THIS ROLLER COASTER WE CALL LIFE

Where shall I begin?

So I traveled this past Thursday to Greensboro, NC to compete in my first competition of the outdoor season. It was the perfect scenario really. I love the track at NC A&T. (I'm still trying to figure out how come such an awesome track is at this school.) I love competing there and I was looking forward to seeing everyone again. They all came in on Friday morning and I definitely got to spend some QT:-)

Well, apart from one or two things, that's about where everything began unraveling. First of all, my luggage got lost. Now every professional track and field athlete knows better than to not put their competition clothes and spikes in their hand luggage but for some reason, I forgot. Never even crossed my mind to be honest. The only thing in my backpack were some flip flops, my laptop and a toiletry bag.

Suffice to say, one trip to the airport later ($30 in a cab each way), one trip to the mall to buy replacement tennis shoes, one trip to Walgreens to buy replacement undies:( and several phone calls to Northwest, my bag never showed up until Saturday night, after the meet. Of course it would.

Turns out that my teammate from The Bahamas, Chandra Sturrup was coming to the meet so I asked her to bring me some Bahamas team uniform clothing which she did, plus a pair of long jump spikes, since we wear the same size. Having gotten everything sorted out, I headed out to the track feeling pretty excited.

Warmup went well and I got on to the runway to do some run-throughs to get ready for the start of the competition. On my second run-up, I hit the foul board which was not securely in place and it moved significantly, twisting my foot into a very awkward position, throwing me into the sand. I wasn't sure what had happened. I know that my calf was hurting and that the board had thrown me way off balance. Before I knew it, the athletic trainers were at the pit helping me out of the sand and my day effectively was OVER!

I was checked out by a doctor who confirmed the trainer's suspicion that I had torn or partially torn my Achilles tendon. She put me in a temporary cast and gave me some crutches and that was that. I cried my eyes out for at least an hour and as you can imagine, I was/am DEVASTATED!!! The prognosis for this type of injury is not good at all and takes months to heal. In cases of complete tears, surgery is the only option, so I guess we'll see....

Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt at all which is kinda weird because Achilles tears are supposed to be very painful, especially if it is a complete tear so I'm not sure what is going on. I flew back to LA yesterday and with the crutches, etc that was an ordeal in and of itself and I am going to get an MRI either today or tomorrow. My two immediate major obstacles are a) I live in a 3 story apt. and my bedroom is on the ground floor and the kitchen and living room are on the second floor. That should be loads of fun, crutching it up and down the stairs every day....NOT, lol! and b)I'm not sure if I can drive. Now that would really be a problem if I can't. I'm gonna test that out today.

I will say that my friends so far have stepped all the way up and have shown me a whole lotta love and care and concern. I know I always talk about the importance of friendship on this blog and for sure right now, I'm definitely going to need them to get through this. I'm not depressed or anything (I've told myself that that is not allowed) and I'm trying my best to keep my chin up somehow. I'm sure I'm gonna have my moments and I'm not sure how much blogging I will be doing, although it might be therapeutic in some sort of way. Please keep me in your thoughts and pray to God for my heart, my mind and my recovery.