assistant came in with IFC she explained to me that this is what they will use before every appointment starts. This machine sends electrical currents into the muscle and helps it relax. It has four electrodes that are placed on the skin above the problem area; for me this was the hips. When it was turned on, it felt as though my hips were falling asleep, just like the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. It is a very weird feeling but also very relaxing, something you would not normally expect to be feeling at physio. Each electrode is covered in a nasty gel that leaves your skin feeling wet and sticky after they have been removed. Another thing that goes along with this treatment are hot towels. These are placed over the electrodes to help stimulate your muscles even more. The combination of the humidity and gel left me feeling wet and gross after they were removed, but my muscles felt better than ever!

After about twenty minutes, the IFC was removed and the Inferential Electrotherapy machine was put in its place. This machine was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. It consisted of four big suction cups that had a sponge inside them. When this machine was on, it felt like I was getting poked in the muscles with a million little needles. It hurt! Thankfully though, this machine was only on me for about ten minutes.

After this machine was removed M came back in to “have some fun” (Well, that’s what he called it anyways. to me it was more like torture time). It was time to get up close and personal with my physiotherapist, quite literally. I did not know that some physiotherapists went to such extremes to help their patients. It was the first time he was seeing me so I assumed he would give me some simple basic stretches to do at home and then send me on my way just like my previous therapists had done, but this was not the case. He poked, prodded, and stretched every muscle in my legs, lower back, and butt that he could. He spared no expense. He jabbed either his fingers, knuckles, or elbows into every muscle, oddly enough focussing on the muscles in my butt (talk about awkward right?). His fingers jabbed into me so hard you could feel that he was putting all the weight of his perfectly toned body behind them. He came at me from every angle. He had me flipping from front to back and side to side so he could be sure he covered it all. There was even a few points where he jumped up onto the bed with me and pretty much laid on top of me to be sure he got me all stretched out (and yes I mean right on top. My leg stretched over my head and his face centimeters from mine.). Once he seemed to be happy with the painful and awkward situation he had just put me through he told me he was going to help me up. M said it would be very hard to get up on my own for the first time, but being the stubborn person I was I jolted up quickly. This only led to me falling straight onto his chest (which wasn’t that bad actually because oh man was he toned!). I felt like a baby horse trying to stand for the first time in years. It was as if he stretched my muscles out so much they did not know what to do anymore. But after a little stable support from my male model therapist I could stand on my own again.

After he had got me standing he decided to put me through one last final stroke of pain before I left, acupuncture and cupping. First he started with the acupuncture. He inserted four large needles into my thigh and then connected a battery to them to send an electrical shock into the muscle to help it relax. When the battery was turned up to enough voltage I was able to watch my muscle jerk and jolt continually as it was being stimulated. This treatment was not painful at all, in fact it was quite relaxing after the acrobatics I just had to perform with M on top of me. After this went on for about ten minutes the needles were removed and cups were put in their place. The cups were used to pull the muscle vertically to counteract all of the horizontal pulling we had done that session.

After the cups were removed I was free to go. I was bruised, beat up, and feeling like a colt walking out of there, but I felt better than I did walking in. I paid my $80 to the front desk, booked another torture session for the next week (as I will have to go weekly to keep making more progress), and made my way out to my vehicle. This time though, I decided to take the elevator because have you ever seen a new born colt walk down stairs? Believe me, it’s not a site you would want to see.

Knee Problems

                I have never been a one sport type of person, in fact all throughout school I dabbled in about every sport you could think of. Sometimes this was fun but in other cases it caused problems and interfered with the one sport I really cared about, basketball. Playing all these sports before the basketball season was risky, and I knew that, but I could not just sit on the sidelines and watch other people play.

I was playing volleyball in grade nine, my last year of sports in the small town of LaGlace, when it happened. Being the competitive person that I am I always played hard, dove for every ball, even the ones people thought I could never get. People would say I played with a lot of heart but also a lot of danger. Every dive for a ball would make my parents cringe in the crowd, it is like they knew that one day it would come back to bite me. I played fearlessly every game, I was captain of the team so I had to. It was hard for me to hold back or even take a break from playing. I was always on the court and always on the go. That’s why it was so hard for me to sit out after it happened, the injury that would not only end my volleyball season but also ruin my basketball season and affect my skiing life forever.

In hindsight I guess I should have seen it coming in the way this game was going. I had got to the gym ready for the big volleyball tournament to start when I realised I had forgot my good kneepads at home. I only had my old stretched out pair that slid down my legs as if they were melting like the ice off the roof on a warm Alberta winter day. They sat constantly in a drooping manor, never quite properly covering my knees but they are all I had so I put them on and off I went to play. I did not think that this would be a bad thing until I started diving. Skin rubbing against the freshly waxed gym floor did not feel good but I kept pushing. Maybe I should have taken these two things as a hint to just sit out that game and wait for my mom to get back with the proper knee pads, but I did not.

It was during second set that things went wrong. The other team was only a few points behind us and were starting to push hard. I watched their play work out perfectly. A beautiful pass, flawless set, and bam, an amazing hit! The ball was headed a bit to the right of me so I had to dive or I would miss it and another point for them, one we could not afford at this point in the game, so I dove. It was then that I felt my knee cap shift over as it connected with the floor and seem to rip every muscle in its path.

I had stretched my meniscus, I would find out after a trip to emergency and would be out for the remainder of the volleyball season and for the basketball season as well. During this time all I could do was physiotherapy to help soothe the muscles so I could return to sports the next year. All of this could have been prevented with the proper equipment. From now on I always make sure that I have all the proper equipment packed in my bag before I go anywhere to help avoid any more unfortunate mishaps.

It's not Just a Concussion

           I was always told that whenever you hit your head in any case, especially in sports, to go see the doctor immediately. I thought this was ridiculous until I walked into the doctor one day thinking all I had was a minor concussion and walked out having discovered that I had fractured my skull. Just a minor fracture but still nothing to just brush aside.

            I remember the whole thing happening; the sound my head made when it connected with my teammate’s head and the groggy feeling I had after getting up from the ground. It was during an intense and close basketball game when it happened. The score was tight, we were only up by one basket. Everyone was playing hard and fast. No time to slow down or ease up at this point in the game. There was only about three minutes of play left in the fourth quarter and we needed to win to advance to the next game. We could do it if we just continued to work together as a team. And then it happened, one of my teammates missed a pass and the ball was rolling towards the other side of the court. I had to catch it before it crossed half or we would lose possession. I took off running as hard and as fast as I could. I needed to get that ball. Little did I know my teammate had the same idea. Neither of us saw the other coming and we collided, hard! Crack! She hit me like a football player going in for a tackle. It was a straight connection of her nose to my skull. We bounced off each other and landed on our backs. The only thing I remember after that is waking up a few seconds later and seeing that the game was still carrying on and my teammate and I were still down. I hopped up to my feet as graceful as I could after a blow to the head, staggering a little as I tried to help my teammate up. Looking back on it I’m sure we looked like a bunch of drunk buffoons, one pulling the other up while still stumbling herself. What still gets me is the referee didn’t blow the whistle until he noticed the blood gushing from my teammate’s nose, or what used to be her nose at least.

            The swelling started by the time I had reached the bench. The side of my head appeared to have grown a golf ball sized tumor right above my left ear. At this point my head was throbbing like crazy, but besides the lump I appeared to be unscathed. Pop a few Advil and I would be ready to play again. I went right back on the court and played until it was over.

            We won despite the whole escapade. My teammate went to the hospital and got her nose put back in place and I iced my lump as we waited to start the next game. I played three more games like this, just popping Advil and applying ice to the lump. Nobody thought the better of it and took me in to the doctor. I had a splitting headache but nothing out of the ordinary after a collision like that.

            When I got home I told my parents about the story and explained to them that something just didn’t feel right. Was my head missing a piece or something? The headaches were no longer just like a regular headache and it was through this that I realized I had a concussion. So into the doctors I was dragged by my mother. I knew that during this visit all he would say was that I couldn’t play basketball for a long time and I had to take it easy. These are two things no athlete wants to hear, ever! My team was doing well! We had a great chance of making it to provincials if we could all just stay healthy and continue playing so well together!

            When I finally got in to see the doctor, he ran some standard concussion tests on me and diagnosed me with a mild concussion, but he was quite concerned about the lump on the side of my head. He did not like the way it seemed to mold its way around my glasses as if it were a piece of silly putty wrapped around a child’s finger. After he poked and prodded the spot until I could not bear the pain anymore he decided to go the safe way and order me an X-ray. So off I went, down to radiology to get the X-rays done to be sure I had not done any further damage to my head.

            When I got to radiology I was already the joke of the entire clinic. How do you run into your own teammate so hard you might have cracked your skull? The technician asked me to hop up on the table and they took pictures of the area from several different angles. She said she could hardly believe it! My skull was fractured! Just a few centimeters from my temple I had a two inch fracture that curved over and behind my left ear. The doctor told me and my mom we should go buy lottery tickets immediately. Just a few centimeters over and I would be dead, even another minor hit to the head could have killed me.

            This was definitely a lesson learned for me. Whenever I hit my head now I head straight to the doctor. It is no joke: it could mean life or death in some situations and it could even mean saving yourself from deficits later on in life. Yes, you will have to take it easy and not play the sport you love right away but it is better than never getting to play ever again. If I wouldn’t have been forced by my mother to go to the doctor to take a look at something I thought to be just a small concussion I could have started playing basketball again too soon and would have risked my own life even more than I already had. Head injuries are not something to be taken lightly, no matter the circumstance.

Are Minor Injuries Really that Minor?

I don’t like the statement minor injury. In sports there really are no minor injuries, even the smallest thing can keep you out of the game for some amount of time. When I was in my grade twelve year of basketball I found this out. It was about three years ago now and I can still remember having to sit out of half of the game because of my ‘minor injury’. I mean sure it wasn’t like I had to be rushed to the hospital or anything but it was still something that affected me long after the incident.

By now I’m sure you are all wondering what happened so here it is. These are two pictures of me right after the game. I got a black eye!

By the time I was able to get pictures the swelling had gone down and I could finally open my eye again, although it was only with a lot of difficulty that it would open. I couldn’t believe that after what seemed to me as a minor injury I had to wear an eye patch to school and sit out of the game I loved to play for two whole games to avoid over stimulation to the eye socket!

How did this happen you ask? It was all from a cheap elbow behind the refs back! The girl that hit me held a grudge from the last game when we beat them by one point because I sunk a three pointer in the last 30 seconds. I guess all she wanted was me out of the game for a while and that’s what she got. I could tell that she must have had this planned because throughout the game she was following me around the court tripping me, slapping me, scratching me, and literally doing anything she could to get under my skin. In fact I have proof of these injuries as well.

Scratch Mark

Handprint of a slap

Let’s just say this was a rough game full of cheap shots. But little did this other girl know that this one elbow to the eye could have been the end of my vision as it was. I know that she did not mean to injure me badly but I know for a fact she targeted me. This is dangerous and unsportsmanlike. After having to wear an eye patch and ice my eye as often as possible to keep the swelling down I decided that I would no longer look at this injury as a minor injury anymore. In my point of view anything that keeps you down for longer than one game is just an injury! Not minor or major, just a sports injury. Anything can be dangerous for an athlete so that is why all players should play with the upmost respect for one another and not intentionally take players out. Although this experience did teach me the importance of depth perception in life, let’s just say I ran into several things for a few weeks. ;)

When in Doubt See a Physician

The book Primer of Sports Injuries by John P. Currran is quite short, only a measly 97 pages, but it is jam packed with important information. The fact that the book is so short made it easy to follow. Curran quickly made his statement on each injury and then moved on to the next so he could cover as many injuries as possible in such a short amount of time. As it states on the cover “This brief, handy guide is designed for all who supervise or coach young athletes of sandlot, primary, and secondary school sport programs.” This hand book is not meant to be the most exciting thing that you will read. Instead it is just a hand guide to get you started in the understanding of sports injuries. The main thing that interested me about this book was the variety of injuries in which were discussed with in it. This hand book is not a be-all end-all book about every sports injury you could ever come across. No, instead it is a helpful guide to make you aware and possibly help you in any small situations you might find yourself faced with as an athlete or a coach.

The book’s layout is quite simple and easy to follow. It is broken down into four chapters. The chapters are as follows: “Legal Responsibility”, “Prevention of Injuries”, “Treatment of Injuries”, and “Related Problems”. Within each chapter you find subheadings which clarify the injury or part of the body they will be referring to within the next few paragraphs. This book uses a few illustrations especially within the “Prevention of Injuries” and “Treatment of Injuries” chapters to illustrate exactly what he is saying. This is especially helpful when Curran is describing taping or certain injuries in which you may be unfamiliar. The vocabulary of this book can be confusing to all who do not know the specifics of the muscular system. Sentences can you leave you confused if you are unfamiliar with the vocab or medical terminology. One thing that helped me while reading Curran’s Primer of Sports Injuries was the fact that in the back he had a glossary containing more specific explanations and even more examples of some of the injuries he discussed within each chapter.

While reading this book I found myself having to cross reference the information with medical journals online and other resources to make sense of the content or injuries that I was unfamiliar with but the more common injuries were very easy to comprehend. If you do not have any background in sports injuries this book may not be the right book to read even though it is called a primer. When I first heard the title of this book, Primer of Sports Injures, I thought that it would be a good starting book to read because of the word primer. But unfortunately this was not the case for this particular reading. If someone with no prior knowledge to sport or injury picked this handbook up I am afraid the content would put them in a state of utter confusion. The fact that Curran states, “This handbook is written mainly for those who have had no former training in the management, prevention, or treatment of athletic injuries” within the preface makes me laugh going back on it. This is coming from someone who has some background within this field: this book is not a simple read!

 In fact the main point this book tries to illustrate is “When in doubt, call the physician…” This statement is repeated on and on throughout the text. I think Curran made a mistake in using this so often with in his writing. The statement eventually got overused and just tended to turn me off from reading the book. Why keep reading someone’s point of view who is just telling you to go to the doctor? It seems as though there is not much point in reading the book if you should see the doctor to diagnose and be taught what to do about the injury from them. This to me just invalidates all of his advice he relays with in the text.

Although this book was a bit challenging to read it did have quite a few positive things that kept me reading to the end. One main thing that really drew my attention was the fact that it focused on each injury by itself. This made the book scan-able and if you were only interested in very specific injuries you could easily find that injury and learn a bit about it. This book’s specifics really helped in understanding the content, whether it was through pictures or information. Curran was very good at putting the minute details in the text without making it seem like he was droning on and on. He put in details that some people might not even consider, such as information about “Proper methods of alternate hot and cold soaks…” (35). He stated the exact temperatures to create the most effective treatment when using this method. This is something I would never think about personally before I started with treatment and it is also something that is hard to remember exactly, so it is good to have a reference to go back on to make sure that the treatment is being administered correctly.

If you are looking for a handbook that will give you a little bit of background on some more common sports injuries then Currans Primer of Sports Injuries is the right book for you. But before you pick up this book I suggest you pull out a reference such as a thesaurus or dictionary so you can follow along with the vocabulary and of course be sure to check with a physician in the end anyways just to be sure your diagnosis is correct and you are treating the injury correctly. Maybe this should not be your go to book but for sure it can be a helpful source of information in some cases.

Primer of Sports Injuries, 97 pages, John P. Curran, 1968, Free online

Not Just Another Sports Blog

Well I know what you are all thinking...another sports injury blog filled with boring nonsense and big words we won't understand.  But that is not the idea with this blog. Yes there will be some focus on injuries and the logistics of them but mostly this will follow the stories of athletes affected by injury.

I am not the person to drag on about the science behind the injury but more to pull you in with the interest of reading peoples personal journeys. A large portion of the blog will focus on me personally and how I feel about what I have been through.

Ever want to learn about intense physiotherapy and what drives athletes to be at the level they are even though they are destroying their bodies? You've come to the right place if you have. This blog is more than just a 'if you want results do this'  type of writing. Its a personal journey of how to avoid hurting yourself more by pushing yourself beyond your limits.

If I haven't lost you by now I'm sure you are itching to either follow along with my story or maybe you even feel the urge to share your own story with me. Feel free to comment and join in on the conversation any chance you get. I would love to hear all of your opinions and am hoping to learn more from my audience that I don't already know!