I spent my sixteenth birthday paralyzed, wondering if I would have to crawl to the bathroom. I woke up Sunday, June 12th, feeling fine. Later that day, I decided to just relax around the house and watch Guardians of the Galaxy. About half an hour into a movie, I needed to get up for a minute. As I went to push myself up, I realized I could not stabilize myself. I panicked for a second, before deciding that I was fine and it was surely just me trying to sit up too quickly. I sat back down and over the next ten minutes, I began to lose the ability to move my arms. In that moment, I thought about the instruments stored downstairs, and I thought to myself, “What if I can’t perform again?” For the next couple of weeks, I had trouble moving in general, but most of it faded away. I was left with mild arthritis. I went back to work with pain in my hands, back, and legs, and started seeing a doctor a couple of months later. I started physical therapy and am currently seeing a chiropractor. …show more content…
After I began to move, I started to try and play guitar and cello again. For the first while, I was unable to grip a guitar pick or my cello bow. Slowly, I was able to play again, but my musicianship had decreased, as well as my energy and motivation. When school started back, I began to play more often, and getting treatment. I felt well enough halfway through the first semester and decided to audition for the Tennessee Governor’s School for the
Downing uses the strength from her competitive athlete days to help her learn to live with paralysis on her own terms. From an early age, the author became involved in sports, competing on the swim team, diving and gymnastics; however, in her early twenties cycling became her beloved sport of choice. During a conversation with her physical therapist, Downing quickly found out the hardest part of her injury is
As soon as I started high school, my goal was to play college baseball. I played baseball for a very competitive select club that traveled out of town every week from Thursday through Sun as well as practicing every Tuesday and Wednesday. All through high school, I sacrificed my free time in the summer to prepare myself for college baseball. After receiving offers from four year universities as well as junior colleges, I decided that a junior college would provide me the best opportunity to continue to develop as a player. Even though I decided I wanted to play at a junior college, I wanted the experience of going away to college and living in a dorm so I decided to attend a junior college in Iowa where they had dorms for student athletes. Being ecstatic to be able to go off to college and play baseball was short lived. During the first month of baseball practice, I injured my arm, spent two months in physical therapy with no improvement, and then finally receiving the bad news that I would need surgery to improve. Surgery was performed over Thanksgiving break, but I was now faced with months of physical therapy, which meant
My mother took me to see a back specialist named, Dr. Johnson at the Knoxville Orthopedic Center in Knoxville, TN who explained this pain I was having generated a major problem. It never came to my realization how serious this could be, or what it could do to my basketball career.
As a 29-year-old medical school applicant for which I have spent 23 of them in the world of competitive figure skating. For 19 years I was a competitive figure skater, competing at both the local and national level. Figure skating was my way of life, it guided every decision I made, whether I could go hang out with friends, go on family vacations, or what types of activities I could do so that I would not become injured, hampering my skating career. In the middle of my season in 2009 such injury occurred, I was diagnosed with a bulging disc partially caused by a grade one spondylolisthesis between my lumbar and sacral vertebrae. I was told that this was the end of my skating career, I would never be able to compete on that sheet of ice that
During the next few years, I slowly limped around school, and slept through many hours of the day. I had already finished growing, so it made no sense that I slept as much as I did. I already knew why I limped; I have an extra spine bone that puts pressure on my sciatic nerve causing the sharp pains in my lower body, but there was a new unexplained weakness in my hips. It was not until a trip to Las Vegas when I definitely knew there was something wrong.
body parts are in motion.” (Sullivan, Portnry). A patient may have dynamic balance issues with no signs
He looked over my arm too and couldn’t see anything wrong, he asked me if I wanted to go into the hospital, but decided not to. For if I had gone in, the rig would had reported it as an accident. Having even just one reported accident isn’t good, it effects everyone bonuses and could cause yourself to get fired. Lucky for me, I slowly was able to move my arm again after icing it for a few hours and some pain pills. Looking back now at it now, remembering all the accidents that I’ve whiteness. I’m extremely luck to still have all my limbs and fingers or even still
A couple of days after I had a doctor’s appointment to figure out the problem with my knee. While waiting for the specialist to see me, I was sitting with my left leg I was bouncing my leg up and down. When the specialist came in he
On December 21, 2017 at 2028 hours, Officer Allday and I, Sgt. Wilson responded to 1693 Highway 90 (Fred's Pharmacy) in reference to a Malicious Mischief call.
The past two and a half weeks have been very productive and I continue to make progress in continuing to regain my tissue mobility. The medication in conjunction with the work hardening program is working and the restriction in my shoulder appears to be lessening in small increments weekly. I am trying to be patient and had one bad session from me trying to push too hard too fast in an effort to move through my restriction, but I now realize that slow and steady will win this race. Additionally, my sleep periods are improving. I am successfully working two hours per day from home without flare-up of my shoulder and my at home work hardening sessions have increased to nearly four hours.
It was a night that started like any other night. My department store job at Sears left much to be desired, but the pay was alright. As expected for an evening in a mall during the Christmas season, the store was like a madhouse and the customers behaved as though they should be committed to one. Around seven p.m., I got a bit overwhelmed with all the festivities, so I found a quiet corner in the back of my department, sat down in the floor, and began to fold sweaters. I folded for what seemed like forever. As I kept leaning over to place sweaters on the display, I found it was becoming harder and harder to move my right arm. I mostly ignored this, chalking it up to zero sleep and long hours at work, until I happened to look up and see that all the clothing in the store had become one big blur. Wow, I thought to myself, I must be really tired. I blinked and decided to take a break.
It was rumored in the third grade that I would have my right hand amputated. This rumor was stemmed from the fact that I broke my arm, where both the ulna and radius were snapped. The people that surrounded me, being doctors and family were frightened at the sight of me holding my dangling hand with the other. Breaking my arm of itself was not a challenge, but it was the recovery that would challenge my determination and character.
My tongue darted out to wet my chapped lips as I struggled to pay attention to the lecture taking place in front of me. Management was my passion, but my passion was dampened after the seemingly endless hours of analyzing businesses that I couldn't be bothered to care about. Market Entry Strategy was supposed to be an easy four credit class, but resisting the urge to reach inside my bag to retrieve the currently buzzing phone was about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. Fighting against the death grip my heart had on my brain, I continued to take notes. Later, I promised myself, later I would have all of the time in the world. After industry evolution, optimal growth, and competitive interaction methods were my second nature, I would
It all began with a simple piggy back ride I gave to a friend of mine. Consequently I felt my knew weak, but it did not bother much. Later that day, I went to practice. As I hurled myself up to grab a rebound, my knee locked, and I tumbled onto the ground. I felt an excruciating pain, enough to make me cry. Furthermore, my left knee felt like a twig compared to my other knee. I was forced to sit out until I got an examination.
Now imagine that you had any orthopedic impairment. “Orthopedic impairment is caused by congenital anomaly (clubfoot, absence of some member), impairments caused by disease (poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns which cause contractures). Orthopedic impairment affects body movement and muscle coordination. These conditions can be caused by damage to specific areas of the brain or other conditions or diseases affecting muscles, nerves or tissues. Orthopedic conditions may or may not be present with other disabilities.”