TBI
I want to start this post with a huge thank you to my sponsor Bothwell-Accurate for their continued support in my recovery.
Also, to my family, friends, teammates, and coaches, I wouldn't be where I am without you.
~
I thought making the Olympics was hard...
2022 was the year I accomplished my goal of competing at the Olympics - read about it out HERE
I've been lucky enough to be injury free for a majority of my career.
I am consistent. This is to my advantage and to my detriment. I ride fast, but safe. I rarely fall, but I struggle to ramp up to the next level. It is something I acknowledge, but I do not let it hold me back.
Everyone spends their energy in different ways - mine is spent primarily fighting that safety zone that I find so easy to rely on.
In early May I had my first serious injury.
I tried to bring out my inner Slopestyle and instead managed to get a compact fracture in my knee. A fracture usually isn't that big of a deal but unfortunately, it can be if you do the same fall twice. Consistency Queen.
The compact fracture was a challenge for me since the diagnosis is to rest... Not having specific milestones in my recovery was hard - the timeline was primarily based on how I was feeling. In the past, I have often struggled with over-training...
This injury taught me the importance of living a more balanced life. Rest is an important part of training. Who knew??
I was very happy to be back on snow within 5 months, albeit with an adapted protocol.
Flash forward to November, I learned once again why you never touch the snow.
Nothing broken, but after the knee I was more tentative at going back on snow before I knew all was good.
After that, I realized just how interconnected the body is. Since my knee injury, I had started to do some weird, not-fast, moves to compensate for the deficit. In doing this, I hurt my lower back.
The back was a tough one, at times more scary than the knee. It turns out you can't do that many things with a bad back.
Needless to say, my pre-season was not smooth. I am an athlete who loves to train - under training was a new one.
I went into the World Cup season without the training I would have liked and with a pretty painful back injury.
That being said, the mind is a pretty powerful tool. I managed to come out of 2022 with another podium. 3rd place in Cortina, Italy in December, just in time for Christmas and a much needed rest.
2023.
My list of grievances wasn't meant to be a cry for attention but rather an acknowledgment of what it means to be a high-level athlete.
Sometimes the hardest part of a race is getting to the start.
After Christmas, I came to Europe with a cold, jet-lag, but some serious motivation to get some time on my board. My injuries were subsiding and I wanted to finally get more mileage. Snowboarding is fun, right?!
I ended up getting my weirdest injury yet- tendonitis in my forearm.
I was already exhausted. Dealing with so many random and new injuries was draining.
In hind sight, I should have taken a minute to rest. But that's not my thing. I love snowboarding, I wanted to snowboard. I had taken so much time off in the pre-season that I didn't want to sacrifice anymore opportunities.
When you're in it, it's hard to see the bigger picture, which is kind of what this post is all about.
BIG PICTURE
It has taken me a long time to share this, mostly because I find it difficult when I don't have all of the answers.
I go through the day of my accident and wonder if there is anything I could have done differently to prevent it from taking place. The easy fix: "if I do this, this won't happen". But that is not life, that is not realistic, and that is not living.
Accepting that anything can happen is the beauty of living.
Going into that training day, I was exhausted but excited. We were on one of my favourite hills, one I had been on hundreds of times before. I was on my final run of the day and I caught an edge.
To do things no one has done before, you need to accept all risks - known and unknown.
I spent the next 6 days in a hospital in Italy. Being treated in a foreign hospital was intimidating, especially since (despite my best efforts with DuoLingo) I did not speak the language. After 4 days, my parents flew to Europe and we spent another week in a hotel before flying home. I suffered from a brain bleed, a severe neck injury, and inner ear damage. I am extremely thankful to everyone who was there for me during this time.
For me, the strongest athletes are not those who have had the most success, rather those who seek out challenges and thrive in adversity.
This injury was terrifying but it was an opportunity to show how strong I could be.
I went home and dove into rehab. It was painful, confusing and extremely difficult - but I was able to train again. While I couldn't snowboard...or even walk, I focused on what I was able to do. How can I be my strongest today.
This is temporary.
Since I couldn't exercise or look at screens, I listened to the entire series of Harry Potter book on tape and took a lot of naps. Every day was different. Every day we learned more about my injury.
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) are incredibly challenging for many different reasons. For me, the hardest part is not having the answers. Not knowing what exactly was causing my symptoms was making it very challenging to create a proper treatment plan. I had to let go of "categorizing" the injury and instead focus my efforts on fixing it.
My rehab is fluid - if something makes it worse, we stop, if something makes it better, we continue. Another one of my biggest challenges throughout this process is the differentiation between good pain and bad pain.
As I get better we are able to adapt a treatment plan to target the symptoms more effectively. I have to trust in the process. What I am doing today, is best for me today, based on my symptoms today. Tomorrow, we may discover that this is not the right approach based on new or developing symptoms, but we must never lose faith in the process.
Day by day.
You can check out some of my vestibular rehab here: youtu.be/
Throughout my recovery, I am learning that you don't always have to have all of the answers. Set boundaries, work hard, and live in the present.
Tomorrow isn't promised.
Love what you do,
Megan
