I believe in perseverance. I believe that when life puts obstacles in your path, you must keep moving forward and find a way through. In September of eighth grade I started having back and hip pain after a softball practice. At this time I was playing on two softball teams, and a soccer team. I was also planning on trying out for basketball, so an injury was definitely not in my plans.  After a few days of icing, ibuprofen, and rest it became obvious that the pain was not going away on its own, so I decided it was time to see a doctor. This is where my very long and frustrating journey began.

The doctor took X-rays of my back and found nothing wrong so I was sent to physical therapy. This is where I met Meredith, the physical therapist I worked with throughout the eight months that I was injured. She is the one who first suspected that my injury was sacroiliac joint dysfunction. SI joint dysfunction occurs when the Sacroiliac joint has too much range of motion.   Although the exercises that I had to do at physical therapy did help my pain, it did not make it go away. I was taken out of sports and while continuing my physical therapy, I began my search for a doctor to bring me back to full strength, and Meredith is the one who recommended the specialists I saw.

The doctors I saw included a chiropractor, an orthopedic surgeon, and a neurosurgeon. Between all these doctors I had to have three sets of x-rays, one MRI, and one bone scan. During this time, I became quite acquainted with doctor’s office. I found that the orthopedic surgeon did not have any solutions for me, and the chiropractor was hurting more than helping, but the neurosurgeon had an idea that I was hopeful would help. Although it was nobody’s first choice because it would only be a temporary fix, an x-ray guided cortisone shot, directly into my SI joint, finally seemed like the best option. The doctor told me that the shot would feel like a bee sting and that I may be sore for a couple of days after. While I have never been stung by a bee, I still would never compare the two. My hopes of a painless back quickly diminished when even walking became incredibly painful. Trying to stay positive , I rested and sure enough, about a week later my pain started to go away until it was gone all together.

Due to my back injury I ended up having to sit on the sidelines for all of basketball season only participating in a few practices before I was out of sports for good. I also had to sit out of part of school softball season, part of my soccer season, and almost all of my select softball season. I had a spot on the bench with my name on it for eight long months watching my teammates get better and have fun. It would have been easy for me to call it quits and say that it would be too hard to find a way to get back on the field, but if I had done that I would not be a happy person today. I believe in perseverance because sometimes going through the most difficult of times can make us appreciate and love the things that we take for granted, and help us see the things that are really important to us.