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February 25, 2007

I am 15 days out of surgery. My knee looks exceptionally well I must say. For some reason, perhaps I have been correctly following the doctors orders, my knee is NOT swollen. Well, it is hardly swollen. It is pretty unusual for all that I have had done the LCL, ACL, and meniscus. I spend about 1 1/2-2 hours a day in rehab with the trainers. We are really pushing the limits in terms of speed in an attempt to salvage the remainder of my season. Dr. Waldon, my Orthopedic surgeon comes in every Wednesday to see the health and stability of my knee. He is 100% behind me trying to bust the 6-8 month time line. He said that I have a one in a million chance of coming back for trials. Hey, I can work with one in a million, I just can't work with impossible. After rehab I go to the weight room and lift upper body HARD. As most of you know, I had just come back from a long overdue shoulder surgery. It happened in January 2003 and it was not until September 2006 that I got it fix. I would have kept wrestling with the ligaments loose but, one day I went to tie my shoe and it came out of the socket for good. It was not painful as I am a bulldog and because I have had a lot of nerve damage which inhibited the pain. Great news huh. So, in the midst of getting my knee ready, I am also keep the rest of my body in shape. All is going well and I am really rocking this. I am happy, eating well and thus, my body fat is still sitting at about 17%. That is a little high for me during hard training but not too bad considering the year I have had.

I had some friends come over and help me clean my house. It was such a nice and hard thing for me to have done. I mean, I am so self-sufficient and to have people pamper me, hard. But, in the end, they treated me like a princess and cleaned the whole house AND did my laundry. I have great friends. There were 5 gals over here tackling the job. In the middle of all this cleaning, my Uncle Paul, who attends school in Trinidad came over. He is a manly-man in my opinion and stayed true to character by saying, "wow, I feel like I need to shower and go buy scented candles!". He is spending the night over here and I can hear him snoring as I type. Ahhh. . . I love my family and my friends!

February 17, 2007

I am learning! I have been working on other website than just my own. Somewhere along the way of getting my toes wet in this thing called website design, I found myself working on other people's webs as well. Shoot, I somehow misplaced the sallyrobertswrestling website and it was not until last night that I found it again on my computer! I have reloaded it onto the web and am working on my blog again.

Since I have last posted January 19, I hurt my knee in practice. I was wrestling one of the Russian gals who flew in for the Dave Schultz International that was going to be held at the OTC February 10th. We were wrestling a live match in practice and I was starting to get tired ( I officially got cleared 2 weeks before from my shoulder injury, it takes a bit to get back in wrestling/cardio shape). I had won both of the periods but since it was practice, we were wrestling all three of the periods. I was tired and whew. . .  I was making sure that all of my shots were good ones because I did not want to get in any scramble situations that could possibly jeopardize the integrity of my shoulder. The match went scoreless and we went to the clinch. She got the offensive lock and I got the defensive. When the whistle blew, I attempted to sit around the corner for a crotch throw and somehow, my knee got stuck on the mat. There was a loud pop and definitely knew something happened.

I went to get an MRI and the news was bad. I tore my LCL, ACL and meniscus. I went in for surgery that Friday, a week since the "incident". I will be out of practice and competition for about 6 months. There is a one and in a million chance I can make it back for  trials. There is a lot of negative in this situation but I am focusing on the positive. It is not the Olympic year and I still have many years of wrestling ahead of me. I am taking it all in stride. I am happy with life right now and not too much can get me down, even surgery on my knee less than a month since I got cleared to start training again.

Thanks to everyone who has called or sent message in support of me and my recovery.  I really appreciate everyone and their thoughtfulness. In the spirit of wrestling,

Sally

January 19, 2007

Today I had the honor of having lunch with some OROWEAT folks - Jodi, Autero, and Dan. It was really an amazing lunch and I was very happy to be asked to join. Some of you may or may not know this, but I am a health food fanatic. When I got word that OROWEAT was going to become an Official U.S. Olympic Team supplier, I nearly hit the roof. Being an elite level athlete, nutrition is very important, let alone being in a weight class sport! If you want to be the best then you need to eat the best. The USOC, the dietician whom I work with closely and the Official Team Suppliers have all had a big hand in helping me to become the athlete I am today, a lean mean, fighting machine!  Thanks for the great lunch and the great company!

January 17, 2007

Guess who's back?! I saw the doctor yesterday. It has been four months after my shoulder surgery and I have been cleared to start live wrestling again. It is really great news for me because I was hoping to compete in the Dave Schultz International Tournament that is being held here at the Olympic Training Center February 9-11th. I am going to wait until the last minute to see how I feel, then decide if I am ready to compete. I don't want to come back to wrestling until I am a 100% in strength and in mental attitude. In my opinion, the mental side has healed while the strength side is continuing to improve by leaps and bounds.  The OTC team is traveling tomorrow morning to Canada to compete in the Guelph open. I wish them much success and hope they are return victorious.

December 30th, 2006

Hi friends and supporters! I have finally taken my web page under my own wing and am working to update it regularly. I recently invested in a web page program so I can give this website to you as a tribute to your support. I hope that this will give my family, friends and supporters a better way to keep track of me as I compete in National and International level competitions. I plan on taking a digital camera to my competitions and posting the images, along with my results and any news or interesting stories.  Keep checking back as new information will be updated regularly.  Thanks for your interest in my career and I thank you for your support!