My first blog

Hey Guys!

First and foremost, welcome to my blog. The reason I am starting this blog is to keep everyone who is close to me up to date on the progress I am making with my recent ACL injury. It wasn't my first thought to start a blog but decided it would be a good way for me to look back on pictures and entries to see the progress I am making.

Now to get you all up to date on what the hell happened to me! I had just come off a pretty good race series and had some damn good slalom races in the past 3 weeks. I was happy with how I was skiing and pretty confident heading into the slalom at the Montana State Invitational. (race was held at Big Sky, MT). I pushed out of the gate furiously, confidently snapping off clean turns as I flew down the course. I remember being surprised at how well I was skiing and then it happened... I came out of a hairpin, made a great left footed turn, made my transition to the right ski and before I knew what was going on I was flying upside down and backwards through the air. I had underestimated how grippy the conditions were and hooked up furiously, tearing my right ACL in the process.

So that was last Sunday, 8 days ago. Now let me fill you in on what has happened since then.

On Monday I headed into the athletic training room back at school with what I thought was a slightly sprained knee. I was walking around effortlessly with no pain, had no instability, and no real concern about this actually being a serious injury. My trainer, Katie, had me do some ice/stem, game-ready, and the dreaded Normatech machine(which squeezes your leg to the point you are positive you will never feel your toes again, and then it goes tighter!) and followed that up with some stretching. As I was leaving Katie was scheduling an appointment for me to go in and see Dr. Powell at the orthopedic center for the following day... I still was not concerned.

Tuesday I went to classes until noon then headed over for some more treatment in the training room, at this point I was concerned with getting my knee to feel normal so I could race on January 28th. The treatment came to an end and Katie and I headed to the orthopedic center. I arrived and quickly got an x-ray. The Doc came into the room with the x-ray said everything looked great and then moved on to pulling my knee around in ways, that before that moment. I had no idea my knee could move. She looked up at me and with a very apologetic tone prepared me for what she thought my MRI would tell us the following day.... that my ACL was torn. She referred me to head downstairs and get an MRI. As Katie and I headed down to the MRI I was talking about how there was no way in hell my knee was wrecked while I skipped and hopped to prove my claims. I sat through the MRI I thought about what an ACL injury would mean... Would I ever be able to ski the same again? How long is recovery? What is an ACL anyway, I don't seem to need it if it IS gone!?

Wednesday morning I headed in for some more treatment in the training room, early this time, I think around 6am. Eric (another one of my trainers) and I went through the same routine again. Every time I went through these stretches and exercises the knee felt better and better and by the time I left the smith center and headed to class I was feeling pretty optimistic. Skip ahead to about 10:30am, i'm sitting in psych class and get a text from Katie telling me to come to the training room after class and have a talk... I know what this means and I prepare myself for the worst. I get there and sit down with Katie and Eric and am told my ACL is torn. They both kind of seem scared as to what my reaction may be but I think I took it all pretty well. I already was scheming about my recovery the night before lying in bed, the doc had told me pretty straight up what she thought... I had researched ACL injuries until 3am on the internet and already had a plan to give this recovery all I have, and then some. I plan to come back from this STRONGER, FASTER, SMARTER, AND HUNGRIER for success than I have ever been. This is going to be a great turning point in my career, I am going to learn how hard I can fight. This is going to be one of the hardest journeys of my life to this point and I am ready, BRING IT ON!

Since we all found out that it is indeed the acl we have been doing hours and hours of rehab and exercising my quad and hamstring to prepare for the surgery. I have been in the training room twice a day for up to 3 hours a time working on my knee. I am very thankful I am here at the University of Utah, I have a great team of trainers, teammates, strength coaches, psychologists, and ski coaches that are all on my side and want me to come back better than ever. I'll leave you with my two new quotes for this recovery. BRING ON THE PAIN! and CHICKS DIG SCARS! I got a lot of pain commin' my way and a few nice new scars... Keep your head up, I AM.