Narrative Essay On Left Shoulder Injury

Back in 8th grade, I suffered through a left shoulder injury. I accomplished six months of physical therapy so I could continue to swim. Throughout the summer going into 9th grade I used pain management and tried to work on my tolerance levels. Freshman year, I pushed through the pain, however when sophomore year came the pain increased dramatically. I would wake up in the middle of the night with stabbing pain in my left arm; I’d lie there in tears waiting for it to stop. A lot of thoughts run through your brain at one o’clock in the morning; the biggest thought was could I continue to swim through the pain? For a few weeks, I would swim until my shoulder felt like there was knife in it and kick the rest of practice; then go home, ice, and
It was awful. When the time came for the championship meet at the end of the season; I had no confidence whatsoever; I referred to myself as hitting rock bottom. I failed so miserably earlier in the season; I let the pain become a part of who I was. At the end of this meet, I had advanced further on but reached none of my goals. A big part of swimming is setting end of the season goals and working hard day in and day out to reach them. I didn’t swim enough to meet them; I was preoccupied with the pain levels of my shoulder. I felt like the biggest failure and that my coaches were ashamed of me. When the season finally came to an end, I wanted to quit. I didn’t reach any goals and I was tired of not being my best. It’s hard to see everyone else swimming ridiculously fast while sitting on the bleachers in pain. It was a tough pill to swallow and I learned a lot from this experience While the end of the season was going on, I started going back to physical therapy, this time for about eight months. Even at physical therapy I failed. I couldn’t lift as much as I used to and my pain tolerance was diminishing instead of increasing. I thought the one thing I relied so heavily on was going to be over. The doctors told me that if I was operated on, I would ruin what they fixed after a six-month recovery. Needless to say surgery wasn’t
At this point in time I didn’t have a positive bone in my body. Usually I compete in the summer, but I didn’t want to be anywhere near a pool. I laid on the couch during the summer and kept seeing this tape being advertised. Finally, one day at physical therapy I asked my therapist about the tape. She told me it could possibly work and it wouldn’t hurt to try. At this point in my physical therapy we were running out of options, nothing was working. The KT tape sparked some excitement in me; I thought maybe this could actually work. When the time came to try the tape, I started to miss swimming. I took a six-month break; the longest I had ever been away from the water. You don’t know how much you love something until it’s not there anymore. After trying out the tape I slept a full night with no pain. After a pain free night, I went to swim at the local YMCA just to see how my shoulder felt; I did a small amount of yardage. The best thing about trying out the tape in the water was that the pain wasn’t there; my arm felt normal again and it was something I’ll never forget. I swam so much with pain I didn’t know what it was like without