Injuries

I was just thinking of all the injuries I've had doing this sport so far (in no particular order):

• Sprained my back (got stacked). Couldn't bend over for like two days.
  
• Fat lip (head butt)
• Hyper-extended all the fingers of my right hand simultaneously (guy fell on them passing my guard). Surprisingly, this was painful for a moment, but didn't hurt for more than a few minutes.
  
• Bursitis, right shoulder. Required cortisone injections.
  
• Strained rotator cuff, left shoulder. Required cortisone injections.
• Torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (left knee). Required reconstructive surgery and 9 months rehabilitation.
• Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS), left leg. Just getting over a bout of this. Required a cortisone injection.
  
• Hyper-extended right elbow. I fell into an armbar. Ouch. I felt and heard that first 'pop' and then had a sore elbow for like 6 weeks.
• Countless bruises.
• Neck injury from an Ezekiel choke (Finnie got me good one time. Took like 4 weeks before I stopped feeling like I had the flu. :)
  
• Numerous black eyes.
• Mat burns. Currently having the worst one of these I've ever had. Tore open a piece of my foot the size of a nickel that has been healing and scabbing for weeks. Had to buy wrestling shoes to wear to practice until it heals.
• Staff infection, right knee. Popped/pulled an infected hair off my knee before showering after practice. Got so infected I had a 107F fever and had to get numerous antibiotic injections.
• Probably lots more I am forgetting.

Believe it or not, I believe that this is at least -somewhat- typical. Everyone I've ever known in the sport has gotten hurt at -some- point doing this. I mean, this is fighting, and people want to win. I'm one of several at my school who've had ACL reconstructions done. I just saw a purple belt the other day who hyper-extended and possibly broke his thumb because it got caught in a gi. These things happen.

So...I guess if there's a moral, I guess it's just that I really really like jiu-jitsu. :) The last time I went to see my Orthopedic Surgeon (or "Bill" I call him, as we are on a first-name basis now) said "Do you compete in this? I mean, do you make money doing this or something?" I had to laugh. I had to admit that yeah, to him, the amount of shit I am willing to go through to keep going back to that mat probably seems a little absurd. Anyone who's ever done it could tell you differently; it's totally worth it.

Two Hours On The Mat

Today I went to a randori and muay thai class. Worked with a couple of new guys and rolled with a 4-stripe white in the randori. I finally noticed that all the guys I usually roll with on Friday afternoons were all sitting on the sides resting. Apparently the 'real' randori has been moved to 4pm now that there is an official 5pm randori. That's pretty early in the afternoon for me, but I'm going to have to play a little Friday afternoon hookey from time to time and get into that randori when I can; those are fun guys to roll with. Still, by the time I got to muay thai, I was pretty exhausted, but I haven't been to a MT class in a few weeks (really much too long) and I was excited to go. This was a class with lots of hand work, which was perfect for me because I find that a lot less tiring than kicking for an hour. I like that 5pm randori/6pm MT mix. It's a great workout.