{"id":134819,"date":"2015-05-27T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=134819"},"modified":"2015-08-24T21:42:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T04:42:53","slug":"traumatic-vcd-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/traumatic-vcd-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Light After A Traumatic VCD Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexander Hardwick, Swimming World College Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

The long yellow bus pulls up to the pool, jam-packed with swimmers in uniform warm-ups, who have been training morning and night, with hopes to touch the wall first. At the forefront of their minds are their goals of advancing to state, medaling, and attempting to score every precious point to aid their team in pursuit of the coveted team title.<\/p>\n

You look down at your high school swim cap in your hands, knowing that you don\u2019t swim for the interesting artwork displayed on either side, but for the teammates that will wear the same cap.<\/p>\n

Districts are a high school meet filled with emotion, underdog swims, intense team battles and exceeded expectations. As a swimmer, I remember districts as the meet with most intense sense of team pride I had ever felt. As our crew marched into the pool area with bleach-stained mohawks we were one unit.<\/p>\n

Plan Thwarted<\/h3>\n

In some cases, the meet can go the exact opposite direction of what you have been visualizing for months beforehand. That is exactly what happened my senior year.<\/p>\n

My senior year district meet is known as District 7 in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). The year prior, I had won both the 100 and 200 yard freestyle races, and finished in the top 8 at the state meet.<\/p>\n

Entering the district meet, I was the fastest swimmer in the 200 freestyle with a personal best of 1:39 from the previous year’s state final. Stepping up onto the block, my heart was pounding out of my chest, but the theme of our team\u2019s district meet was swimming for your team above yourself.<\/p>\n

As I dove\u00a0into the icy water, I began my pursuit of\u00a0defending the district title. But halfway back after the first 50, I couldn\u2019t breathe. It wasn\u2019t until the 75 that I began to panic, slowly falling off pace, but still among the leaders.<\/p>\n

My mind was racing knowing that I needed to finish for the team and advance to state meet to achieve my personal goals. Flipping at the 150 mark everything went dark, and I floated to the water’s surface on my back. The lifeguards came over and helped me out of the pool. My race had ended in a way I never once visualized.<\/p>\n

\"wpial-swim-meet-pittsburgh-university-warm-up\"<\/a>

Photo Courtesy: R. Wagner<\/p><\/div>\n

Former Upper Saint Clair high school coach and current Mount Lebanon High School coach Tom Donati recalled the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving formerly been his coach, I was nervous for him. The one thing I never will forget is the eerie feeling when a whoosh of silence went over the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had never been diagnosed with asthma or any other respiratory disorder, so my coaches and teammates were concerned for my health first foremost.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Alex to stop- I was in disbelief that it happened,\u201d my teammate Marty Bacik, a senior at Upper Saint Clair said.<\/p>\n

A Diagnosis<\/h3>\n

Months after the incident, asthma was ruled out by doctors, and I found out that the condition I had was vocal cord dysfunction.<\/p>\n

Vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) is a respiratory dysfunction where the vocal cords close prematurely, and partially or fully obstruct airflow. The condition is found in athletes and performers who are high achievers with\u00a0heavy expectations.<\/p>\n

You cannot cure VCD with an inhaler. It requires therapy. During therapy, athletes and performers learn ways to relax during an attack, and learn breathing techniques which are abdominal driven, rather than shoulder driven.<\/p>\n

Breathing Easy<\/h3>\n

After my VCD attack in the 200 freestyle, I came back to anchor a new district record-setting 200 freestyle relay. I credit it all to my teammates and parents for their unparalleled support in my time of need. They were there\u00a0during my darkest hour of swimming, and I am grateful.<\/p>\n

Today I have learned how to deal with VCD and used that district meet as a learning experience. The most important part of swimming are the people who surround you. When the unexpected happens, they always have your back.<\/p>\n

The experience taught me\u00a0that every race, regardless of level, is a learning opportunity. I would never have known I had VCD if it weren\u2019t for that meet, and today writing this piece with my two NCAA trophy mementos behind my laptop, I know that although that meet was dark, the future is always bright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexander Hardwick, Swimming World College Intern The long yellow bus pulls up to the pool, jam-packed with swimmers in uniform warm-ups, who have been training morning and night, with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":134827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[33059,51574,51573,251,51571,51575,87,142,51572,51570],"class_list":["post-134819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-high-school","tag-alex-hardwick","tag-marty-bacik","tag-mount-lebanon-high-school","tag-ncaa","tag-pennsylvania-interscholastic-athletic-association","tag-respiratory-dysfunction","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming","tag-tom-donati","tag-vocal-cord-dysfunction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nSeeing the Light After A Traumatic VCD Attack<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I dove into the icy water, I began my pursuit of defending the district title. 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