Chronic Pain as a Circus Performer
By Susie Day
Former Circus Performer, Current Chronic Pain Kicker
To train for the Commonwealth Games as a circus performer is not something many can lay claim to. Balancing high school studies whilst training as an elite athlete was no easy feat – especially when this led to accepting significant injuries as ‘a casual Tuesday’. For most students after school activities included social time, balancing friends with a causal job in the evenings – oh, and homework of course! For me, this was far from my reality.
My training schedule was efficiently incorporated into my school day, with a special class for training having been assigned to the circus students. Up until year 10 we had our own private school. Training was our norm! Days flew by as we spent hours upon hours navigating new skills… I don’t believe being thrown through the sky is the standard practice for most school’s curriculum, and don’t even get me started on the dynamics of foot juggling.
Unfortunately it was this training that led to my chronic condition. Balancing basic mobility with my back with my day to day has become my new normal. While I can sit back and laugh about the time I tore my ligaments performing an aerial cartwheel, or share a joke with a fellow performer about how she was hospitalized from a foot juggling mishap, the reality of our injuries is something only recognized for their significance during our later lives. Then there are also the ankle injuries… Although it was the circus, so everyone had ankle injuries really!
Fast forward ten years later when I was doing the dishes… I know right? Such a dangerous task!
I was leaning up to put away a dish when my back spasmed, leaving me temporarily paralyzed. Want to know the reason for such moment of paralysis? Years earlier I had fallen two meters during a pyramid exercise, landing on my neck. We were training for the Commonwealth Games and I was the one being thrown effortlessly through the air. There are obvious risks you accept as a performer, after all these skills are developed over years of careful training. However, this does not remove the element of danger and it is a dangerous sport. I guess you could say that I suffered a few spinal injuries during my time as a circus performer, though this injury superseded them all.
I came away from this particular moment of injury having a protruding disc in my L4 and L5, which led to ten months of rehabilitation work. Six of those months I couldn’t walk. From this I spent hours upon hours re-strengthening my muscles. This was achieved through gym work and hydrotherapy, both factors which remain a part of my current life. My life is spent as if I am in constant rehabilitation; I have to put in the work all the time.
When the pain get’s really bad I can’t walk – and that’s when I rely on modern medicine.
Given the addictive nature of prescription medication, I do try not to take it as much as possible. However, in these moments of pain where I have to lay absolutely still with a heat pack - well it would be ludicrous not to take it. I like to think of these moments as the times when I go into a pain overload, and this is when acupuncture really comes in handy! I find that acupuncture is much less invasive as oppose to massage, and they are really able to get right into the point of the pain. Sometimes with massage my spine is easily manipulated, and when over manipulated – well, that’s when I spasm. Nobody needs that kind of negativity in their life.
I am constantly training to ensure that I remain strong; if something happens to my back this strength allows my body the chance to recover more quickly. When I first had my ongoing injury I thought I had done the work, but I didn’t. After all, doing the dishes should never result in hospitalization.
