My Olympic Legacy 29/09/2012

Back in the autumn of 2011 when Michaela said she would raise money for me by entering the BIRC competition, she didn't realise the beast she was unleasing (nor did I for that matter!!). Spured on by my gold medal and watching the Olympics and Paralympics, I decided to investigate rowing... which led me to Evesham.

Evesham rowing club is our nearest club that has adaptive rowing facilities. Earlier today I had my official adaptive classification assessment.  A very nice, smiley lady askedme to sit on the plinth amd within seconds I had to ask "are you a physiotherapist?" She had that evil smile that only physiotherapits have!.
She put me through my paces: lift right arm,lift left arm, right leg, left leg etc. Soon, I was huffing and puffing and grunting. Lots of measurements were taken and then the time came for me to get on the rowing machine . I havent sat on one in quite some months now but like riding a bike, it all came flooding back. As did my problem with my foot:

As I row and as I get faster, my left foot comes out of my trainer. We stopped,tied a velcro strap around the back of my foot and started to row again. Another couple of seconds and I had to stop again. Shove foot back in my trainer again and this time we used a pilates rubber strap to tie my foot to the pedal another few seconds of rowing and yes, you guessed it my foot came out of my shoe again.

Discussion between the medical and technical assessors about whether I should be in the TA category (able to use trunks and sarms but not legs) or ro remain inthe LTA category (able to use legs, trunks and arms). They secured the seat so it couldn't move and I set off rowing again. Very odd experience as I still felt I should be moving my legs. It felt wrong not to be doing so. My upper body strength wasn't sufficient to get me into the TA category so I am definitely in the LTA category BUT. they decided I am in a wholly new LTA (Jan) category as they havent come across my foot problem before. They took videos to send to the adaptive guru. Hopeully he will have some ideas to resolve the problem and stop my foot falling out of my trainer. Meanwhile I have my first rowing session, ON THE WATER in 2 weeks time. My 14 yr old has decided that she may as well join the junior rowers so we will both be on the water soon, just hopefully not in the water but have to admit feeling ever so slightly apprehensive.

I hold Michaela wholly responsible for all of this :) THANK YOU MICHAELA XXX

Next indoor rowing competition: Sunday 27th January 2013

The

next British IRC has yet to confirm details so the  next event will be the English IRC will be held  on

Sunday 27th January 2013 at the Manchester Veledrome

Michaela has "suggested" that we enter......

January seems terribly soon gulp!

For me to enter will mean gettingover some tricky hurdles. For a start, the NHS discharged ,e as an outpatient at the end of March 2012, stating that there was nothing more it could do for me. I have to admit that 6 weeks later I returned and smugly showed them my latest trick - my twitching ankle. Now it may not seem much to you, but everyone told me I would never regain movement in my ankle and I would have to waear an orthotic splint for the rest of my life. They obviously had never come across a girl determined to wear her heels and flip flops again! 
My physiotherapists did refer me to the community gym on a wellness programme, so I wasn'y unduly upset at saying farewell to outpatiernts. Unfortunately I couldnt get on and off the gym equipment without  help so bang went my plans to go to the gym three mornings a week. The gym manager was wonderful and arranged times I could go when she was on duty so she could help me but this meant I had to fit with their schedule and meant gym at 4pm on some days, which didnt fill me with enthusiasm.
I did go and it was good to be exercising. The equipment was of course general gym equipment and I had no helpful physio ensuring I was moving correctly. Upshot was that I dislocated my shoulder again. Very painful indeed. My hip also started to hurt as again the equipment and exercises weren't designed to help me recover movement and function. After a couple of months, the gym sessions were causing more harm than good so I had to stop.
I do have a treadmill at home but I have fallen off and hit my headtoo many times. It is up for sale and I will use the money to buy an exercise bike which I will be able to use on a daily basis.

As for rowing training, I will look at hiring a rowing machine for a couple of months before the competition.

The rest will be up to me and my self motivation and Michaela's encouragement. She too can share my pain and we can both enter the next competition in January, in Manchester.  We will post our training  updates once we actually start doing some :)

Your Donations - Watch how I am using your donations

This short video shows me using the Saebo flex which was bought with your donations. The glove helps me grasp objects eg a ball, pick them up then release and let them go. I am supposed to do 2 x 45 minutes sessions every day and in this way my brain will re-learn how to move my hand and hopefully one day I will be able to do this myself without the Saebo.
The plastic splint is to  keep my arm straight - as my muscles have contracted my arm tends to be bent at the elbow and is difficult to straighten on my own. The plastic splint feels a little like having your blood pressure taken as it is simply inflated. Yes it can be quite painful and most definitely hard work.

This activity also helps my balance to improve.

How your donations were spent

Thank you so very much. Your donations totalled an amazing  £2770  and we can't thank you enough. I am overwhemed and appreciate every single one of you; now my hard work to recover my hand and arm function begins..... This is how we used your donations:

 Following advice from Jon Graham of physiofunction  I orered a splint to stretch my fingers, which are curled and tight. The Saebostretch arrived about 3 weeks ago.
 I started using it for an hour a day and slowly increased my tolerance enough to be able to wear it overnight. It itches and by the morning, it is a huge relief to remove it, but it does seem to be working as my fingers are noticeably more relaxed. I can make a gripping movement but cannot release or straighten my fingers myself (yet).

 Initially I had aimed to use the more expensive electronic Bioness H200, but after assessing my tone and fingers again, the slightly cheaper mechanical Saeboflex was the option for me. This is a mechanical device that needs to be fitted to me. Physiofunction measured my arm and fingers.The kit looks a little like a giant meccano set.

My Saeboflex will arrive on Tuesday June 12th and will look similar to this:

I will need to use this for 45 minutes twice a day. I will concentrate on using the grasp movement i have to pick up a 4" diameter soft ball from one side then the springs will help my fingers release the ball on the other side. You will imagine just how riveting this is- especially doing it for 45 minutes twice a day!!! To aide my motivation, I will be joining some saebo group sessions. Nothing like a littlefriendly competition to encourage me to do better :).

Once again thank you as I would not be able to afford the device ir the sessions without your support.

BUT that isn't all. I wanted to give something back to the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where ~I spent 3 months as an in-patient and over 15 months as an out patient. Talking to the staff, we felt that rather than buy one piece of equipment that could only be used by one patiernt at a time, small items of equipment were much needed: Items such as hand weights, pilates type straps, medicine balls with handles and pedals - where patients can simply sit and pedal, providing much needed exercise. I ordered 4 or 5 of each which means that several patients can benefit at any one time.

The boxes started to arrive, some were very heavy. opening the boxes was quite good fun.

We arranged to deliver the equipment to the hospital. Michaela came over  and she and my carer, Kelly, helped to carry the equipment to my car and to unload them at the hospital. Kelly took the photos.

The hospital staff also pass on their thanks and appreciation...

and that's not all: A similar amount will be donate to the Charity " Different Strokes" to cooincide with the launch of its new website later in June

Your donations have not only helped me but many other people too. THANK YOU AGAIN and most of all a HUGE THANK YOU TO MICHAELA  who had this mad rowing idea in the first place. 

Maybe I will try to regain my title next year.... maybe!

Meanwhile I have had an article published on my experience of the benefits system. First in the Spring Edition of Working Brief, the quarterly publication of the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion in April and on 30 May, an edited version published in the Society pages of the Guardian.

THANK YOU ALL

Jan and Michaela 

29 April 2012 Donations update

We set an ambitious target of £3,500 and thanks to your generous donations we have raised £2,700, which is amazing and absolutely fantastic. Thank you all so very much. I am truly overwhemed. Thank you so much to Michaela who had the mad idea of entering the rowing competition in the first place!
So what has happened in the past month since the event? Well apart from the weather deciding to become freezing cold and us experiencing the wettest drought.....
Michaela's husband Graham ran in the London Marathon  and completed the course in his personal best and Michaela has entered a park run due in June, what a couple. I am full of admiration for their determination, motivation and stamina.

Meanwhile, on April 18th, I had an operation on my left eye as I had a macular hole which if left alone may have caused blindness in that eye. I was petrified at the thought of needles in my eye - I will spare you the gruesome details - so they sedated me (I later heard it was the same drug that killed Michael Jackson). My carer removed the patch the following day and I was excited to see her shadow. She wondered why I was so excited as she still needed to remove the inner gauze! Once that was removed I was amazed to be able to see through that eye. I had expected my sight to be blurry but it was better than before the op :) I had my post op check up last Thursday and my eye is healing fine but as I now have silicon oil rather than vitreous liquid in my eye I have to take eyedrops 4 times a day to regulate the pressure. T'his also means I am not allowed to go to the gym  or drive for the next 3 weeks. So I am effectively housebound until after the 17th May. I can read for just a few minutes at a time, though each day I am able to focus for longer periods before it hurts. So I would be grateful for suggestions as to what I can do over the next couple of weeks, but I am sure I will still be able to cause mischief and mayhem :) :)
So what happens next?
We are closing the donations page at midnight on Monday 30th April 2012 when we will have our final total.
By the end of May, we will circulate a final update showing how we used your donations.

Sunday 25 March - the Day

 Went to bed early on Saturday night with a stomach full of butterflies. First hurdle and moment of indecision - do iPhone's update time automatically? The clocks went forward that night and we absolutely had to be in Solihull by 8:30 am to catch the minibus that would transport Ali's trainees from Seal Personal Training. So we set various alarms from about 5 am onwards....We did wake on time  (and yes iPhone's do update automatically) had porridge for breakfast ands set off. Arrived in Solihull and met the rest of the group, helped onto the minibus and set off to Nottingham. The event was held at Nottingham University's Sports Hall. So many people. I don't think I had realised how huge this event was. So many languages spoken; before we had gone through the open turnstiles we heard English, Polish, Italian and German. There were several very big people with very big muscles..eek! Michaela's race was just after 11:00. I was allowed to have a seat at the side to watch as I couldn't get up the steps to the spectator area. I hadn't seen Michaela in training for some time and as she sat on the rower I noticed that over the past few months of training, she had developed muscles. I was impressed and also deflated - I looked at my still very flabby arms  and was not impressed .

 The competitors were allowed a few moments to settle in and then they were off "Go Michaela" we yeled, oh how we shouted. The large screens above the competitors showed the progress of each competitor . Michaela was aiming for a Personal Best; we cheered so much as she reached the end of her 2000m and saw that she had achieved her goal. Hooray...:) Well done Michaela.It took me a while to find herbut she looked so full of energy and so happy. She also looked exhausted! What an achievement. Fantastic.

WELL DONE MICHAELA

My race started at 14:05 so second moment of indecision: what to have for lunch? I am still not sure that sitting on a concrete step in  the car park(as the few benches were full) eating a hot dog and chocolate bar was the best preparation for my race but.... the sun was shining and despite the uncomfortable seat, I felt quite relaxed and sleepy.... all too soon it was my race time so I headed towards the preparation area to meet Ali. Hehelped me to sit down and strapped me into the rower which took time and meant we only had two rows before we had to go to the main competition  arena.
Ali helped me onto the rower - I am getting better at sitting on the rowing seat, but it is still quite a scary experience as I am afraid of over balancing and falling over.

Ali strapped my left hand onto the rower, using the special glove donated by Active Hands  and strapped my left foot onto the foot rest. Now I haven't yet achieved the time or the distance without incidence but we were hopeful that the velcro strap around the back of my heel would hold my foot in place... The race started and the velcro strap did keep my trainer in place  but my left foot fell out of my trainer... Ali shoved it back in; It fell out again;after five times, Ali simply held my foot in place - we decided that superglue was the answer for future!

All I could see was the screen in front of me; the hall was noisy and the commentator was describing the different races. I was determined to finish, but I felt as if I had been rowing for a very long time.

 Michaela had had to row 2000m: I only had to row 1000m but it felt like a million metres.I was huffing, puffing and sweating I could hear Ali's words of encouragement but all I wanted to do was reach the end.

 I saw the last 100 m appear on the screen, and watched as it slowly reduced to 50 m, then 10m and finally 0. Phew! I had finished and despite my left foot I had stayed on the machine and hadn't fallen off. Ali held out his arm to help me off the rower, my left leg felt so heavy. Ali lifted me over and I started to walk. Myleft leg didn't seem to want to come with the rest of me. I was very tired.

Michaela and my daughter came to find me and we were all laughing and smiling as we had both done it and survived. Hooray.

 Ali disapeared; I thought he was going to met his next competitor but he returned with the news I had won a medal....

Apparently I won Gold am now the Women's LTA British and European Indoor Rowing Champion 2012!

Ali has already muttered that I will have to return next year to defend the title.

Wednesday 21 March - Just 4 days left

The week started fairly well as my local community gym referral finally came through. I arrived at my assessment full of excitement. The good news is that I could do the exercise programme recommended by my physiotherapists but the bad news is that my idea of going to the gym 3-4 mornings a week isn't going to happen as it soon became obvious that I need help getting on and off the equipment. This means I cannot go to the gym when I feel like and my local authority gym doesn't offer personal trainers :( The lovely manager has booked me in for two sessions next week when she is on duty but can't guarantee any future sessions. Hmmm.

Today Ali from Seal training offered me a final session on the rowing machiune before Sunday's event... The first 5 minutes were fine but then my left foot slipped out of my trainer again. I managed to keep going but my technique was definitely unorthodox!

So with just 4 days left to go and no more opportunities to use a rower, I haven't managed the distance or time without either my hand or my foot slipping off the machine.... Wish me luck as I am starting to feel quite apprehensive.