I know it sounds lame, but here it is - my life changing story with swimming.
It all started in the summer of 2009. I was up at my friends cabin on the lake spending summer like it should be spent- sleeping in, sun tanning, boating, swimming. I suddenly started to feel sick, I ignored it thinking it was just a cold, because who wants to be sick during summer vacation... Unfortunately this was the first ingredient for my recipe for disaster. I got really sick. I phoned my mom to pick me up and we drove straight to the hospital. I had H1N1 (swine flu) I then spent my summer how most would put it " in hell" It took me about a month and half until I was feeling back to normal, so just in time to start school I was feeling better. Then about a week into the first semester, I got the flu, just the regular, shitty flu. It took over my whole immune system due to the fact that I had just gotten over H1N1.
When I finally started to see the light again, my dad announced we were moving to Calgary. Of course to any 15 year old girl, this was the best news you could receive. Goodbye friends, goodbye school, bedroom, routine. I was used to moving though, my dad's job always kept us on the road. I didn't think this would be a difficult change in scenery having been born in Calgary and all our family lives in Alberta.
Once we arrived, we were living in a condo for about a month and half, sharing a bed with my sister, living out of a suitcase, and waking up to practice fire drills at 3am for the residence of the building. Needless to say, it sucked. We finally found a house and we moved in, thank goodness. We also found a swim team. I met Kevin and instantly knew I would be blessed to have a coach like him. He had successful swimmers in the past, he knew school always came first, and he took interest into the actual well being of his athletes. I started up 2 weeks after school started, Having had a rough summer getting back in didn't only feel way tougher than in the past, but it proved that I wasn't fully recovered from being sick.
I went on with it, hoping one day I would magically wake up 100% and eventually I did. I was so happy to be training and healthy. I was motivated to get back in and qualify for seniors and race my heart out. At school I was dating a boy named Tyler, he was and still is one of the most influencial people in my life. His outlook on life probably isn't understood by most, and some things he says you have to take with a grain of salt. In the end, he never gives up on me. The quote that has stuck with me the most is " Fuck it, do what you want" not to be taken in a reckless way, but at the end of the day, do what makes you happy.
Things were starting to look up, I was training for Portland, a big meet in the US that every swimmer looks forward to during the season. While training one day, I knocked heads with a varsity guy. I swam to the wall and looked to my friend Anna and said " I think I got a concussion" she laughed and didn't think I was serious. I went to school, and then back to the pool that night, I went up to my coach and told him what happened. He checked for obvious symptoms other than the ones I told him I had been feeling through out the day. Within minutes I was at the university sports clinic being examined for a concussion. They were positive that I had one, and to be on the safe side they sent me to the hospital to get an x-ray of my neck and spine to make sure nothing else was damaged.
The doctor told me that with my condition of head injury I should scratch from Portland. I was devistated. I couldn't believe that all my training and after having a rough start to the season that this was happening. I had to go.
With all things considered, Portland was a month away. Looking back now I realized I was lying to myself when I took Tyler's advice (refer to quote above.) and told myself I was better. By pushing through the dizziness in practice and the nausea I felt afterwards, I never let anyone see how I really felt. I went to Portland and I swam like shit. I remember swimming the 50 br the first day. Symptoms wise, It was too short of a race to tell. I never thought about it like that until I finished the 200 the next day. I was 100m in and all I could focus on was how the back of my eyes felt they were being punched. I finished the race, got out and sat behind the curtain for about 15 minutes trying to gather myself to go talk to my coach about my swim. " I'll just blame it on my shitty warm up" I told myself.
I walked over and the first think Kevin said to me was " either your brain is too small to heal, or your not better" He looked at me with that " you know im right" stare and that was that.
I didn't swim anything more than a 50 for the rest of the meet.
When we got home, I refrained from training for about 2 weeks, then went back and rode the stationary bike. I would work on getting my heart rate up slowly and effortlessly. By doing this a couple times a week I would begin to recover. After my birthday in February I had gotten back in, and had been taking it easy. Kevin put me in my own lane at first so that I would get more comfortable with my surroundings again. I had was paranoid for about a month that by looking down at the bottom of the pool I would run into someone again, and be back where I started. Eventually I was back in with my team mates trying to get fit and fast again.
Most people don't believe me when I say I have gotten a concussion while swimming, but getting two in one year?
yep, concussion number two. I was at the wall, when my friend turned and her arm wacked the side of my head. I got out and was out of it for about 20 minutes. I probably hadn't been fully recovered from my first one, due to me being impatient and too optimistic, but now I realized if I rushed this one, I could risk permanent brain damage.
I took this one slow. A few months later I was training once again. I really wasn't a "happy swimmer" at this point. I felt like I just kept getting beaten down and landing really hard on my ass, and every time I would try and get up, life would look at me and say fuck you.
I lost all hope to qualify for seniors during short course season, and didn't want to commit to a goal for long course because I would probably just get hit by a bus or something.
I went to a few meets, and swam like shit. Basically I was just swimming to finish the season so I could start fresh for the 18th time that year.
I went to Western Canadian Championships and well... looking back now this was SUCH a long ass year.
I found out I was anemic, and had Mono. The blood work I had gotten a few weeks prior to leaving came in and I got the results. Pretty much a disaster. Then this whole thing happened where someone brought an illegal drug on the trip, and a random string of events occurred that I will not go into detail about, but it resulted in me getting suspended from travel, and the team.
After my suspension was Nationals, I was still in my rut but luckily back on the team. I was a bit more optimistic about this meet because I would see all my Ontario buddies. Turned out to be a decent meet to finish the year.
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