Bumpy Road to Sectionals

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end of my freestyle program

I made it to Sectionals and I’m back! I thought my only issue before leaving town would be making sure my mom had help while I was gone, but then I went through an emotionally intense health scare. I was referred to a surgeon who made it sound likely that I would need surgery to rule out or treat cancer, which luckily did not turn out to be the case. I could barely eat until I got a reassuring test result a week later. I’m very relieved and grateful now for my continued good health.

I followed up with a doctor at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and I want to put in a good word for them. They provide both cancer and non-cancer care, and I’ve used their services for non-cancer surgery and specialty care. I’ve had friends use them for cancer, and going to a top regional center like SCCA first improves your odds of recovery. I wish I had gone to SCCA first this time, it would have saved me a lot of worry. Their doctors keep on top of research and when I’ve gone there I’ve gotten reassurance and more options like less invasive surgery or monitoring instead of pushing for surgery.

After all that stress, unsurprisingly, I got sick, but luckily I was pretty well by the time my competition days rolled around. I know I wasn’t the only one who had to juggle a bunch of crazy life stuff to get to Sectionals. All of us adult skaters are living normal adult lives with a variety of responsibilities and stresses. There are so many valid reasons that can prevent us from training or competing, I just figure that when I get the chance to compete, I should.

You’d think my scare would keep me from sweating any small stuff in the near term and to some extent it has. I did manage to work up a little anxiety about my skating nonetheless, mainly about my lutz which was only intermittently cooperating. It did show up, at least in a small and cramped way, on the day that I needed it for my freestyle program. And I was able to really skate out my rose program. Coach Gary made some last-minute tweaks that really helped. This is the third year that he’s met me at Sectionals and put me on the ice, and it’s a tradition that I really love. I wouldn’t enjoy Sectionals half as much, or do as well, without his help.

More about Sectionals in my next post!