Archive - Apr 2006

It's now two weeks since I injured my calf and I seem to be recovering nicely. I can do about ten single leg calf raises on it before it gives up the ghost and needs to rest. I even managed to do a bit of a ballet barre yesterday though opted out of anything too strenuous on my leg. It ached a bit afterwards but today feels fine.

The big problem, though, is trying to keep fit. Twenty minutes on the bike and I'm puffing like a smoker. And what happened to my washboard abs that I worked so hard for? Okay, that might be a bit of an overstatement but my bod was looking pretty hot pre-calf-tear. I was feeling so good, I felt like I could fly. Now I'm in the pedestrian slow lane, sweating over a little walk down the road... Okay, another overstatement...

I'm back in rehearsals next week, though.

One day they're stranded in Katherine because of it. Now they're forced to flee to Katherine because it's roaring into town in the most intense Cyclone that Australia has ever seen.

Water. There's too much of the stuff up north in the past month. Cyclone Monica is moving towards Darwin, with wind gusts reportedly up to 350km/h. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for the family up north but they don't seem to be too concerned by it all. But it's not going to hit until later on today and, since it's already crossed inland, it'll weaken by the time it gets to Darwin, if it ever does. But it looks pretty big.

Tags: Weather, Cyclone Monica, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Update: she missed!

Day 6. Tuesday. I hadn't done my calf exercise today and, sitting on the massage table, I was getting a bit frustrated by my lack of co-ordination in my right calf. I CAN'T BLOODY POINT MY RIGHT FOOT PROPERLY ANYMORE! Still clunking around on my crutches. Earlier on, while boarding a bus to the Opera House, the bus driver took pity on me fumbling through my bag for my wallet whilst juggling my crutches and hopping to the ticket machine, he said not to worry and to just sit down. I thanked him but I felt quite embarrassed and really useless. I guess he was falling behind schedule and couldn't wait the five seconds extra it would have taken me to flash my TravelTen.

So when the physio told me to try walking without crutches I was a bit tentative. But, praise the Lord, I could do it! A day after Easter and Jhuny has risen from the dead. Hallelujah!

I couldn't help but show off my new trick to everyone. Today, I walk. Tomorrow, I dance...

... okay, so that's a bit too ambitious. But, as a consolation prize, I get to watch the show from the front. Can't wait, I heard it was quite good.

Tags: Bangarra, The Australian Ballet, injury, rehabilitaion, walking.

When DM gave me my first set of crutches he assumed that I was his height and consequently set it a couple of notches too short. Walking around was a real bitch until GF pointed out that it was too low for me.

Since then I catapult down the footpath almost as fast as an able-bodied Jhuny would. I'm usually a relatively fast walker and I get incredibly frustrated with slow pedestrians, especially when they're supposed to be walking alongside with you. But even with crutches I end up overtaking slow walkers. Big groups of slow walkers piss me off because they break the rhythm that I've just built up. Have they no consideration for folks that have to hobble on crutches? It's bad enough that I have to get from the Circular Quay bus stop to the Opera House everyday to get treatment without having to deal with slack-legged tourists.

Yes, I get impatient easily. No, having crutches changes nothing.

Nothing much going on since tearing my calf muscle. But to add insult to, er, injury I've managed to catch myself a flu virus as well. So not only am I hobbling around on a dodgy right leg but everything else is feeling really achy as well. It all started when I had coffee with a post-viral AD, recently arrived back from NZ, with DO. Now that I'm no longer performing I guess my body has decided to pick up and succumb to any old virus.

On the plus side, I was still able to enjoy a full easter weekend holiday. Spare a thought for the poor Bangarra and Australian Ballet dancers who had to perfom TWICE on Saturday and once on Monday, hehe, at least they had Good Friday off. Went and saw The Squid and The Whale, caught up with friends that I haven't seen for a while, drank too much alcohol for someone on rehab, and watched some Power Rangers. Cool.

Haven't given much thought to what I should be doing about work, though. I guess, in this case, rest really is work but no one seems to have confirmed this to me. Maybe it just goes without saying and, besides, I still can't even walk properly. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit useless and disconnected from everyone at the moment. Maybe it's just the flu.

Tags: sick, injured, feeling sorry for myself.

Rest
Stage manager FB posted a beginners' call for Amalgamate but I was enjoying a delicious seven-dollar steak at the Captain Cook Hotel. By the time the dancers were painting up for Rites I had my right leg up, watching crap re-runs on Foxtel. It's a hard life.

Ice
I guess you could say that my dance career is temporarily on hold for now. Frozen. Like the back of my right calf, thanks to the ice pack that I have wrapped around my leg. No matter. JPB is making sure that I'm well looked after. My only gripe is that he now refers to me as "The Cripple". Or, sometimes, "Hoppy". Luckily I have a sense of humour.

Compression
It was a bit tight for a moment, though. After hobbling off at the end of Amalgamate on Wednesday night I was shephered into the Bangarra Ladies' changeroom where YB offered to give my right calf a bit of a massage. I was still clinging onto the hope that I was just suffering from a massive cramp and just needed it to release. But the more she massaged it the more it hurt. Not good. Meanwhile, the directors and stage management were running around backstage trying to find me. It was obvious in the curtain call, when poor little Jhuny limped on, that something was wrong though no-one had any idea that I was hurting quite early on in the piece. But it was clear then that I couldn't go on for Rites so an emergency mid-interval rehearsal was called to try to fill in the gaps that I left behind. Meanwhile, poor Jhuny started to get quietly emotional but realised that there was still the job of properly rehabilitating myself; I may not have been going on that night but possibly I could get back on stage by the weekend?

Elevation
Not bloody likely. For me it's foot up for at least the next couple of weeks, will complete rehabilitation after six weeks of limited dancing and maximum injury management. One moment, RR was perfectly balanced on my right shoulder and I was about pass her on to NF, as I've done for the past two months in rehearsals and in performance. The next moment I felt a sudden "twang!" in my right calf. There was still half an hour of the dance to go and only one stage exit, which wasn't for at least another twenty minutes or so. No one seemed to notice, though, the show went on. Luckily for me, most of the choreography was quite grounded and though I could only walk around with my legs bent and my body leaning slightly forward, that's pretty much the Bangarra style so I didn't look at all out-of-place. Most of the time...

Anyway, the next day I had my injury diagnosed the next day: a torn calf muscle. And, apparently, a really doozy of a tear. It's going to take the full six weeks to be properly rehabilitated. Great. Six weeks takes me right up to Alice Springs for the up-coming Clan program.

At the very least, it seems like a not-so-uncommon injury. AB director DM made sure my injury was taken care of, and he did a pretty good job too because he had personal experience of it. In the next twenty-four hours other AB dancers spoke to me of their own experiences of torn calf muscles. Every one of those incidents were the same: it came from out of the blue, it would feel like it was completely recovered after a couple of weeks but that was exactly the time when it was prone to re-injury, it would take a good six weeks for a complete recovery. The best of the AB have had it so at the very least I was in good company.

But I'd rather be up and about, running around onstage...

Tags: Dance, Bangarra, The Australian Ballet, Gathering, injury, muscle tear, RICE.

FLOOD ADVICE

ISSUED AT 3.30 PM THURSDAY 6 TH APRIL 2006.

At 3.05 pm the height of the Katherine River at the railway bridge was 18.89 metres and rising.

Water is flowing into the CBD from the Lindsay Street end but is expected to stabilize when the water level is on a par with the river level. It is not known what the exact level will be in the CBD when it stabilises, however it is expected to remain at that level for about 24 hours.

People, particularly those in low houses are advised that driving out of the Katherine North and Katherine South areas will not be possible for much longer.

We strongly advise to evacuate now.

Residents evacuating are advised to go to the Evacuation Centre at Casuarina Primary School in Casuarina Street.

People who wish to drive their own vehicles are strongly advised to leave them at the grain board yard opposite Dalgeteys in Crawford Street. A bus will then convey you to an evacuation centre. Pets can be left at the Council Depot beside Mitre 10.

People who have friends in higher areas are free to stay with them if they wish.

The next flood advice will be issued at 10.00 pm Thursday 6 th April 2006.

Road Report Number is 1800246199

The Katherine River is on the rise again. The parents, who own a shop on the main street and lost alot of stock in the 1998 Australia Day floods, say they're prepared: they've raised stuff up off the ground and moved the rest. Its been raining constantly and the water is still rising but hopefully it won't be as bad as the last big flood.

Tags: Katherine River, Northern Territory, Australia, Katherine, Flood.