The odd outcome

Last Saturday (09/19) I attended the first IBJJF tournament since COVID outbreak. I trained really hard during the pandemic, and I dropped from 222 lbs to 204 lbs with the help of my nutricionist Greg McCoy. The intention was to also get back to bodybuilding stage by end of 2020. But before, I wanted to compete in BJJ again, since my last competition was in March, at the IBJJF Houston Open, where I won. Coincidentally, my opponent in Austin was the same that I competed in Houston, but although the opponent was the same, I never underestimated that the outcome could be different, I just didn't realize it would be so drastic. 

We bow to each other, wrist bump and started the fight. It felt deja-vu, since we went to exactly same grips and same initial movements. Some attempts to grab my leg, just like in the initial fight, and some attempts from my side to break his balance and go for tai otoshi. After 1 minute and 36 seconds, I was trying to attack in a tai otoshi position, but my center of gravity was to low, since his was low too, I went to the right and suddenly I changed direction to the left and my left foot turned in a weird way:

I felt a "pop" and by the time I was going to do the second step, I felt something was wrong, I screamed and jumped. The referee noticed something was not right, stopped the fight and called the medic. She did an initial assessment and thought it was a sprain, and advised me to not continue the fight. I couldn't continue anyway, because I couldn't stand up, it was too much pain. 

I was carried out from the mat, in pain and disbelief. I just couldn't digest the moment, and actually realize it was happening. After so many hard work, many hours in the mat, training, dieting, drilling, practicing, I couldn't finish the fight and worse: I had no idea how bad the injury was, but I knew it was bad. 

I was carried to a first aid location where the medic put some ice and told me his thoughts about the injury. At that point, we knew it was bad, but not sure how bad it was. My friend put me in a wheel chair and we went to the podium to get my medal (it was only me and Carlos, and since I couldn't finish, he won). 

Carlos (my opponent) was a super nice guy, and he didn't want to stand up in the podium, since I wasn't able to stand up, so we took our picture like this:

I got the medal and we went straight to Urgent Care to try to find out what happened. The initial X-Ray assessment found out that potentially was a Lisfranc injury, but it wasn't conclusive and recommended an MRI. We drove back from Austin to Dallas on the same day and I contacted a friend that has a clinic near my house. He recommended me to be there 8AM on Monday. On Monday morning before go, I took this picture to compare:

I was at his clinic 8AM sharp, he did an initial assessment and some treatment since it was very swollen, and referred me to the MRI. I went to the clinic to do the MRI and the result was bad, really bad, not only it confirmed the Lisfranc injury, but also found multiple fractures and some ruptures.  You may ask: what a Lisfranc injury really is? Well, the video below is the best explanation about this injury and also shows an example of an NFL player that had the same problem, performing a very similar movement that I did:

On Tuesday I went to a foot specialist, and he confirmed that my case requires a surgery in order to put things back in place. We are talking about at least 4 months recovery, which means 2020 season is over for me. 

Lessons Learned (so far)

I'm pretty sure that by the time I'm back on the mats, the list below will be way longer, as I have a long road ahead of me, but for now this is what sticks to my mind:

• Doesn't matter how much you feel prepared, is absolutely impossible to predict the outcome. Life can change in a matter of seconds, you just need to misstep and stumble, boom...everything changes and if you are only physically prepared, your head will definitely mess you up. Hence, it is imperative to always be psychologically prepared for everything. Mental toughness is key for survival in this world! 
• Appreciate life when things are boring, sometimes that boredom is better than being unable to use one of your body parts for a long period of time. There is always something to celebrate, but many times we are too busy looking for cool new things to celebrate, because just walk is too normal...until you get hit and now you need crutches to walk. 

What's next?

I have a surgery next week and a long road to recover ahead of me. For someone active as me, it will be painful and depressing, I know that. This will be my test, this will be the moment that I need to improve my patience, grit and perseverance. Other aspects of life must go on, I need to continue working, I need to continue taking care of my family, and I can't let this interfere in those areas. Things will be tough and I know every single day will be a battle, but I'm determined to succeed and come back stronger.