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Prepping to Travel – bulk update

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I’ve had people asking me this year why I’ve been so injured and seeing the doctor so much. It’s not really that things have suddenly come up; it’s that I went for so long without insurance coverage and just ignored issues related to my hypermobility since my other option was to just curl up and be depressed.

I ended up addressing a reoccurring problem with my shoulder this June by having a shoulder stabilization procedure done by my orthopedic surgeon. My MRI scan was clean, but in my surgeon’s physical exam he could feel my labrum was separating from the bone and the ligaments were just all too loose in general. During the surgery he was able to dislocate it with just light finger pressure. He also did an AC joint decompression and distal claviculectomy (shaving down the end of my collarbone) to reduce the load on my SC joint which keeps subluxating and is also giving me problems. He said we don’t want to do any procedure directly to my SC joint unless absolutely necessary because that’s a monster of a surgery, so I appreciate the conservative route being taken first. I’m continuing rehab for my shoulder at this point as the range of motion is coming slowly and due to the combination of procedures done is a bit more complex than a standard labrum repair/stabilization.

Piggybacking off maxing my insurance coverage for the year, I decided to see an ENT to find out what it would take to be able to breathe properly through my nose again for the first time in over a decade. Apparently it will take a lot and she ended up referring me over to the hospital facial plastic reconstruction department for an assessment. The surgeon said that if it wasn’t for my connective tissue disorder it’s likely I could get away with just a septoplasty, but since all of my nose cartilage is weak, he needs to reinforce a good amount of it in order to support proper airflow and prevent it from collapsing when I breathe. He clearly documented that it will be affecting the shape of my nose but that it is necessary for proper function, so insurance approved full coverage of a functional rhinoplasty. The fact that he has good knowledge of connective tissue disorders (without me prompting the topic) and how they affect the nose makes me very confident in his ability – all the other accolades he has as a leader at this top 10 university hospital help as well. If I can breathe half as good after healing up as I did when he propped my nostrils open to test my supported airflow, I’ll be happy all other factors aside. I can leave my mouth breathing days behind me!

This Week:

I’m flying out tomorrow to meet up with my Dad in Spain. He qualified to do the half Ironman World Championship triathlon (he had to place 1st in his division at another half Ironman to qualify) and that race is actually ON his 65th birthday this weekend. I’m planning to meet up with friends in Spain as well and then the day after his race we are flying to Marrakech for a couple of days just to see a new place. We were originally planning to do a week in Marrakech but since my surgery was scheduled for the week after I had to cut my visit short so I will have time to be rested for that procedure. Historically speaking it takes me about 3 days to recover from a trip like this; so coming back 6 days before my surgery should be adequate and my surgeon didn’t have a problem with it when I mentioned the travel during my consult.

In the New Year:

Starting in the New Year I should be mostly recovered from everything, and finally caught up on all the things that were medically neglected. I’ve spoken with my head Jiu Jitsu professor and have his enthusiastic support to start teaching a Friday evening 90 minute class for our academy. It’s been a weak point in our academy since we opened since our head professor usually travels on weekends and can’t run a Friday evening class, and none of our other black belt instructors are available to teach that time slot on a consistent basis. Hopefully it will do well once people realize it’s available as a class! Most of our evening classes at that same time slot are high intensity heavy hitting classes, so I’m planning to offset that by making this one a more instructional based one to close out the week after everyone has physically and mentally exhausted themselves with training/work/life.

My big target for next year competitively is the Abu Dhabi World Pro in November. Our head professor has agreed to go with me and compete as well which is exciting as I have always made that trip alone. Once some of my other team mates learn that our head professor is going they may end up joining in as well and making a small travel group out of it! I figure by spring I should be able to be back to normal moderate training after my procedures and ready to start slowly increasing load intensity by July for a safe gradual increase. Slowly increasing without overloading is especially important for my joint stability to be able to adapt while mitigating my injury risk.

The Good Kind of Sore – 19 weeks post-op

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Saturday/Sunday

I taught my usual class on Saturday morning, finishing out the week of half guard top position by working some over/under pass variations and concepts. Then I rolled a couple of rounds at open mat. I could definitely feel the progress I have made over the last nearly two weeks of letting myself rest properly after nearly overdoing it. I was moving quite well and very dynamically without too much hesitation – most of my hesitation comes into play when I am in guard and wary of my partner potentially moving my leg and putting stress on my hip. When I play top or neutral position I feel very confident/secure and much as such. After open mat ended I hung out for a little bit and waited for a private client to arrive for an hour session before heading home to relax for the rest of the evening. Sunday as always is my sloth day – I do the bare essential demands so my brain can recharge for the week. I find that this makes the rest of my week far more productive and efficient.

This update is going to cover a few days extra as I’m going to switch my update day to Sundays moving forward.

Monday

I had a surprise substitute physical therapist today, so he asked me if I wanted to change anything about my program and I told him that I didn’t know what he had planned for me and as such I couldn’t make any comments. He said he was going to do the same thing as what I had listed from last week – so I told him that the kettlebell RDLs were very easy and I could probably use an increase. So he took me to the weight room and checked my form on a landmine deadlift with a 45# plate – that became the replacement. Everything else remained the same as last week except that for my straight leg raises I used a larger cone and for my TRX pistol squat I opted to not use the squishy pad as a target behind me and just watched my depth in the mirror to make sure I was getting to the spot I needed to be.

Monday nights we have a 90 minute Jiu Jitsu class at my academy and it is one of our most popular classes of the week. I work from home on days that I have physical therapy but got a ride in from one of my team mates. We warmed up with partner movement drills, then went into our takedown sequence of the month before working on a Jiu Jitsu technique from side control bottom (position of the week). Then we had a good 30-40 minutes of live drills/rounds. I was able to go through the entire class without any modifications to techniques and felt really good in all my movements. I even was able to implement a new passing concept that I sniped our other black belt instructors studying – it wasn’t exact to the way they were practicing it, but it used the same principles in the moment and it worked.

Tuesday

I felt the deadlifts in my upper hamstrings when I work up this morning. Nothing above and beyond, and I was still able to move around like normal, but I could definitely tell I had done them the day before! My blood pressure was running on the lower side of my normal today continuing the trend from yesterday (mid 90s/60s) – so I decided to really focus on extra hydration to see if I could bring it back up a bit. The nice thing about Jiu Jitsu practice is that if my hypotension issues flare up, I’m already on the ground so I’m less likely to pass out except for in between rounds when I stand back up.

Class this morning was fun! One of our black belt instructors reviewed over the technique from the previous evening class with an additional technique that was really stupidly useful (my favorite kind). We got a good amount of live rounds in and I felt pretty solid moving around.

I did a fair amount of mobility and stretching before going into my home PT exercises during evening class as I was still a bit sore. It was just muscle soreness though and my joint felt good so it was okay to work through – I did go a bit lighter with prescribed weights however and only did one set of the single leg (shoulder elevated) hip bridges.

Wednesday

The hamstrings are a little less sore today although my hip joint started getting a little sore. I realized that I was sitting curled up like a gremlin for the majority of the day and it felt better as soon as I stretched out a bit in my big chair that I have set up in the office. I’m still not ready to be hunched over in a standard office chair all day apparently but I’m thankful to my team for setting me up with a comfortable alternative.

I taught some leg framing principles from knee shield half guard tonight (how to activate the core and not just depend on isolated muscles for stability) and then two sweep options depending on whether people are pressuring the knee shield or have their weight neutral/back: a little push/pull dance so to speak. We sparred a few rounds as well and I got to jump in and it has been a while since I did any no gi sparring rounds!

My energy levels had been pretty low this day but since I had gotten my vitamin shots right before class I had a bit of an energy boost and decided to ride it and stay for the gi class afterwards. I got introduced to a new half guard sweep series that I may have to play with a little bit and then got two more light rounds in afterwards.

Thursday

For morning Jiu Jitsu class I was pretty fuzzy headed and had to work hard to maintain my focus and not be a bumbling buffoon during drilling. It was easier during live rolls because that’s more instinctive for me and doesn’t require as much brain power as does focus repetitive technique drilling.

I did my evening PT exercises during the comp class and made it through the full set for the first time this week since the hamstring soreness had died down appropriately enough by this point. It felt pretty good!

Friday – 19 weeks post op

This was typically my work from home day but I had to go into the office after a morning appointment with my therapist as we were down an office staff member. This meant an extra day of sitting which is still a bit more uncomfortable even in the stretched out chair so I had to take extra time to walk and move around during the day.

Saturday

Our morning ladies class is slowly growing and I taught loop choke variations this morning before heading home to relax and take an afternoon nap. I went to see the opera “Carmen” at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center this evening as a special treat and wanted to be well rested for my night out – I really enjoyed the show!

Sunday

That brings us to my new update day. I spent most of Sunday morning doing a deep clean of my apartment and then made a batch of cookies to bring to my PT clinic the following day. Tomorrow will be my last PT session with my current therapist before my original therapist returns from maternity leave to resume overseeing my care – so I figured I would bring some baked goods to see her off. My chocolate chip toffee walnut cookies are always a crowd pleaser!

All in all, I was pretty sore especially toward the beginning of the week in the hamstrings from those deadlifts, but it wasn’t sore enough to cause me to cause me to not be able to move. The main trick I find is that the more choosy I am who I train with, the less guarded I have to be with my movement. In fact this week was some of my best movement thus far. I’m still doing my best to keep the reins on but I can tell I’m getting very close to being where I need to be to get the all clear soon.

Keep on Rolling – 15 weeks post op

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Saturday/Sunday

Saturday was fairly chill – I just went in to teach a morning class. I ended up with one student, so it turned into a private lesson on lasso guard techniques. Afterwards was open mat and I opted to just do a good hour-long mobility/stretching session since my week had been pretty high impact, and there were no partners at the onset who I would be comfortable rolling with at this stage of my post-op recovery.

I stayed up late that evening tracking my dad’s progress as he raced at the Multisport World Championship in Townsville, Australia. He ended up ranked #9 in his division – achieving his goal of making the top 10 and I’m pretty sure he was the top ranked athlete in his division from the Americas. He did the long course triathlon (half Ironman length) which he had to work hard to earn a qualifying spot for on Team USA – so he was pretty pleased with himself!

Sunday is my sloth day. I slept in, did minimal mobility drills for my hip throughout the course of the day, light therapy, and worked on my 3rd play through of The Witcher 3 on my nintendo switch. I am pleased to report that I did however remember to place water bottles in proximity to my nest and stay mostly hydrated during the course of the day.

Monday – Physical Therapy Day

My physical therapist continues to be happy with all the progress – I showed her the videos of some of my live work and agreed that since I can do things without pain during and after, to keep doing it. The only discomfort I still feel is some achiness when lying on my surgical side for an extended time period, and when lying on my non-surgical side it’s more comfortable to put a small pillow between my knees if my hips are stacked.

For PT this day I didn’t really have any new exercises, but we added weight/progressions to most of my existing ones. My single leg press went from 87# to 112#, my hamstring curls went from 25# to 30#, my elevated heel squats went to a steeper elevation and we added a 15# weight, my modified side planks now have me elevating my top leg during the plank. They keep trying to come up with creative ways to stretch my quadriceps – a difficult task due to my hypermobility. Today they had me lie face up on the table (holding on to the opposite edge with one hand) and let my leg hang off the edge with a strap around my ankle so I could pull it back toward my butt while the other one stayed straight on the table. I didn’t need the strap for my surgical side, only needed it for my non-surgical side because I don’t have the range of motion in that knee (since it had surgery and healed intentionally stiff).

For evening class I was a bit out of it mentally because we had some bad from for our extended bjj family (send prayers/good vibes to them!), but I was able to drill a few moves and then get two full rounds with our blue belt ladies when it came time for sparring. I just go more to close guard as opposed to playing my usual open guard game which leaves me feeling a bit more vulnerable to unpredictable movements right now.

Tuesday

For morning class we worked on a side control escape (side control bottom is our position of the week) involving a bump/reverse shrimp then coming back to an omoplata option. There are of course other options once you shrimp out but we chose to work on an omoplata finish today. I did three positional escape rounds, upping the intensity a bit since my training partners were trustworthy and skilled. At one point I was placed in deep half guard on my surgical side and quickly tapped since that is a position/angle that I have not drilled any movements from in class or in PT.

The last round that I had that class definitely turned it up a notch higher than any matches I have had to this date, so I decided to sit the rest of the class and see how I felt after cooling off a bit. I could definitely feel some tightness forming in my adductors and flexors, but nothing painful in the joint itself. All indicators that I stopped at the right time to keep from overdoing it. I opted against doing our competition class or my PT exercises that evening, just because of that hard push and wanting to make sure everything settled properly. I did feel a pain in my TFL that afternoon with a movement (not my surgical area) which was definitely an indicator that my muscles were at their limit for the day and needed more recovery time. I set myself up in my office for a mid-day treatment with my infrared light box panel (glad I opted for the mobile unit!) which helped the immediate inflammation.

Wednesday

Thanks to the choices made the previous day of resting after that morning push; I woke up feeling pretty good with no achiness in my joint anywhere, and no sharp pains with any movements in the morning with my range of motion exercises. All I had was muscle soreness and tightness from the PT on Monday and the training in class the past two days. That is be expected and easy to deal with through gentle mobilization exercises. This keeps blood flow and lymphatic circulation up in the areas and will reduce my risk of chronic issues in the area as my recovery progresses. I noticed more tightness in the abdominal muscles again on my right side as opposed to my left which was impeding some of my rotational range of motion in my hip. I did a little bit of fascial stretching work in my abdominal area on that side which evened out my range of motion with at that particular angle with my other hip.

For our evening ladies no gi class I taught escaping side control bottom utilizing reverse bump/shrimp movements for two different options. I was feeling recovered enough from Tuesday morning’s training to join in on our evening gi class and, after learning a new lasso guard pass, worked a few live rounds of guard passing. I was super pleased to get to successfully try out a new pass to mount that one of our professors had shown me the previous week, as well as smoothly hit the guard set up and sweep from the seminar that we had a couple of weeks ago! One of my teammates filmed the matches for me so I was able to watch the playback, and my movement looks pretty smooth although you can definitely see on my face how much I am concentrating. All my focus during live rounds is on making sure I’m moving safely and watching for unexpected movements that I may need to react to in order to protect my hip.

Thursday

This morning in class I drilled our side control escapes normally and then did positional escapes and rounds. As always, rolling cautiously and tapped once to my leg getting in a potentially threatening angle before any pressure started to be applied to it. My teammate apologized and I assured him that it wasn’t his fault and I tapped solely to the position and not to any actual pain or pressure. I have a good crew to train with that have my best interests at heart, but my physical safety is still ultimately my own responsibility and I’m not putting it all on them – especially when I significantly outrank them.

I was feeling a bit of wonkiness in my left knee and opted to go home to rest instead of staying for evening class. I’m moving differently than usual in order to compensate for my hip and I don’t want to throw my other joints out of balance by overtaxing them since I already have a hard enough time with that due to my underlying hypermobility.

Friday – 15 week mark

That brings us to today at the 15 week mark. Next Wednesday I have my follow up with my surgeon – and I think it’s close enough to call it my 4 month post-op check in. I am writing out my question lists for him which mainly have to do with solidifying what my timeline is looking like now that I’m further out from surgery, and what my PT plan should be moving forward. He said at the before surgery that typically it’s 3-4 months of structured PT post-op so I may end up getting released from the clinic after next week.

My intent for this post-op visit is to make it known that while I am compliant and following all instructions with a long term good outcome in mind, I am only surface level calm and patient about it. Since my progress seems to be coming along quite well, I intend to ask if any events this year would fall within the realm of reasonable and acceptable. Pointing out the AJP World Pro and IBJJF Nashville Open in November (at the 6 month post-op mark), and then just for the drama to point out the AJP Dallas Grand Slam coming up in just one month.

I’m considering scheduling a consult with the orthopedic specialist who did my first surgery on my knee 3 years ago to have him look at my elbow. They all have their specialties so I feel a bit like a ping pong ball since he doesn’t do hips, and my hip surgeon doesn’t do elbows so I can’t ask him about ordering tests at this upcoming appointment. They are in the same group though so at least all my files stay in the same system! I’ve had some long term instability in my radial/ulnar joint (hypermobility life) which I’m okay living with and have managed just fine until now. After I took a hard fall to on my shoulder about 4 years ago though, it resulted in a chronically unstable SC joint which has put a lot more strain on my elbow due to compensation patterns particularly when trying to do any weight posting with my arm, which has become more and more difficult to manage at the elbow. It’s become a bit of a chicken/egg dilemma for me, and I think I need some outside/professional eyes on it to hopefully help me find a way to get balanced out and more useable again.

Hip Surgery – 13 weeks post-op

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I was worried at the beginning of the week that I might have overdone it for the first time.

At the seminar on Saturday – the day after my 12-week mark – I was the seminar guest instructor’s demo partner for techniques. Since it was all guard retention work, and my right/surgical leg is my lead leg, my surgical leg was getting wound up and working overtime for the entire 90-minute seminar. In addition I was drilling the moves myself too of course – because a gal’s gotta learn! It was spider guard details/variations to a shin guard dump sweep with some options for then coming up on top to control.

After all that I cocooned up for the rest of the weekend and did take my meloxicam that evening as well as Sunday night. My surgical hip joint itself feels okay, it’s just all the stabilizing muscles around it feel very tired and well worked over.

Monday

At physical therapy I reported to my PT what I did and she told me that as long as I was able to get out of bed the next morning without feeling pain, then it is fine. She wants me to keep doing more work and pushing it this next week since we are in the strength training and rebuilding portion of my rehab now.

I did feel some extra stiffness in my hip while warming up on the elliptical, but I did warm up in just a few minutes and it went away. I’ll have to make sure I’m not slacking off on mobility training while amping up strength – just to keep the stiffness at bay!

Exercise highlights this session: I got to do my straight leg raises over a 12-16ish inch block this time – I had plenty of clearance for that one thankfully while sitting upright on the table and I actually felt it activate my quads a bit more than I expected. For my leg press we kept me at 87# for the single leg since we increased that last week, but I added reps with my left leg while my right rested between sets (my right thigh has noticeably more muscle than my left now, trying to balance that out a bit). My pistol box squats were changed to 2×10 on each side, and then 3×10 of bodyweight squats with elevated heels.

I had a fun new movement to strengthen hip rotation! Just standing on one leg with it slightly bent and holding onto something about shoulder level, I keep my other leg slightly behind me as I allow myself to sink back and rotate on my hip first one way and then the other. It’s hard to describe but man does it feel good! Finally, I was taken out to the gym side of the clinic and put on the hamstring curl machine to do 3×10 on that. I elected to do 25# of fast curl and slow to lower reps. I could have done heavier weight without the slow uncurl, but I’m rebuilding so I’ll start out low.

By the time I got home I was ready for a nap but plugged into my work computer instead, and then proceeded to roll onto my belly and keep everything stretched out as it cooled off. I went to Jiu Jitsu class that evening and was able to drill de la riva guard sweeps without any problems, including a hook sweep using my right leg as the hook to sit up on/over. I skipped out on sparring rounds as per my usual but felt pretty good overall – it was definitely a jam-packed day!

Tuesday

The real test of Monday was how I felt waking up Tuesday morning – and I woke up feeling just fine. I had no soreness, just a little muscle tiredness from the energy expenditure. I noticed a little more tightness in the deeper abdominal muscles on my right side, so for my morning stretching routine I gave some extra time to that area and my hip flexors – making note to take a few extra breaks from sitting during the workday.

In class that morning we drilled the same move that was taught at the seminar on Sunday – it was good to review the movements! I did some super light free movement with one of our black belts for a couple of minutes during sparring time which felt pretty good although that’s the extent of what I was willing to attempt doing at that time. I had originally set myself the line of only drilling until the four-month mark, but my PT wants me to add more sport specific activity during the week, and I don’t know that I can do that without starting flow rounds.

I went over more focused stretches and strength exercises during evening competition classes. For strength training I did the heel elevated squats, standing hip rotators, pistol squats, single leg kettlebell balance drills, and a few others. I’m breaking a sweat now with my PT routine now which is good, although I have diverted almost entirely away from my routine listed on my app. I really need to remember next week to request an updated app routine from my PT. I get daily reminders to do my exercises and just click the button that I completed everything – I just modified everything up to a more intense exercise.

Wednesday

I did more stretching in the morning on Wednesday. I’ve been feeling a bit more overall soreness in my deep abdominal muscles on my right side (which are the main hip flexors) with the little extra push I’ve been doing in class this week stacked on top of the seminar and then the extra exercises in PT. I’m working to counter that with more stretching and belly time to keep it from becoming an active problem.

That evening I taught my usually scheduled ladies no gi class. I was able to demonstrate techniques from closed guard including options for maneuvering to a ghost armbar and then taking the back. I stayed for the advanced gi class afterwards and drilled for 30 minutes the techniques we learned at the seminar on Saturday – adding on a submission finish to the sweep (with the feedback from the class instructor). I then proceeded to watch sparring for the rest of class and mused over if I could start adding flow rounds in this week or not.

Thursday

New achievement unlocked in class this morning! I was able to be comfortable with drilling the move and also having it drilled on me. We are still working on de la riva guard sweeps which are primarily done on my lead leg – which was the one which was operated on. So it does feel pretty good to feel stable enough to be able to let people sweep me off that lead leg – even if it is only during light drilling practice.

I got really frustrated in morning class however because my knee had a minor subluxation. It’s a pretty common occurrence for all of my joints and usually doesn’t cause me any harm beyond some temporary inflammation, but it’s just an annoying reminder of my need to be hypervigilant at all times. I ended up not staying for evening class and opted to go home to rest my knee and test out the new red/infrared light mini panel that my ortho recommended for collagen/inflammation. It did seem to have a soothing affect, so I’ll add it to my evening joint care routine.

Friday – The 13 Week Mark

Today is the day that marks 13 weeks since surgery and it was another day of mostly me working from home. It was marked however by the second of our team association ladies competition class in the evening – I decided to test myself to see how many of the drills I was able to execute safely. The short answer was that I was able to safely do all of them myself, although there was one of them that I was unable to safely have done on me (rolling back take) due to the impact and twisting motion around my hip.

I was getting really hyped up and feeling frisky enough that I was about to throw caution to the wind and jump in to spar lightly when coach caught my eye and said a quick “you’re not ready yet”. He usually lets me do whatever I want (because I’m usually trustworthy), but he’s the coach for a reason and will put his foot down when needed.

Conclusions

I am struggling right now to find the balance for what more I should be doing. I know I don’t want to overdo it and hurt myself, but I also don’t want to sell myself short and be doing less than I could be doing. Erring on the side of caution has been the theme of my recovery and it seems to have been working in my favor thus far, although at this stage of my recovery it is driving me a little crazy. I do for the most part feel fairly normal and capable of doing most of the things I want to do.

Sticking to the plan is probably the best right now still. Who knows? Maybe when I see my surgeon again in 2 1/2 weeks he will tell me to go ahead and amp it up since it’s the 4 month mark and my labrum is all good for impact? I can wait until then at least to see what he says about adjusting my training plans at any rate!

Hip Labrum Surgery Recovery – 9-10 weeks post op

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Week 9 – First Outdoor Bike Ride

I dove right into it this weekend by taking my first bike ride since surgery on Saturday. My dog was out of food and the pet store that makes his is just a mile and a half away from my apartment – which seemed like a good distance for a test ride after getting the okay from my surgeon for outdoor biking.

I started out with the idea of just biking up to the top of the nearby hill, and checking in with myself to make sure I was still okay to continue. It was very slow going. I did not push for any power, walked up steeper hills, and took breaks. I took a slightly longer route getting to the pet store in order to avoid a busier road (staying on the sidewalk of course) which ended up also having more hills. Overall, what would have previously been a 20-minute round trip ride before surgery took me about 50 minutes including the time to pick up the food. However, it still felt like a huge accomplishment to be back out there! I am not a speed cyclist to begin with and have always tended to bike in a more upright position – so my normal biking style does not put that much pressure on my joint anyhow (in hindsight, that’s probably because of the chronic tears/impingement in my hips). I still felt good the following day on Sunday when I hung out with the ladies during our Sunday ladies BJJ class – so apparently my pacing was spot on!

My goal is to do short bike rides on the weekends until I work up the stability and stamina to ride my bike to work again. It hopefully won’t be too long – depending on others for rides to work for this long has been very annoying.

New Physical Therapist – Monday

I got to meet my new physical therapist on Monday! She’s taking over just at the interval where I’m switching gears to focusing on strengthening more so she started by adding some more strength/stability training to my program. It was a good balance as I was not sore the next day and didn’t feel inflamed, but still managed to get my heart rate up a little bit. Here is the new stuff:

  • Shuttle leg press. Really light weight for first time (I think just 50#) She said we will increase next time if I feel okay the day after this time
  • Lateral heel tap downs. (I don’t know the official name for these) I stand with my surgical (right) foot sideways on a step and let the other foot hover off the edge. Keeping hips level I do mini “squat” motions with my right side to tap my left heel to touch the floor. I did a lot of these for my knee rehab.
  • Blood flow restriction squats. I lie flat with the blood pressure cuff high around my thigh so it calculates my blood pressure then restricts my blood flow by about 80%. Then I do a sequence of movement reps with 30 second rest (with pressure still on). It’s 30 reps, then 3 sets of 15. The oxygen deprivation to the muscles lets you mimic high impact/intensity muscle load with lower intensity activity – getting a similar HGH hormone release for the muscles. It’s great for muscle building when you aren’t free to actually do the impact/intensity loading due to joint issues. Plus it burns real nice!
  • Balance practice: I passed a small kettlebell back and forth from outstretched hand to hand while balancing on my surgical leg. I have a feeling I’ll get more time or a squishy pad to stand on for that one since I started passing it behind my back and around my body to make it harder.

I was really tired by that afternoon and really wanted to take a nap, but instead I got a ride over to the Jiu Jitsu academy to watch the evening training class. I’m glad I was able to make it in because we had yet another belt promotion this evening, this time it was Jackson getting his purple belt! He is one of my favorite training partners and I look forward to getting to roll with him again once I’m allowed! (It seems like all my favorite people are getting promoted lately)

Jiu Jitsu Training

This week we have been working on control and attacks from North/South top position. This works well for me as I’m able to do most of the drills pretty safely with minimal modifications since they don’t involve my hips in very many twisted angles like some of the other positions we work from. I didn’t get much training in during this week because I had some systemic inflammation issues and didn’t want to cause any sort of flare up in my hip joint. The systemic issue is unrelated to anything with my hip recovery, it’s a chronic condition that flares up periodically and I have just learned my best option is to ride it out and rest for a couple of days instead of pushing through it.

Friday the 19th we had our first ladies’ competition training class. It was a joint training class open to our other local affiliate academy ladies. It ended up just being the ladies from our local academy this first time around, but they absolutely killed it and the overall consensus was that it was some of the best training ever. We are going to have it at least once a month and shoot for twice if possible. Hopefully the ladies from our other local academies will get on board but if they don’t that’s fine – we had a great time anyhow and I look forward to joining in myself in a few months.

On a slightly unrelated note: I had a follow up with my neurologist this Friday morning. I have been on a daily medication to prevent migraines that has been working splendidly. It’s an anti-epileptic that was a bit harsh with the side effects initially but now that I’ve adjusted to it I have gone from having several headaches a week to only one or two breakthrough headaches a month. He also gave me a more effective medication for those break through migraines as well that doesn’t make me feel trashed for the rest of the day.

Week 10 Physical Therapy

I recovered from my flare up thankfully in time for my physical therapy session on Monday. We added more weight to my leg press (3×10 at 150#) and then dropped it to add single leg press (3×10 at 75#). I had a new standing variation of a clamshell where I had my foot propped on the wall while balancing on the other while using the resistance band, and we modified the banded bird-dog to accommodate my tactile ick to the touching the band with my hand and we did a bird-dog row on the table – which honestly I found much more difficult a move anyhow (imagine doing a “hands and knees” bench row while holding your opposite leg up parallel to the floor while doing your row). To my “step ups” we added a “tap down” in front – just barely tapping my heel to the floor in front of me off of a 4-inch box.

I let my PT know I have access to a full collection of plyo boxes, physio balls, and trx straps at my Jiu Jitsu academy – so she said she would work on upgrading my home working program to include those for me.

Everything felt pretty good and didn’t make me feel worn out, so I put my gi on and joined the evening Jiu Jitsu class. The position this week is turtle bottom – I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do any drilling this week from the position, but I was able to do the moves Monday evening without any modifications, even the wrestling sit outs. Now granted, I did not do many reps and it wasn’t against heavy resistance – but I am able to do light movement drills with a gentle training partner.

Tuesday morning I drilled again in class. I did a few more reps of various moves from the turtle bottom position. I am once again reminded how blessed I am to have great teammates who are happy to be a part of my recovery process and help me drill movements even when I’m not 100%. This was a pretty special class as well because coach promoted Jeremy and Denaro to their purple belts. They’ve both been training since they were smaller than me, a fact that didn’t really hit home until I took a photo with both of them and realized how much they have grown over the years, it got me a little bit emotional! I did my PT exercises during the evening competition class. My muscles were a bit sore but not to a level that it might cause any compensation movement patterns so it was all good.

Wednesday I had as a bit of a rest day and just did my stretches, although I did teach Jiu Jitsu for the first time since my surgery. It was 1:1 in the corner with one of our brown belt ladies during the evening no gi class and I came up with a lesson plan that I could both demonstrate safely and also have practiced on me safely as well. We did a lasso guard sweep as well as an omoplata – then we strategized an open guard concept to help her with a specific goal she has been working toward in her sparring rounds.

Thursday morning was another drill in morning class day – this time I got to get reps in with coach and several of our other black belts. It was a more hip intensive movement but I can feel myself getting more stability and confidence. I would not have been able to do this particular movement a few weeks ago but have built up the joint stability since then to be able to. Every new movement I’m able to achieve gives me more confidence – it’s not perfect at first of course, but it’s a starting point for growth! PT exercises in the corner that evening again during the competition class of course – I think I smell an updated home program coming this week! I stayed over for the last class of the evening with the intent of getting some more movement reps in – but it ended up being me assisting some brand new white belts in class instead.

The Official 10 Week Mark

Friday is officially 10 weeks post op! I decided to mark it by running myself through a slow careful yoga flow session – which I haven’t done since before surgery. It went pretty well even though I just did the opening movements. It was a work from home day since Fridays are a bit chaotic for coordinating rides to and from the office, and my stamina for bike riding is not road ready (especially for around Nashville traffic). I’m doing short sidewalk bike rides around my neighborhood on the weekends to work on my stamina as the weather permits.

The hardest challenge for me in PT right now is reclined straight leg raises. I stay propped up on my forearms to keep my core engaged but I have to really focus to keep all my muscles engaged so as to not isolate just my hip flexors. If that happens then I will feel a sharp pain in them – which thankfully doesn’t last past the exercise. It just acts as a cattle prod to remind me to use proper form.

I’ve been slowly gaining more and more confidence moving through various movement angles and drills in class since my surgeon told me I could drill techniques. I occasionally get someone asking me to “roll light” after drilling and am strictly declining still. Since my surgeon said he will consider the repair work he did on my labrum to be healed around the 4-month mark, that’s going to be my personal benchmark for return to flow rolling – unless he tells me otherwise when I check back in at my 16-week post-op follow up appointment.

Further clarification on that 4-month mark: that’s strictly just the specific surgical work he did (and also could be specific to my individual surgery and/or his own protocol). I still will need additional time after that to work on strength and stability for return to full impact. He said the usual time frame for that is 6-9 months post-op depending on what the sport requirements are and whether or not you run into any difficulties with recovery.

12 Weeks Post Knee Surgery

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I dislocated my knee during a light sparring round April 17th, 2021. I didn’t let my partner know how bad it was because it was a freak accident and didn’t want him to feel badly. Thankfully I was able to quickly get in with one of the top Sports Orthopedic Surgeons in the area. He specializes in high impact athletes (16 years working for an NFL team) so I knew if anyone could get me back on the mats it would be him!

My diagnosis was a torn and frayed PCL (opposite of the ACL), torn LCL, several tendons torn, and basically the entire outside of my knee was mush (posterolateral corner/PLC). I have underlying hypermobility and joint instability (It’s a degenerative condition), so the Dr said it was difficult to tell how much of the instability was caused by the damage, and how much was just my normal baseline. (He said my “good” knee felt like a bad knee – but it is functional for me). He wanted to opt for more conservative treatment at first. “I have enough people to do surgery on. I don’t want to put you through surgery if I don’t have to.” I appreciated that approach since I do not have health insurance and would have to pay out of pocket for any expenses.

I did twice a week physical therapy, with regular check ins with the doctor. The idea was that we would let it heal and stabilize on its own as much as possible. When I plateaued that is where we would decide how functional I was. I hit the plateau early November and was able to walk around with a brace on, but my bones were shifting too much for me to be able to train safely. We scheduled surgery for December 16 (after I got back from coaching students at Worlds).

Surgery day was fun. I was actually a lot calmer than I thought I would be and looking forward to a nice nap. I was the doctor’s first surgery of the day – and must have really thrown off his schedule because it took him three hours to put my knee back together (his surgeries are usually about an hour). He said it was like trying to stabilize jello. I now have a few donor grafts and several screws holding my joints together, they also gave me a round of PRP in order to help speed healing. He had to drill through my bones 5 times in order to anchor everything. He had to get “very aggressive” and as a result they had to put me under very deep anesthesia; it took me 3 hours to properly wake up afterwards. He was however very pleased with the surgical outcome and confident it would heal strong and be more stable than my other knee.

The first week was super rough. They gave me opioid pain meds for 10 days, but I switched to Tylenol after the first few days. It was hard enough to get up to use the bathroom without dissociative drugs in my system. The anesthesiologist took me seriously when I told them I metabolize nerve blocks quickly so he must have given me an extra special dose – I couldn’t feel my lower leg for the entire first week. It’s probably a good thing based on all the work that the dr did.

I spent my first few weeks post-op with my leg locked out in a splint 24/7. I was allowed to be weight bearing “as tolerated” but until I regained sensation in my foot, I kept that to a minimum. I was on an ice sleeve machine for 5 out of every 6 hours and sleeping with my leg elevated to keep swelling to a minimum. Physical Therapy started the week after surgery right after I finished my first post-op visit where they removed my stitches and half of my staples (there were 39 total staples holding the side of my knee closed, the other half were removed a week later). Physical therapy at this point mostly focused on controlling swelling, isotonic muscle work, and passive prone mobility (bending my knee while I was face down).

At my 3 week checkup, I told the doctor that I had managed to complete a 300-hour game on my Nintendo switch (The Witcher), and he told his PA “Let’s get this girl moving”. He gave the PT clearance to start unlocking the hinge on my brace so I could start bending my knee while walking and pushing my range of motion more. He told me I could be as weight bearing as I was comfortable to do, so I found I could stand for a few seconds with my weight evenly distributed. I also got to remove the steri strips that were on my smaller incisions. The larger one (about the size of my hand from wrist to fingertips) I had to keep taped up a bit longer.

At the 7 week mark I hit a wall for range of motion. For the PCL ligament, they had to keep my leg locked out straight for the first 6 weeks because in that position there is no pressure on the new ligament. This enables all the bone grafts to start healing and the ligament to stabilize in its new home a little bit. The more the knee bends, the more pressure it puts on the ligament. Only time I was allowed to have my knee bent was twice a week under the direct supervision and application of my physical therapist. So now that it was anchored, we had to start stretching it out more aggressively. 90 degrees is what you need to sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. I was stalled out at 35 degrees and crying/sweating buckets when the PT would push to stretch it more. We were way behind schedule, so my PT called the dr’s office and they put me on a steroid pack for 6 days. With that we were able to get past the hurdle to 50 degrees. It’s very useful that my PT clinic is connected with my dr’s office, and they can share notes back and forth in the same system.

Since then, range of motion has still been a game of slow improvements. I see the doctor again tomorrow for my 12 week follow up and I know they were hoping I would be past 90 degrees by now but I’m barely passing 75 right now. I may be looking at another steroid pack, or possibly some injections. We shall see what the doctor says tomorrow!

On the positive side, I’ve been walking with a much more even gate. Doing light leg press exercises, single leg balances, and even walking across the floor without my brace on at PT. My hope for tomorrow’s appointment is that the doctor will okay me to get rid of this massive post-op brace and switch to my smaller custom brace for walking around. I plan to ask if he still thinks I have a chance of being able to safely compete at the World Pro tournament in November. Before surgery he said absolutely yes, but I know he had to do a lot more work in my knee than initially anticipated.

Here’s hoping!

Thoughts From the Bunker

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I have elected thus far to not share much over the past couple of months. There is enough talk going on around about world events and I dislike redundancy. After a few dark bouts of anger, frustration, and ugly crying – I think I have finally reached acceptance of the current flux of affairs. So here are some thoughts.

I do not know what will happen.

I do not know if my family and friends will be okay.

I do not know when I can resume concrete planning for the future.

I do not know how this will affect the world around me.

I do not know how this will affect the timetable for earning my black belt.

I do not know what this will do do my massage business – which I finally got up and running consistently.

I do not know if my bjj ladies group will come back to class or not.

I do not know who I am without my training and my work.

I do not know when I can train again without being judged for doing so.

 

I do not have to know. Trying to figure everything out right now is an exercise in futility. Information becomes outdated almost as soon as I hear it, if it was accurate from the start. So I decided to focus on what I can do in my current situation.

I can take things one day at a time.

I can conserve funds as much as possible with the purpose of rebuilding my business.

I can rediscover old past-times such as baking, gardening, and drawing.

I can train every day with the grappling dummy, and a couple times a week with my quarantine buddy.

I can focus on mobility work.

I can call my parents or grandma every day.

I can sit and breathe – just enjoy each moment. I have been so “go go go” for the past several years that this is probably good for me.

I can focus more time on improving my Japanese and start back up on Spanish.

I can be in  safe place, thanks to good people that I have in my life.

 

My current situation is thus:

Almost two months ago a friend in Owensboro, Kentucky invited me to come up and be her quarantine buddy. She enticed me with promises of an extra room, stocked pantry, and training mats. I told her I would “keep it in mind”.

That weekend I was notified that Nashville was shutting down non-essential businesses (me). Upon hearing that, my last massage client of the day offered to drive me the two hours to Owensboro. I made a split second decision to take her up on that! She refused to take back the payment for her massage, but I at least was able to pay for her gas and coffee. There are amazing people out there!

I got into Owensboro on March 22nd and have been here now for six weeks. My friend is still working; so I try to keep the house clean, bake cookies, and be a good little quarantine wife. I check in with my Jiu Jitsu coach every couple of days to keep him updated on what I am doing as far as my training goes.

I don’t know how long I will be here – but I think I will wait until at least a couple of weeks after Nashville says massage establishments can re-open. I don’t want to get back home only to have them shut us down again after they get the new numbers in.

I have been filming a few technique and self-care videos – so if anyone has any requests please feel free to send me a message on my Instagram! Stay safe!

A Word on Ladies Classes

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In the last week we have done a soft launch of our new ladies only Jiu Jitsu classes. Myself and our other lady brown belt, Madison, are running two classes week to start out. This has brought about a good amount of discussion as to the validity of ladies only classes and rather than debate on social media about it, I’m going to just lay out all my thoughts here.

img_2503-1> begin rant/sermon> First off: I am not a girl power feminist. I don’t believe we are the always the victims or entitled to extra special treatment. I believe in equality – but alike and equal are not the same things. I believe that it someone holds the door open for me, it’s polite to accept the gesture but I don’t demand it. I believe that if I want something badly enough, I will find a way to make it happen. I believe that, as a whole, women are stronger than they think they are – and that we should find our way to discover that. I believe that women should train in co-ed group classes. I believe that ladies only classes are a critical part of growing a strong ladies team. I also believe that these classes are extremely important to the growth of a martial arts gym as a whole. I don’t believe that Jiu Jitsu is for everyone: I believe everyone should try it, but it’s a special kind of (mostly good) crazy that sticks with it.

Main Points (if you want to skip the prelude/sermon)

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From my first month

Jiu Jitsu is an intimidating sport to begin with for anyone. And with the majority of classes at my academy being roughly a (generous) 10:3 ratio of men and women, it is safe to call it a male dominated sport. A lone woman walking into a Jiu Jitsu class for the first time has extra layers of worry to combat. The mere offering of a ladies class makes it seem much more of an inviting environment as a whole.

After doing this for so many years I sometimes forget how intimate and vulnerable it is – and especially with how American society seems to sexualize any sort of physical contact; especially between men and women. A ladies only class helps bridge this gap – familiarizing us with the movements and terminology while easing in the concept of physical contact. After training for a little while, you understand that it’s not a sexual thing and it becomes a non-issue.

This is magnified for many women who have been survivors of abuse – be it sexual, physical, or emotional. I know many who try to use Jiu Jitsu as a form of exposure therapy to help combat their PTSD: to feel safe and in control of themselves again. The beginning phases of learning Jiu Jitsu – getting dominated and smashed for an hour or more at a time – is a hot zone for panic attacks, flashbacks, and other trauma related reflexes. This is not something she may ever want to voice to her team mates, she might just disappear without a word. Having a ladies only class available can create a sense of therapeutic safety for these individuals.

img_2862-1On the lighter side: it can be super refreshing to just have a break from the testosterone. I worry that I might begin growing a beard from all the man sweat that has been soaked into my system. Ladies tend to be much more social in the Jiu Jitsu community than are the men – call us pack animals if you will. Even though most of my main training partners are men, I always find it refreshing to spend quality time with other Jiu Jitsu ladies.

IMG_3351For personal or religious reasons, some individuals do not train with members of the other gender. For the men, this isn’t that big of an obstacle since they can easily train an entire class only partnering with other men. I have several wonderful team mates who do not roll with me and respectfully bow instead of shaking hands – I just return the gesture and carry on. For women, since there are fewer of us (sometimes one or none in a group class), co-ed classes classes may not be a consistent viable option. However with a good ladies only class, these individuals can have the opportunity to train as well if they wish.

For Beginners Only?

IMG_1300I don’t believe that a ladies only class should consist of only beginners who are passing through a way station to the co-ed class. I want my class to be a place where we can grow together and then go out and destroy the guys with our awesome powers of angles and leverage. I want to keep it applicable for both the day one beginner, and the long time veteran.

To the men who have supported this new class and program – thank you for seeing the big picture! To the women who are invested in helping it to grow – you are the reasons we do this.

Current Class Times:

Fridays @ 12:30 with Madison

Sundays @9:30 with Nicholle

After we move to the new facility we will probably shift the Sunday class to later in the day since we will have our own room and fewer things to schedule around.

Just A Minor Breakthrough

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I’ve started having another of those shifts in thinking in the past month about Jiu Jitsu. There have been many, and they are always super simple things that just open up a whole new world of “ah hah!”

I came to the realization that if I believe that I can execute a move, I can do it. This has been especially applicable to things such as; going after arm bars from guard, and positional escapes.

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First Week of Training

What made the difference was realizing that people were escaping from my side control using the same movements that I know how to do – but that I never actually commit to doing. Maybe I’ve spent so many years being smashed that I just don’t believe in my ability to get out from under someone once they have gotten past my guard. That realization is starting to shift my thinking. It works for people I spar against, so why wouldn’t a move work if I go after it – believing it will work?

Always improving, always trying to broaden my mind to see the bigger picture. It is a very mental game as well as a physical one – and both my body and my mind must be strong and work in harmony in order for me to be my very best every day.

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Oh, in other news: my instructor, Shawn Hammonds, gave me my 3rd stripe on my purple belt this week! I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious!