On June 11, 2012 at almost 10 pm, I slipped while running in flip flops trying to reach my boyfriend before his Jeep pulled out of the driveway. As I fell, my ankle bent back snapping, making a loud crack, and causing my leg to be trapped underneath my back. Crying out in pain, I managed to flip myself face down in the wet grass, relieving the pressure on my leg. I screamed for help for what felt like hours before someone inside the house realized I was hurt. My friend’s whole family came outside to try to help, while someone called my boyfriend to come back and take me to the hospital. With the help of 3 people, I managed to stand up and my way to hop to the Jeep as my broken ankle flopped back and forth. Upon arriving at the hospital, I was rushed to the X-ray room to access the damage that had been done. I remember the comment the technician made to my boyfriend after I was sent to a room to wait, “We still need to take her for a CT scan to know the full extent of the damage, but from the looks of the X-ray’s, there is no way those bones are going back together without surgery. The ankle is shattered.” Those words were burned into my head as I was taken for a CT scan and then finally returned to my bed. I remember finally feeling calmer as they put the IV in my arm and injected me full of drugs to help with the immense pain. The doctor came in to tell me that I had a bimalleolar fracture and explained that I multiple fractures on my fibula and my tibia. The only fix would
It was a normal spring night and my baseball game had just started. It was senior night and I was pitching, we had just finish the first half of the first inning. My teammate struck out, it was my turn to hit, I swung for the ball and my leg popped twice. I went down and didn't get back up, My leg was stuck to my chest and I couldn't move it. The visiting team's coach was an EMT he ran over and said ¨this is going to hurt¨ and pulled my leg straight. What had happened was when I swung the bat my leg didn't move and my kneecap dislocated and instead of my ligaments tearing, they stretched and broke my kneecap. This was a challenge for me because this was the first time I had never broken a bone in my life. I went to the doctor and he said nothing was wrong, so my
This whole experience started in my backyard. I was playing basketball and I ended up landing wrongly on my foot. My basketball hoop had been set up in a narrow space which also had mostly uneven ground that surrounded the court. I went up for a lay-up and as previously mentioned, landed wrongly to the point that I was in great pain from the injury. Also earlier that day I had jammed my finger, also playing basketball. That jammed finger should have been a sign for me to stop playing, but I thought it would wear off and I would be all good. To my great disadvantage I kept on injuring the ankle and my finger to the point where I could hardly play. So through this experience I had to learn how important it is to let your injuries heal.
Being a typical 9 year old, I bawled my eyes out. When I moved my arm, it hurt even more. My mom came over to see what all the commotion was all about and I told her what had gone on. I also told her that whenever I moved my arm, it hurt and it felt very weird. She told me we would have to head to the hospital in Columbus to go get an X-Ray to see if it was broken. Thankfully, this was after my older brother’s band’s performance. He came over to us, and my mom told what was about to happen and what we were about to do. He wasn’t happy, to say the least. After about 5 minutes of arguing, my brother lost and my mom took the rest of us to Columbus. As we got into the car, she told me to keep my arm as still as I could, to which I did. We didn’t go to the hospital right away, however, we went to McDonald’s instead to try and make me feel better with some ice cream. It worked, and made me feel glad, even until I got into the hospital. I had never had a broken bone before up until that point in my life, so I didn’t know what to expect. We sat in the waiting room for about 5-10 minutes, until the nurse came into the room to tell us that the doctor was waiting. We got into
Soon after I asked how long something like this would take to recover from, because I was worried about basketball, my favorite sport. I was told it would take some time, and that they didn’t know exactly when I would be back to playing. After that, the paramedic even told me how he had just moved here and that this was his first football game to try and help get my mind off of the pain. Then came one of the worst parts, putting me in an air cast. The paramedic said that once it was on, I shouldn’t be able to feel pain for the ride over to Mason City. To do this they had to take off my cleat (which hurt enough as it is), cut off my sock, then lift up my leg to be able to slide the air cast underneath it. I screamed in pain. Then all of the sudden it was under me and they could put my leg back down. They got me and my leg all strapped up and ready for the ride.
I was thirteen, and I had just come home from a school softball game. My friend Dalton had invited my sister and I to come and swim at the neighborhood pond. My sister stayed home, but I got permission to go. After a while of swimming, Dalton looks at me claims that he’ll jump out of a tree near the bank if I jump out. Of course, I accepted my friend’s little dare and climbed into the tree, focusing on the seven-foot-deep drop-off off of the bank. Regrettably, I didn’t jump far enough. My right leg landed in the drop-off, but my left leg hit the clay, which caused all of my weight to shift to my left foot. I felt an immense pain in my ankle and started screaming while crawling over to the bank as Dalton ran to get my mom. After I finally made it to the emergency room, I found that I had broken my fibula at an upward slant, which caused the upper part of the bone to slam down into my ankle.I had completely blown out every ligament and tendon on the left side of my ankle. I had to have a plate and four screws implanted into my fibula along with the surgical repair of all of my ligaments and tendons. The entire ordeal left me extremely interested in the human body, and this interest was heightened when I had to get my appendix removed a few months later and again when I took Anatomy and
I was practicing at my competitive cheerleading gym, when my life was unexpectedly turned upside down. While performing a back walkover back handspring, there was a loud “pop” as I hyperextended my right elbow, tearing both my muscle and my ulnar collateral ligament. I promptly sunk to my knees and began sobbing. The next thing I knew, I was laboriously working through physical therapy at NASA Bone & Joint Specialist instead of relaxing at the beach. This unexpected injury would manifest to be a significant
Living in Idaho I have had the pleasure of being seen or shadowing optometrists who have attended the College of Optometry. Dr. Hopstad, a graduate and an Adjunct Clinical Professor at Pacific University College of Optometry spoke very highly of the program offered and how well they prepare their graduates to be successful in their own practices. While shadowing Dr. Hopstad it was impressive to watch his leadership, how he dealt with the diverse patients, and the expertise he held on all the ______ he attended to. Dr. _, whom I also shadowed, held the same professional expertise and abilities. As alumni they spoke highly about the program and the university sparking my interest to apply for acceptance. It was evident from my experiences and
It was not long before I went to the doctors and got an x-ray confirming my foot was broken. The doctor told me I would have to wear a boot and crutches for six weeks. I giggled as I was always curious how it is to be in one of those cool boots. I miscalculated this small crack and chip on the x-ray and figured I will be alright. To be honest, I was relieved since my
I am walking off the school bus after an amazing friday at school like most fridays usually are. I can’t stop thinking about the party at my friends house tonight. I get ready for the party as fast as possible. We are just about ready to walk out the door and my mom asks me to run upstairs and grab something for her. So I run right upstairs full of excitement and on my way back down the stairs I trip on the third stair from the bottom and land on the floor. All of a sudden I feel this sharp pain in my foot. It has happened before so I just get up and say “ow” and figure the pain in my foot would go away in a couple of minutes. At my friends house I try my best to play the games and act like nothing's wrong, but I still have this thought in the back of my head that my foot hurts. After the party, I get back home and realize that my foot still hurts. Soon enough I am at the doctors and I see my x-ray. I have a stress fracture in my foot. That meant no basketball, no running around, and little activity. This is the first time I have broken a bone and it takes me a while to used to the boot, the crutches and the new lifestyle. Overcoming my
It all started in seventh grade. I was in p.e. And we were playing Dodgeball. This was normal because that was what we usually played. That day was different, I went to throw a ball and managed to tear my kneecap off. When I threw it, I went to turn, but my foot stayed still and my knee popped nine times and I fell to the ground. I didn’t think anything of it because my knees will randomly pop. I got back up and walked away like nothing happened because I am used to my knee popping. But I only took about five steps before it started to hurt. I must not have noticed it because of the adrenaline that was in me from the game. Mr.Hookfin noticed and helped me to the nurse's office. I limped there because I couldn’t put any pressure on it without it wincing from the pain. It all happened before 10:00a.m. and my dad didn’t get there until noon because he was in school. He got me a doctors appointment for 3:00 p.m. because it was really swollen. When we got there they were not sure why it was so bad, so they gave me painkillers and I had to go for an M.R.I. scan the next day. Later we found out that I tore my kneecap off and had to get surgery to put it back in place. I went in for surgery two days after that. The surgery itself only took a few hours, but rehab to get it to work normally again was torture. Everyday for two hours I had to go in and work on my leg. It started of simple, but once I started to get
I have shadowed three physicians in a clinical setting, which have been unique opportunities to experience life in a healthcare setting. Currently, I continue to shadow Dr. Philip Kum-Nji, a general pediatrician who takes his time to review patient charts with me and elaborates on medical findings of patients before seeing them. Moreover, I observe the way he interacts with his patients and family members as well as other healthcare personnel. Similarly, I have observed him perform medical procedures such as infant circumcisions. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Nehemiah Thrash, an internal medicine/hospitalist in July of 2015. Similarly, he went through patient charts and described to me the medical findings and conditions
An exposed rock, due to the minimal snow conditions of early season skiing, clashed with my skis sending me flying out of my bindings head first into the snow. My natural instinct was to put my hands out to protect my fall, big mistake. The pressure put on my right thumb, due to the immense force of the fall, sent pain shrieking through my body. I knew something was wrong immediately, but I neglected to say anything was seriously wrong with me. After many x-rays and doctor's visits the doctor was able to determine, I had a complete tear of my Ulnar Collateral Ligament in my thumb as well as bone fragment scattered around the cavity of my thumb. Surgery was 100 percent necessary to repair the damage done and the time table for
After five excruciating hours of intense training and drilling of each choreographed movement, I was debilitated and slept the entire way home. I crawled into bed, staying awake only long enough to set my alarm for practice the next morning. My mind was utterly immersed in dance; I ran the dances through me head constantly, imagining each muscle contraction that would be required to execute move flawlessly. As captain of the dance team, I was required to know every movement, every count, every formation by heart as soon as it was taught to the team, even if I was not part of that specific number. Jumping out of the bed, ready for five more grueling hours of practice, I suddenly collapsed on the floor, screaming from the pain shooting up my right leg. A few minutes passed and I was able to get up and hobble around. I then made the calamitous mistake of participating in another grueling five hours of dance practice, with only a light brace to support my agonizingly painful ankle. Fast forward through two weeks of a swollen ankle, crying in pain with any movement of my ankle, doctor prescribed ice and rest and x-rays, to the horrid moment when my doctor told me I had torn a ligament in my foot: an injury which has a history of being near impossible to fully heal from. I was told to be prepared that I may never run or dance again; I may even be extremely limited when walking. The weeks turned into months of physical therapy, with little to no improvement. Every doctor’s visit consisted of the same warning: probable surgery with little hope of extraneous activity after recovery. But I defied the odds: I completely avoided surgery, got my walking-boot off after twelve long weeks, and went for a mile walk nearly pain free within a year of my injury. But probably the most important milestone in my recovery occurred one year after my injury: I got my driver’s license. Although I still live with lingering pain in my ankle, I understand
That was when I met one of my hero’s in this world Dr. David A. Joos and what I think is fitting my loving sidekick and mentor Kelly. At our first visit I went through another round of x-rays. He tried everything to help me become better without having to do surgery, even casting my foot to relax it, but the pain persisted and sadly it was hard to be happy. Kelly an assistant at the clinic was the one who did my cast and seemed to always make me smile when I was about to cry. After an MRI, words I had been dreading finally came, “I am sorry, but you need total reconstructive surgery, you have flat feet and your tendon is beyond repair from the first doctor.” I will admit, later that night I did cry as yet again what I wanted to do so badly was taken away from me. I wouldn’t be able to do volleyball anymore. Strike two.
A few years ago I was demoing a kitchen, and I decided it would be a great idea to kick down what was left of a wall. All was well for a few days, until I was suddenly struck with a debilitating pain in my leg. Deciding it was probably muscle pain I tried to treat it ice packs instead of going to a doctor. I ended up with some of the worst pain I have ever experienced for almost an entire week. After almost half of a month of this I finally relented to going to see an orthopedist, a doctor specializing problems involving bones. The doctor put me in a giant machine called an MRI for almost an hour, just to get a full image of my leg. Not only did the scan cost a lot of money it found a strange haze around my femur. The doctor