By Robyn Clarke
When Emma Ambler first laced up a pair of skates as a 3-year-old, she had no clue that the sport would play such a pivotal role in helping her battle through multiple rounds of adversity.
In early 2008 at the age of 4, Ambler began complaining of pain. The aches were so intense that she asked to be taken to the hospital. Doctors released her after a short visit, but Ambler’s discomfort remained.
Determined to fight through it, she skated in the weekend events she’d previously committed to. Ambler brought home first-place honors, but the joyous occasion was marred by a lingering stomachache.
She was later diagnosed with C-difficile, an infection of the large intestine. C-difficile affects half a million people annually and can cause life-threatening inflammation of the colon, according to the Mayo Clinic.
A slew of doctor’s appointments and emergency room visits followed. Through the ups and downs, one thing was able to consistently lift Ambler’s spirits: skating.
The ice brought freedom; it served as an escape from the health trials she was facing. There, she could just be a little kid.
However, another health complication waited on the horizon.
Ambler had sustained multiple injuries throughout her life. The day before taking her juvenile moves test, she fell and bent a growth plate in her wrist. As a fourth grader, she rolled her ankle while frolicking on the playground.
As a result of the injuries, Ambler became known for always being hurt.
“I didn’t really pay much attention to it,” she said of her teammates’ criticism. “I knew what I felt. I knew that they [could not] go into my body and know what I feel when I feel it. Sometimes, you just have to ignore what others are saying and keep working.
”That’s exactly what Ambler did, until a fall in July of 2014 indicated there could be a medical explanation for her series of breaks and sprains.
She’d been participating in a power skating class when the toe pick of her skate caught on a piece of ice. Ambler tumbled forward and landed in such a way that the end of her femur was impacted.
Initially, those around her believed she’d bruised the bone. But when the pain continued to worsen, an orthopedist recommended she get an MRI.
Ambler and her mother hadn’t even left the clinic before they received a phone call from medical personnel. She hadn’t merely bruised her femur. She’d broken it.
For the next year, rather than go to the skating rink after school, Ambler attended physical therapy sessions. She spent three and a half months in a wheelchair before transitioning to a walker for mobility assistance. Rehabilitation was grueling, but once again, skating gave her strength.
“I love it so much that if I don’t skate, I start getting anxious because I miss it,” she said. “And so it was really the thought of skating that kept me going.”
Though the broken bone took away time she could’ve spent in a rink, it also provided something: an explanation for all of Ambler’s injuries.
One of the orthopedists Ambler visited in the aftermath of the break suggested that she might have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The University of Florida defines EDS as “a group of inherited disorders marked by extremely loose joints, very stretchy (hyperelastic) skin that bruises easily, and easily damaged blood vessels.”
A second orthopedist confirmed the diagnosis, which took a weight off of Ambler’s shoulders.
“Honestly, I was relieved,” she said. “It explained so much. Once you [have the same injury] like 50 million times you start to think, Am I doing something wrong? Am I living wrong?”
The diagnosis confirmed that she was not living life the wrong way, and it made her return to the ice several months later even more special.
Ambler wanted to make a statement with her first program, so she skated to Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song.” The hit single had carried her through treatment, and over the months, had become more than just lyrics set to a melody.
The song served as a reminder that no matter how many times life tried to knock her down, she could always get back up.
