Shoulder Bust

"Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable." -John Patrick

During volleyball season in seventh grade, I had a horrible accident. At home I was storing some of my old stuff in the attic. After I was done storing all my boxes I climbed down. Standing on an old stool, I tried to fold the ladder up that was connected to the attic. All of a sudden, one of the broken legs on the stool snapped and the whole right side of the stool slipped from underneath me, crumbled it laid on the carpet. I now, very scared and worried tried to balance on the left side of the stool with only two legs and a small platform holding me up. The ladder now feeling more heavy began to slip from my fingers as one of the left legs snapped. I knew that I had to jump before I broke both of my own legs and maybe even an arm. Right as the last leg snapped, I jumped into the air. Evidently I forgot about the ladder and while in the air, it hit me on the back right on my right shoulder,  and popped it out of place. Feeling excruciating pain, I fell to the ground and rolled into a door. As sonn as I smacked into the door, my shoulder popped back into place. I laid their, clutching my shoulder tears flowing from my eyes. After about thirty minutes, I got up and cleaned the mess. Thinking that nothing was wrong with me, I continued about my day, not telling anyone.

At practice I was working on my serve I felt my shoulder pop out of place but then immediately pop back in. A sharp pain jolted throughout my body. I dropped the ball, and clenched my shoulder for a moment. After stretching for a moment I continued serving with my shoulder no longer bothering me. For the next year this continued to happen, my shoulder randomly, usually twice every month.

While working on my hitting one day,I felt a tear in my shoulder, and I stopped, decided to ice my shoulder. The next day I was playing back row and dived after a ball. When I hit the ground, my shoulder laid in front of me. As I looked my shoulder, I noticed something was wrong, the ball of my shoulder was out of place. As i stood up I realized that my shoulder popped out of place but didn't pop back in. A horrible pain ran throughout my body and I began to cry as my coach ran over to me. As she held my arm she told me think of something random. I began to think about what my dad, living in Colorado was doing. While my mind was occupied she popped my shoulder back into place. For the rest of practice, I sat out icing my shoulder. My mom took me to the doctor and  there he told me that my shoulder bone was chipped, and the ligaments were torn and broken. He said I would need surgery as soon as possible.

My surgery was on Friday February 13, 2009. The pain was unbearable and the pain killers left me drained and tired. For a month I was consumed into a sling and then endured a harsh physical therapy for almost three months. Just two weeks ago from today, I was released to play volleyball again, no hitting though until late June or early July. I hadn't worked out in nearly six months but during those six months, as I worked on getting my physical strength back in my right arm I also gained mental strength. I knew that when I started working out, it would not be easy but if I could mentally prepare myself, then I would make up for most of the physical I would be lacking. That first week that I worked out, I did great! I pushed myself and didn't give up. At the end of the week Coach Reed talked to me about my work ethic and told me she was happy that I came back strong and I worked harder than majority of the girls who had been working out longer than me.

I am still working on strengthening my right arm, and I see improvement everyday. This situation, is my threshold guardian. Going through all that pain taught me and helped me gain mental strength. I am now strong inside and out, because I fought my weakness and persevered.