Recovery from viral infections

[skatingmum2]

How long do you think it takes with the normal winter things to recover and be able to skate? For e.g. cold? Ear Infection?

I guess some depends on overall health and skating requirements - thinking of 3 minutes program and several doubles/training with doubles.....

Re Flu - few years ago we made what we felt was a big mistake of letting her do a competition when coming down with flu (she woke up in hotel clearly not well although insisted she wanted to skate). Its the only time she has ever left a jump out of a program and the whole thing did not look like her usual level of performance. She thinks skating was a positive experience because at her absolute worst she was ahead of several other skaters. I regretted the week of her being really unwell and missing school and the nose-bleeds, chest infection and asthma that followed for several weeks afterwards.

My daughter skated through a significant ear infection recently with only one day off despite nearly perforating an ear drum and being on anti-biotics although her spins were dodgy for a while - especially camel and layback. She felt these were affected by head position. (I was told off by the ped for not bringing her in sooner - I took her the morning she said "I think I have slight earache).

What about a tummy bug? Daughter has been off for nearly a week and is slightly shaky today on the ice - she reckons she is fighting for her jumps which were really easy for her prior to the infection. (She has only been eating though for 24 hours and still smaller amounts of food than normal). She has a competition next week and I'm under pressure as her parent to take her. (From her - of course....) Coach told me she was sure daughter would be fine.

One of the reasons I'm neurotic btw is that I have a child who never admits pain or infirmity and I suspect because she doesn't I'm ultra cautious because it always feels like guess work. If only she knew that I might be more relaxed if she was sensible. She has never been sensible.

[nicklaszlo]

There are several topics there.

I'd never miss skating for a cold.

When I had influenza, I got on the ice about a week after the worst part of it.  It was a waste of time because I couldn't focus.  It took about a month to be able to breathe normally, but I could skate some after 2-3 weeks.

It sounds like a little skating isn't going to make your daughter worse.  If you already paid for the competition, might as well let her go. 

[SynchKat]

I was like your daughter.  When I was younger I remember throwing up from the flu all night long and then missing practice ice but we still competed.  In a separate competition I got disoriented during a spin and wandered the ice wiling myself not to be sick.  I cam back and won my next event but later that night we realised I was coming do with the flu.  And not just limited to when I as a kid, about 7 years ago I did a synchro competition with strep throat. 

Nowadays though I am less crazy and this past week while I had a cold didn't skate on 2 sessions.  I sold have gone but my son was sick too and as a stay at home mom I don't get sick days. 

For a competition it is easy enough to drum up enough energy to get through a program and I find when I am sick I am so much more relaxed because I just don't care and want to get it over with. 

I would say for practices if your daughter is running a fever keep her off the ice.  For the tummy bug maybe just suggest she go out and stroke to keep her feet under her.  Maybe put off jumps until she is bug free for a couple of days.

[Hanca]

Be careful about skating while being ill. Several years ago I did not take time off when having flu. I went to work as usual and I skated. I had competition coming and  although it wasn't that important competition (I am an adult skater, so it wasn't like if I was missing my qualifying competition for Olympics), I really, really wanted to do the competition. So I skated. I did not feel 'that' bad; I obviously knew that I was ill, but with the help of ibuprofen and some other medications, it seemed sort of manageable. A few weeks later I noticed having some problems with my feet. I started loosing feelings and my muscles were somehow weak, not responding to what I wanted them to do. It was getting worse and worse. Then (after a lot of tests) I was diagnosed with Guillain Barre syndrome. The doctors believed that it was connected with the flu I had before. I was unwell about 4-5 months. I could see from week to week how my feet and legs are getting worse and no one could tell me if the illness will stop or not. I was lucky; it did stop and it slowly reversed itself. It was a very slow recovery, and very scary and emotionally draining process. Not everyone is so lucky. This illness can cause paralysis and there is no cure for Guillain-Barre syndrome.

[sampaguita]

Unless your daughter's life depended on skating, I would not advise her to skate when she is ill for two main reasons:

1. Skating is a strenuous physical activity, despite it seeming so effortless. There's a reason you don't feel good when you're sick -- your body needs time to recover, and strenuous physical activity will stress your body some more. Sure, you can probably skate well for 4-5 minutes, but as you have seen, that translates to a longer recovery time.

2. You can infect other kids at the rink.

A general rule of thumb is that mild exercise is okay if your symptoms are all "above the neck" (e.g. runny nose), and any exercise is not when symptoms are "below the neck" (e.g. chest congestion, fever).  Here's the full article from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/AN01097

Coaches should be careful in giving "medical" clearance for their students to skate. I remember one coach from my old rink who wrote a letter online to an MD, asking advice for her student who had a broken (or otherwise injured) ankle. The student was wearing a cast and the coach wanted her to skate! Of course the MD advised against it -- I can only hope that the coach followed the MD's advice.

[skatingmum2]

 Well - I think we have our answer as to exactly what happens. She skated twice on the monday - in the morning had to stop after 30 minutes as quite wobbly; slightly better in the afternoon although having to fight to stay on her feet during the doubles. (She spoke about feeling like it was hard to leave the ice). She insisted on the competition on Tuesday.

She skated a clean(ish) program although a few heart stopping moments when she looks as though she would fall over (including during a flying camel). However for a child who generally rotates doubles well it was quite startling - every jump (other than single axel) was under rotated. Only one jump downgraded (the double loop at the end of the double sal-double loop) but all the GOE's were around -2.  No level on the flying camel (although lucky they gave her a mark on that at all) and only level 2 on her other spin.

She is very pleased she did the competition though - feels it showed that at her worst she still wouldn't be last (she was 6th out of 9) and felt it was a big confidence boost. She was thrilled with a high component score (I was surprised) - she did manage to keep up speen on the ice although looked dead once she had finished. Also she felt she got to check out the opposition and realise she wasn't light years away.

[VAsk8r]

I had a cold probably close to a month ago. Now I'm fine except for some stuffiness in the morning, which I think is just normal for the time of the year, but my spins still are nowhere near where they were before. My coach thinks I'm underestimating the power a little congestion can have. So today I'm going to try taking a non-drowsy decongestant before skating and see if that helps.

[skatingmum2]

My daughter swears by nasal spray an hour before skating when she is recovering from a cold/ear infection.