Back from the dead (injury stories)

[Rick]

Any injury stories anyone would want to share?

Here's mine:
I suffered a knee injury during our division qualifiers back in March.

The timing of the injury hurt me deep inside more than the knee did. I was 2-0 in Foil pools, with a 10-3 TS-TR differential. My third bout was against arguably the best fencer in our pool, but I managed to get a 4-3 lead on him... I was on a roll. After an appel w/ feint high-line, my opponent exposed his flank after biting on the feint... I tried going for that 5th touche with an advance-lunge... then it happened:
Somewhere during the advance, my foot was not completely settled from the appel and the outsole got caught on the hardwood-floor (no metal strips), my foot stopped... but my body kept moving forward... and then my knee buckled. I was able to correct myself and stop the fall, but that must've been the "straw that broke the camel's back"... I felt a sharp pain. I was able to shake it off and continue fencing... but my mobility was severely hampered. I lost that bout 5-4. And then I lost my last two pool bouts, 5-4, 5-2. What started so promisingly, now had me at an uphill climb with one bad wheel to boot (I was seeded 11th out of 18). My first DE was with the sixth seed. I somehow managed to scrap out a win, 15-12. But I lost my final-8 bout 15-8. I think my final standing was 7th... one place short of qualifying for Division II nationals.

The initial diagnosis was a strained MCL, MRIs not showing any tear... but the orders (doctor's and coach's) were... NO FENCING... indefinitely...

However... after eight weeks, I got the green light from my doctor... and I'm back fencing at my club. At first I was so out of it: short of breath, sluggish, clumsy, no sense of timing or coordination with my weapon arm and my footwork. But it's been a few weeks now and I could really feel it coming back to me. I'm still restricted from competing, but I hope that restriction is lifted after another visit to the doctor in a couple of weeks. I really want to get one tournament in before the competitive season ends.

But, it is soooo good to be back. In know that for knee injuries, 8 weeks is a short time. But it was a long eight weeks for me.
Looking forward to next season!

[Peach]

Summer Nationals last year, after two solid days of refereeing and standing on hard floors, I was in my first bout of the open team women's sabre. Ready, fence, yikes! A fist was clenching in my back calf, and though I tried to finish the bout I couldn't. I limped off to the trainer and got taped up, but I couldn't finish the team.

The calf was blue, I couldn't walk, and I had to fence the veteran WS the next day, so I alternately wrapped the calf and iced it and plunged it into a hot bath, over and over again. Gradually, by the next day, with the calf taped tightly, I could pretend I was walking normally if I walked very slowly and with a sort of meditative expression, though I couldn't lunge and I couldn't retreat. My coach gave me a lesson in the use of the line, the stop-hit, the counter-attack, and then I went into the pools with my calf taped, my socks pulled up, and a bland expression.

Nobody figured it out. I won all my pool bouts. I would pull off those nasty little sneaky hits in preparation and instead of slowing down and getting suspicious, my opponents all started rushing even more, their shoulders tightening. They either reacted most satisfactorily to my false counter-attacks or they finished with such intense directness that they were easily parried. At one point, a young lady I have fenced who was watching on the side said to me, "I never realized how fast you are!" I smiled blandly at her, and toddled through several DEs in the same fashion, yanking all my most evil strategies out of my back pocket. I was utterly relaxed with a completely fluid shoulder because I had no alternative.

Finally, in my last DE, my opponent was a person who has long legs and speed and relies upon them heavily. Although I was ahead most of the bout, by the end she just started running me down (and those darn veterans bouts are 10 touches, which I hate).

The calf was sort of black for the rest of the month.

I wish I could fence with as relaxed an upper body as that when I'm NOT injured.

[attila]

Last year a few weeks before foil divisionals, I was training with one of my better juniors when I heard a snap on my rear knee while doing a panic retreat. ACL damage was the problem. I still went to a sabre divisional ( I sucked), the following week, then competed at the foil divisional. It was a "B" event and I stood my ground ( only becuse I couldn't advance) through the event and made finals. My opponent couldn't believe how "cool" I was because I just stood there! So he let me stand there and I either parry riposted him or closed ground on his prep/flick and won the day. It was only afterwards that I told the other finalist what had happened to my leg a few weeks earlier. Boy, was he pissed! Just goes to show you, don't out fox yerself......

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"Kill the men, save the women, and by the gods, do not spill the wine"

[robbie]

A doctor in San Francisco found a lump in my breast, and without doing any further tests beyond an ultra sound, told me I had cancer.
I was 18, what did I know about having cancer???

In total shock, I returned to Colorado to see my regular doc. She ran some tests, did the physical, then asked if I had been hit in the chest recently.

CRAP!! 6 months previous, I had forgotten my chest protector for class one day and had received a hit to my chest so hard, it had literally knocked me over!!! The "lump" turned out to be scar tissue from the incident!!

I wanted to wring the neck of the Dr. who prematurely diagnosed me with cancer!!

WEAR PROTECTION!!!!!!!!

[Cutter]

Two days before Nationals I broke the little finger of my sword hand (saber so this is a necessary digit.) I taped the sucker up and went to Nationals anyway, my finger was the size of a brautworst by this time and stuck out at a funny angle. The trainers at nationals put a huge padding on it to protect it as much as possible. First bout in pools, the girl I fenced went straight for a low attack to 3 right up under my guard and smacked me right in the finger. After bouncing around the strip for a few minutes I kept going. Needless to say, I did not do well and finished DFL. It took over a year to get any grip and mobility back in my finger. I still have very little grip with it though.

Funny how such a small, insignificant part of your body can become such a big problem when injured.

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Cutter
"It's just a flesh wound."