seven weapons

Another one, for that mysterious sudden de-aging ability of his

Today’s practice for “Show of Champions”, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. (From Yana’s twitter)

Plushy is supposed to only host the show, but apparently he couldn’t help himself once he was on the ice, and tried out some footwork. It makes me nervous again, yet, yet just look at the way he’s smiling.

*sigh* Okay bb whatever you do please no jumping, and after the shows please, please be patient again…The ice loves you and it will wait for you.

(Source: twitter.com)

Happy birthday, Papa Mishin!

(Source: vkontakte.ru)

Plushy’s up and about and shooting an ad for Mercedes-Benz. He looks much healthier than a few weeks ago, knock on wood.

(from the director’s twitter)

(Source: twitter.com)

Plushenko’s lawyer Tatiana Akimtseva on Monday, Feb. 11, outside of the Moscow district police station where they filed a formal defamation complaint against Andrei Zhurankov

Some figure skating fans may think Plushy is “overreacting” to Zhurankov’s words. I guess, I only wanted to summarize some words of Dr. Ilya Pekarsky, the surgeon who performed Plushy’s operation, and Dr. Igor Piatigorsky, the clinic director. I am a lay person when it comes to medicine, but I’ll try anyhow. (Sources here, and here). Plushy has been in pain from a herniated intervertebral disc in his lumbar spine for several years (wikipedia on spinal disc herniation), which he has tried to treat conservatively, including with three previous small procedures. Recently, he has been essentially living on painkillers. Surgery, which is normally a last resort when it comes to disc hernias, was decided on both because according to the MRI pictures, this disc appears to be by now in extremely bad shape, and also because he has begun to suffer not only severe pain, but also what would be called a “significant neurological deficit”: weakness and loss of feeling in his legs, especially the right one. When the operation began, Dr. Pekarsky discovered that the situation was in fact even much worse than the scans could have indicated: the disc in question was nearly completely destroyed, the spinal joint itself and the ligaments were also “in awful condition”, and in fact, there was a nearby second intervertebral disc that was also in bad condition, because of the shifted pressure. The nerves in control of his leg were being hard pressed against. Dr. Pekarsky removed his destroyed intervertebral disc, replaced it with a biopolymer one, and placed a “dynamic clamp” on the second disc. Because of all this, the operation, which normally would have taken about two hours, ended up lasting three and half hours. 

After the operation, Plushy admitted that 

Every morning when I woke up I always had to lay in hot water in the bathroom for around 20 minutes or sit in a hot shower, and then I could somehow start to walk. This constant rubbing, regular massages before each training session, after training, I was too tired from that.

When he was trying to land that 3A in Zagreb, he could not feel anything in his right leg, except a sharp pain from his spine to his hip. (TV news, English translation) According to Dr. Pekarsky, fortunately Evgeni “was not too late”, because in long-delayed cases, it’s possible that even surgery will no longer bring improvement. I tried to look up, at least a little, some of worst possible consequences of spinal disc herniation, and I saw words like permanent nerve damage, paralysis.

Sorry. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that he has literally tortured himself in order to compete, I really don’t know what other word to use for it. He has put himself at risks that I, merely as a fan, don’t want to even think about. This is how important skating is to him. And afterwards, after this major operation (which, by the way, was also not without risks in itself), to have all this called a lie and a fraud, not only on his own part but on the part of his entire team, not in some cheap gossip rag or blog, but on Eurosport, a major national television channel, during a major figure skating competition, by a commentator—that is, a person generally considered to be in an authoritative position when it comes to figure skating…I also saw some people calling him a “drama queen” for his reaction. Then I turn around and read what Plushenko has to say, and see him repeating these hopelessly outdated Nineteenth Century words like “honor” and “dignity”, and—well, I don’t even know anymore. Maybe it’s simply true that many people in this world would consider people who say such things drama queens. I don’t know. 

One might think that Zhurankov is just some isolated idiot and not worth the attention. Maybe. I am not Russian so I don’t really know how things really are.at this point. I am only wondering—if that is the case—why is it that one Israeli website, with its unsubstantiated (and in every way contrary to basic common sense) conclusions from its claims of having “called all the hospitals”, could get quoted by a dozen Russian media outlets. And why is it that people in the Russian skating world are being asked questions like “could Plushenko have faked his injury” by reporters.

Anyway, the damned picture I posted. There needs be no shame on Plushenko’s part for submitting these pictures of the fucking bolts in his spine, and for displaying them for all to see. These are his wounds from fighting for his country and fighting for his dream, and I believe it’s not a bad thing that others, some at least, take a good look at them. But the fact that it has come to a point where he feels he needs to submit them—to the police, no less—and to prove, to his own country, that yes, he really did have this injury, he really did have a total disc replacement operation…I don’t know what to say, I guess. Maybe there are some things I just won’t understand. 

fuckyeahevgeniplushenko:

Russian figure-skating star Evgeny Plushenko wants a television commentator to be charged with libel after expressing doubts about reports that the 2006 Olympic champion underwent spinal surgery.

The 30-year-old Plushenko has vowed to seek another medal at next year’s Sochi Olympics in his home country, but has been plagued by injuries.

Plushenko withdrew from last month’s European Championships, and coach Alexei Mishin later said he had disc-replacement surgery in Israel.

Some Israeli media questioned that claim, saying no patients named Plushenko could be found at local hospitals. During a weekend broadcast of the Four Continents tournament, Eurosport commentator Andrei Zhurankov noted the reports and said he suspected there was no operation.

Plushenko’s attorney Tatyana Akimtseva told the Russian legal news agency RAPSI that a libel complaint against Zhurankov was filed Monday.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press

Sorry if I bitch a bit about the way this AP article is written…Personally, I found the way the article completely omitted any mention of the pictures Yana tweeted, the Russia Channel One TV news segment (shot in the hospital), and the interviews with the doctors to be somewhat conspicuous. (Especially as Zhurankov specifically mentioned the Channel One report, and expressed his disbelief at its truthfulness.) 

I also thought “noted the reports” seemed rather innocent-sounding, and although I’ve only read translations, to characterize his words as merely “expressing doubts” is, imho, downplaying it quite a bit. And as I understood it, “some Israeli media” was one webpage, which ended up being quoted by numerous Russian media outlets. 

In any case, Zhurankov had this to say in this interview:

[I] fully understand the whole scandal surrounding Plushenko and ready to play on your field, that you pass. I am ready to add fuel to the fire, I give you a reason. I gave them the bait, they immediately swallowed.

(Sorry, just google translate for now.) In the same interview, he complained (unprompted) that he gave Yana his phone number in  Vancouver, but she did not call him. 

Later in another interview, Zhurankov claimed to be actually a long-time Plushenko fan, that what he said was “the cry of the soul, and I will not give up on him”. And in yet another interview, he claimed that the things he said were for Plushenko’s own good and due to his own concern for Plushenko, and suggested that the fall on the 3A in the Euros SP in Zagreb was due to not training enough. 

—

Alexei Mishin, Feb. 10, 2013

It’s just google translate, but I think it’s clear enough. 

(Source: izvestia.ru)

Yana twitted this picture after arriving at his Tel Aviv clinic, because there are now—among various previous attacks—accusations in the Russian media (and Israeli) that Evgeni Plushenko wasn’t really having an operation at all, and that he and Mishin were somehow inventing it all to “cover up a poor performance at the European Championships”. These are the bolts affixing the artificial intervertebral disc to Evgeni’s spine. They will be there for the rest of his life. Yana pointed to the hospital’s name on the upper right corner. Ramat Aviv Medical Center. 

I was hesitating back-and-forth quite a bit about whether to post this pic, because it was certainly difficult for me to look at. Perhaps graphic, even. But then I started thinking of all the programs he skated in his career, all those videos I keep going back to, all that he has revealed to me. It occurred to me that he has given so much that is beautiful and luminous, and at times inhumanly sublime, on ice, that as a fan, I, speaking only for myself, will not avert my eyes from a few pictures of what is painfully and terribly human and not-so-beautiful. This is the price he (not us) paid for all that beauty.

In the brief Russian TV news segment about Evgeni’s operation, the doctor said:

I think with what spine I saw it’s difficult to live, not to skate only. I think he is a person of a real will if he could skate with such pain.

I don’t know what to add to that in comment. 

He will probably be in the hospital for about two weeks. Right now I intend only to think about these two weeks, and no farther. 

P. S. Yana gave birth less than four weeks ago. She should still be recovering herself, but right now she is fighting for him. 

(Source: pics.lockerz.com)

plutan:

У Жени еще стоит катетор!Но он уже ходит!) Photo - Yana Rudkovskaya | Lockerz

—

Alexei Mishin, January 30, 2013

Evgeni Plushenko will undergo a disc replacement surgery in Israel tomorrow. Basically, if I understand things right, he will get an artificial intervertebral disc transplanted into his spine, to replace his herniated one. If you can, please send a good thought/blessing/vibe toward him.

(Source: ria.ru)