skating is life @sparkles-and-salchows - Tumblr Blog

A double sal and a double toe from the other day! Whenever I have a day with low levels of pain, I take advantage of it and jump. I feel grateful whenever I can jump at all because most days the pain stops me.

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Here is the video of my Silver Intepretive from the Skate Ontario Adult Provincial Championships, my first adult competition and first competition since being diagnosed with a chronic illness. I’m not sure if the music will be taken off for copyright, but the song is a cover of Vincent by Ellie Goulding. I had so much fun with this program! I only started choreographing it about 2 months before the competition. I was delighted to come in 3rd place and I look forward to many more adult competitions!

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Two weeks ago I competed for the first time since being diagnosed with my chronic illness, Ankylosing Spondylitis. With the daily physical pain, skating has been very frustrating, but I am determined to skate no matter what gets in my way. As soon as I stepped out on the ice, I couldn’t stop smiling. It felt like home. I had a wonderful skate and my pain stayed fairly low. To top it all off, I came 3rd out of 13! I am so thankful for the medications that allow me to skate, I am thankful for the good days, and most of all, I am thankful for skating and how it will always be a part of my life. (Video to come)

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Well, here I am with a short flying camel. It was a lazy, low effort entry (I can do better) but a nice free leg position, although only a couple rotations. I haven’t been on the ice for a while. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I have suffered from debilitating back pain for more than a year now. It has affected my life and my skating greatly. The good news is I recently got a diagnosis so I can have proper treatment. After visiting chiropractors, sports doctors, physiotherapists, and more, I finally went to a rheumatologist where I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. It is an autoimmune disease causing arthritis of the spine and also affecting the rest of the body. Although this changes my skating career and is very hard to deal with, I intend to continue skating as frequently as possible for as long as possible, when I am able to.

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