Born: 1990, Essex, UK.
Living in: Cambridge, UK
If you're from the UK, you'll be aware of the problems of being a blonde Essex girl. If not, I suggest you google it and you'll soon find out what I had to fight against from a very early age! These days, my hair is closer to brown than blonde, which helps, and I live in Cambridge, which also helps.
Occupation: Student
I'm studying for a PhD in Music at the University of London. My first degree, in History and Music, was at the University of Cambridge, which is why I'm still living here - the people are nice, the city is beautiful and the rowing scene is very, very active.
Hobbies
Well, you'll have figured out that I like rowing - there'll be a lot of that on this blog. However, I also love riding, and am involved with the Riding for the Disabled Association. Outside sport, music is my main love. Music makes sense to me in a way that nothing else does, and it affects the way I perceive everything in life - including, and perhaps especially, rowing. I also have a crazy little border terrier, who is far too important to be a 'hobby'!
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| Rosie: too cool for school |
My disability
Well, people tend to ask sooner or later so we may as well get this bit out of the way now. I suffer from a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It's a rare genetic condition, which has caused very difficult symptoms for a long time, but which has become especially difficult for me in the last couple of years.
EDS is a disorder in the production of collagen, which causes a variety of health problems. For example, parts of me that are directly affected include my joints, blood vessels, muscles, eyes, digestive system, nerves and skin. Other problems include poor proprioception (the sense which tells you where your body parts are without you having to look), fatigue, tremors, lack of ability to control body temperature, over-sensitive hearing, photophobia, and lots and lots of injuries which take AGES to sort out.
If you'd like to find out more about EDS, try http://www.ehlers-danlos.org/.
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| Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - some of the symptoms |
How does this affect my ability to row?
Here's a list of some of the main points!
- My joints are sore. If you're a normal, healthy person, you'll know that an injury is painful and frustrating, but at least you know you're getting better. I have a permanent state of injury in all of my major joints (hips, knees, ankles, wrists, shoulders, back...). I am also prone to injuring them further - I have dislocations, sprains, strains, breaks and more in my notes!
- My muscles are very tight. In an attempt to keep my joints in place, my muscles grip tightly, so they're basically in spasm an awful lot of the time. I have permanent spasm in my lower back (following a gymnastics injury when I was 13, when I fractured my spine - see below) and in my quads. This makes rowing at high rate/pressure for a long period of time really difficult.
- My nerves make it hard for me to control motion or grip. In particular, I struggle with my left arm, which is very weak. I find it hard to maintain a good wrist position, and struggle to keep the blade squared during the drive phase because working against the water pressure is really tough. I also have nerve problems down my legs, which can cause pain or a lack of control - not very easy for sitting the boat well!
- The spinal injury I foolishly acquired at age 13 has caused me a lot of trouble. 11 years on, the vertebrae have healed and the discs have healed as much as they're going to. Unfortunately, I still have a huge muscle spasm around my lumbar spine, which makes core work very difficult, and makes it hard for me to sit up straight in the boat and to support my weight.
- The pressure of chronic pain and illness causes a lot of fatigue. This isn't an easy thing to balance with intensive training, and I'm not very good at pacing myself at the moment. Overtraining is a real risk - but one that sometimes has to be taken in order to make any improvement!
- I have terrible proprioception - you can ask me to row at half slide or quarter slide or anything, but I'll really struggle to know how much of the slide to use unless I look down at my legs on every single stroke, because I just don't know the extent to which I move. This makes balancing the boat quite hard, but it also makes making technical changes more difficult, because I can't be sure that I'm actually making any physical changes.
- My circulation is not great. I have Raynaud's phenomenon (which causes restricted blood flow to the hands and feet) and a condition called POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Raynaud's and POTS are usually manageable in the boat, but sometimes changes have to be made so that I can hold blades and feel the weight on my toes. I also have to be careful when I stand up to get out of a boat (or to get off an erg) because if I move too quickly I can pass out. On bad days, POTS stops me from doing anything at all. On the plus side, I get to eat lots of extra salt to try and help my weak little blood vessels - and I love salty chips!
- Keeping blood sugar constant is quite tricky at times. This is OK unless it's before a race. Usually all I need to do is check the levels with a little blood test if I feel bad, and make sure I've got some sweets. It's a bit annoying when it comes on in the middle of a session though.
At the moment, I handle it with the help of medical professionals, friends and family, and keep my independence with my wheelchair and a pair of crutches. However, there is a deep satisfaction in being in a boat or on a horse and having the ability to move about faster than I can on land, or on my own two feet. I may not find rowing or riding as easy as other people, but I believe I get more out of it.
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| "Can I put it back in the gate now, please?" |
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