The amazing thing about derby

The amazing thing about derby is that even though I'm out of action for another 6 months yet, there are about a million ways for me to stay involved. There is no shortage of tasks that need doing, and for someone with a little bit of time on her hands, I still feel a part of the big "we" that is roller derby. I guess that people know that if I could be skating, I would be. It's a sport where serious injury can happen to anyone at any time, and it does, frequently.

The level of support I've received from my league has been really touching. I know that I can call on my league for pretty much anything and someone will put up their hand to help. I can't even begin to describe how much it means to me to be a part of this community. When I was in hospital, there was a constant rotation of derby girls coming to see me - my parents were shocked and amazed and finally understood why I would be involved in such a "violent" sport. My Dad compared it to his football days and knew that he'd never have received that kind of support from any footy team he was involved in. I guess that's why I am happy to keep putting in so much work for my league even though I don't get to do any of the fun stuff yet, and won't for a while.

I know I said this wouldn't become a personal recovery blog but I'm going to do this part anyway.

So, apparently I have experienced the best of the best case scenarios, in terms of my recovery. I was meant to be in a full torso brace for up to 9 months, but they let me take it off after 3. The hospital physios have discharged me and I only have one remaining visit with the surgeons in may, when they will hopefully tell me that I am allowed to do full contact again. I strapped on a pair of skates a few weeks ago to see how it felt, and honestly it didn't feel that bad. I didn't realise that I had been harbouring some great fear that I might not be able to even stand up on skates, that i'd be the unco person clinging to the boundary at rama. But no. I could skate around, one side of my body is still all tight so I can't really extend my left side, making crossovers uncomfortable. The cool part about this is that I was able to put my body to the test and now I know what areas of my body I need to work on with my sports physio so that I can do what I love again.

I plan to return to derby training soon, though I can only do basic basic training. No continual impact. meaning, no falling or jumping drills, and certainly no contact drills. The surgeons said it doesn't matter if I fall, but that they don't want me throwing myself at the ground over and over. Essentially it's going to be endurance only, and maybe a bit of footwork. Better to do that than not at all, right?