Tendinitis in Ballerinas

A common problem for ballerinas is tendinitis. Tendinitis is inflammation of the tendons in the foot. It can be very painfully and quite inconvenient.

Why does it occur, you may ask? Well, the two main triggers for tendinitis is overuse, and your foot being cold.

If you have overused your foot muscles, or injured them, they are prone to tendinitis. You must be careful around this stage, because once you've got it, it takes ages to go away.

I live in a very cold place. It's presently about 7 degrees outside, so not the most pleasant weather you could think of.

The cold will not do the muscles in your foot any good, especially if they are a bit touchy to start off with. So, if you've got a foot that you have overworked or injured, then keep it warm, don't let it get cold, whatever you do.

Once you have got tendinitis, it takes a minimum of eight weeks to disappear. The worst period will be at about 3 - 6 weeks. When I had it (recently) I could hardly walk when I got up in the morning, let alone dance.

I had to take it very easy, and was constantly taking neurofen and rubbing anti-inflammatory cream on my right foot.

If you have got tendinitis, you should, as I just said, take neurofen or panadol whenever it starts to hurt, and also keep rubbing anti-inflammatory cream on the sore area.

Also, keep things easy, but don't stop using your foot altogether. Moderate exercise will be fine. Just don't do anything that hurts your foot.

Once you have exercised, put and ice pack on your foot. I know that I just went on about keeping your foot warm, but after exercise, it's a good idea to ice your foot using the method a wrote about in a previous post the other week.

If you have tendinitis, don't fret; it's very common for ballerinas, as irritating and painful as it is. If you have any other questions regarding the subject you would like to ask me, please don't hesitate to do so.

Thanks!

P.S: It is often the Extensor Hallicus tendons that you get tendinitis in. (see the diagram above.)

Thankfully My Snotty Nose Is Starting To Dry Up!

It has been four days since I last updated my blog - I feel quite proud for updating it so regualy. ha ha.

Last time I updated, I was blowing my nose constantly, had a sore throat, and just wanted to die! However, since then I have been on the road to recovery!
I have only blown my nose about ten times today (I know it sounds like a lot, but actually it isn't!), and my throat is feeling much better.
Infact, I'm not even on any paracetamol!

I did end up going to ballet on Monday, and guess what ........ I didn't have to blow my nose AT ALL in class. Unfortunatly when classes were over and I got into the car to come home, the snot just started pooring out of me. ha ha ha - You probably don't want to hear too much about my snot situation.

Now, I would just like to thank everyone for voting on the poll "How many hours a week should Izi practice by her self at home."

The results were:

14% 1 hour

42% 2 hours

28% 3 hours

14% 4 hours

Our obvious winner was "2 hours," with 42% of the votes. To be honest, I kind of hoped it would win. So, two hours it is then. Although, I guess I will probably end up practicing more sometimes.

In just an hours time I have to get ready for ballet. 2 hours - I hope I cope. ha ha - I am pretty sure I will be okay.

Anyhow, wish me luck. Hope you all have a great rest of your week, everyone!

New Look!

As you have probably noticed, my blog has taken on an all new look!
I have changed the background, using the website "the cutest blog on the block."
If any of you have a blog, and have never visited "the cutest blog on the block" website - I highly recomend it. There are millions of backgrounds, absolutely free!

What's also good about it is that they give you easy to follow instructions.
Unfortunately, they did miss out one of the steps - so that stuffed me up for a couple of hours, but I eventually worked it out.
If you are thinking of changing your blog's background and have never used "the cutest blog on the block" site before, just tell me and I will give you the step they have left out.

Anyway, if you are a follower of my blog, you probably are here to talk about ballet, not about how to change the background on your blog.

You see, the last time I updated my blog was once ballet classes had finished up for the week. I haven't done any practicing since then, because I have come down with a rotten cold.

It's not influenza, because when I have that I can't even walk from the living room to my bedroom without feeling like I'm going to die!

I think I have just got a bad cold, because I can walk around (I even went for a 250 metre walk the other day), but I am blowing my nose constantly and have to keep taking paracetamol to stop the headaches.

However, having this cold has been good. Since I haven't really been able to do anything but sit in front of the TV or Internet, I was able to spent hours giving my blog a makeover!

(So, you see, little blog, if I hadn't got this cold I wouldn't have been able to give you such a beautiful makeover.)

Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I will be feeling good enough for an hour and a half of ballet.
Even if I don't feel better, I think that I will just have to go.
After all, it's only a few weeks until "Peta and the Wolf!"

P.S: I did practice grands ronds de jambe en l'air yesterday.

Cough Cough - No Ballet Today - Cough Cough!

Cough! Cough! Hi, Cough! Cough!

As you have probably noticed, I have got a terrible cough at the moment. I am not going to ballet today because I was awake from 4:00am this morning until about 6:00.
I coughed and coughed and coughed, every time I took a breath, I coughed. Once I coughed so hard that the cough lollie I was sucking at the time came right out of my mouth and into the bed (I haven't found it yet)
The strange thing was that when I sat up, the coughing stopped, the minute I lay down again, it began. Annoying, I know!!!

I had a really bad cough the night before last, too. But the next day I was fine. I thought I would be OK today, but unfortunately I am still coughing (not nearly as bad as last night, though).
I just had a really nice frosty fruits ice block which will hopefully help my throat to feel a little better.

My ballet is supposed to start in 10 minutes. I guess I will just have to spend the rest of the day looking for meatball and seasol ads, (my drama teacher asked me to) reading a book, and coughing!


Cough!

My Dream, I Mean, Nightmare!

When I went to bed last night, I must have been thinking about my ballet exam or something, because I had a dream about it! Actually, it was more like a nightmare.
It went like this:

You know how I will be taking my exam in Canberra, well, In my dream, I kept telling my Mom that we had to leave for Canberra or we would be really late for the exam. She kept saying "Ooh, No, It will be okay, we will leave in an hour and a half".
Anyway, when we finally did get to Canberra and find the place I was to be doing my exam at, we were really late. Infact, we were too late for me to get into by ballet stuff or do my hair.
So, I go into the exam with my jeans, thongs, shirt and sleveless jumper. (I also had gloves on, the tipe of gloves you wear when you collect fire wood- don't ask me why)

I started doing the bar, and it was OK. But when I it was time to go into the centre and do releves dessus and dessous, my feet just didn't want to work properly. Firstly I kept tripping up, then I got the wrong foot, then the wrong arm, then the wrong this and the wrong that and it kept going on and on and on and on and on.....

IT WAS TERRIBLE!

Thankfully, my dream stopped and about that point. But guess what.....I dreamed it all over again (this time without the gloves on).

After dreaming it the second time, I woke up and started coughing (at the moment I have got a really bad cough).

Let's hope that my real ballet exam isn't anything like my dream, I mean, nightmare!