We're Back!

Big Meet out of the way now :). We left for Maryland a few days ago so our daughter could compete on the east coast. She was perfectly fine on the way there and pretty much at the official practice on Friday evening. We were sitting near the door that was open so they could bring in boxes of food to their snack bar and she started getting cold. She put on her National's jacket and we put a blanket over her. We ALWAYS have blankets with us because you never know how cold it will be at a rink! After her practice was over, we went to dinner and back to the hotel to sleep. 

We have to get up at 3:00 a.m. on Meet days to get ready and skaters have to be ON the floor at 5:00 a.m. sharp. During the night she developed a fever (I'm guessing around 102) and a sore throat. She wanted to compete anyway since we had driven so far and since this Meet was kind of a big deal and because she works hard at training. By the time we had rollers in her hair she was feeling sick to her stomach and the vomiting began :(. She was chilling too, but she was still determined to compete. So we took her to the rink with the stipulation that if she didn't feel better we would come back to the hotel. We got to the rink and she did the morning warm up. The morning warm up starts between 5:00 a.m. and 5:15 a.m., depending on the rink. This gives all the skaters time to work on the official warm up and judging circles. This is important for them to get a feel for the floor because every floor has its own little nuances. She made it through the morning warm up. We covered her up with blankets while we waited for her first event to come up. By this time she is feeling really achy. Her first event came up at 6:00 a.m. All the skaters in the event get to roll around the judging circles for a few minutes. Their coaches watch them and make corrections as needed. When the first warm up time is up all the skaters in that event get on line and wait their turn. Three skaters are sent to the warm up circles at a time while the others in line wait. The warm up circles give the coaches another opportunity to correct anything that needs to be corrected with the skater. Once the skater leaves the warm up circles, the coaches aren't allowed to talk to them until they come off the judging circles. Her warm up looked good. She was in the second set of three skaters to warm up, and the second skater from that warm up to go to the judging circles. She looked good on the judging circles. After she was done with her first event, she went out to the van to lay down, covered with four blankets, van locked up tight, so she could rest. Her second event wasn't until 9:10 a.m. so there was plenty of time for her to rest. 

About a half hour later, the first, second, and third place winners were announced for her first event and our daughter had won first place :). I went out to the van to let her know. She thought she did terrible because she felt so sick and she didn't expect to place. She did tell me later that even though she was so sick that she did most of the circles on auto pilot. This is why so much practice pays off! The skaters make it look easy to do figures, but there is a LOT to think about. They have to think about the edge they are on, keeping the line of the circle between the center of  the right and left side of their wheels, making sure they maintain correct body and foot position, keeping the foot in the air stationary, passing the leg at the right time after they change feet for the next edge onto the next circle, the speed they are traveling around the circles, and several other things. She was happy that she got first place after she thought she didn't do so great on her figures (but she did- it just didn't feel like it to her) and she came back into the rink to wait for her next event. 

Next event up. She did the first warm up, got on line to wait for her turn on the warm up circles. She was toward the end on this line though, almost last. I zoomed in on her with my video camera so I could see her face, since she was on the far side of the floor. I could tell she was really feeling bad. Five minutes or so later, my husband and I watched our daughter skate to her coaches and she was wobbly as she got to them. Coach Lisa took her hands as she talked to them and then Coach John and Lisa helped her over to the wall and sat her down on the floor. When she got to them she told them she was going pass out, hence, sitting her against the wall. She sat on the floor for a minute and then down she went. She was laying on the floor! Coach John was really worried about her and he told her he was scratching her event. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to not go running out on that floor to my daughter?!! When she was finally able to get up she skated straight to the bathroom because her stomach was upset again. I was in there with her and Lisa brought her some 7Up to help calm her stomach. Our daughter was hoping that a few minutes in the bathroom would ease her stomach and the light headed feeling. Lisa came in and asked her if she needed to scratch. With lots of tears, she said "yes, I need to scratch" :'(. It's demanding on the body of a skater under normal circumstances to do what they do. Yet, our daughter, who was sicker than she let us know, went out there and gave it everything she had to do her second event. Her body just didn't want to cooperate with her. We packed her up and took her back to the hotel, called our Dr. back home and told him what was going on with her. He suspected that she had strep throat (his suspicion proved correct) and he called in a prescription for her where we were at for penicillin. She had to scratch the rest of her events for this Meet. She had fever that spiked between 100 when it was low, but mostly stayed between 101 - 101.7 for two nights and two days. She stayed in the hotel bed for those two days. She was too achy and sick to move. We had another adult member of the skate team who traveled with us, so my husband made sure she got to the rink to do her events and back to the hotel for her two days of events, while I stayed with our daughter. We decided to drive through on the trip home, the three of us adults taking turns doing the driving. Our daughter slept for 14 hours straight, waking up only long enough to take her medicine during the trip home. Her fever finally broke during that 14 hours of sleep. The last leg of the trip she was awake for, but she had lost her voice. I am happy to report that even though she still has a cough, she is not achy, not sick to her stomach anymore, and she is on the mend. We are so proud of our daughter for her tenacity in going out there and competing in the face of being so sick. She is one tough little skater girl.

Yesterday afternoon my order from Stampin' Up! arrived, so after a LOT of sleep yesterday, I plan to go back to my scrap room and play with some new toys :D. See you soon!

Blessings!

Barb