Personal Narrative: Childhood Injuries

I was eight months old when my chubby little body broke its strongest bone. Being my outgoing, curious self I was beginning to become more and more comfortable with the edges of my parents bed. With my brother not paying attention, I decided to test my knowledge of life. The result of me falling to the ground is captured in photographs, a chubby kid with a groin high blue cast, sitting on top of the same bed.

The summer between my 7th and 8th grade year was very spontaneous. This was not a summer I imagined, (in a good way). I traveled to many states in the USA. I rode on roller coasters, and wondered around in a safari. Best of all, I dozed in a fancy hotel. Over the summer I also celebrated my birthday. That was my best birthday ever.

Everyone has a memory that they could remember vividly, whether it be the best day in their life, or a wedding. My memory, involves none of that. Instead, it involves a lot of pain. Breaking my wrist for the first time, still haunts me to the this very day. I still can feel it after the incident occurred in early 2008.

A time I had to overcome adversity in my life was when I became injured during the middle of cheer tryouts. At the time I was very passionate about competitive cheer, and my goal was to make the junior five team. When I got to tryouts everyone was tumbling, stunting and doing the dance routine. My adrenaline was pumping as I went to warm up my tumbling and throw a roundoff, back handspring, layout. I was determined to accomplish this for tryouts and impress my coach, but I was still very nervous. As I was running into the roundoff back handspring, I knew something was bound to go wrong. The next thing I knew I was in the middle of the air and suddenly landed on my knees, with my ankle twisted under me. My face got bright

On September 2nd 2016 my best friend, Ashley Minor, who is a single mom of two, was working her twelve house shift at the hospital. At the end of her shift her life stopped for a short time when she received a phone call that her 8 year old son Teagan, was hit by a car, and had multiple injuries.

Three concussions. Five months. The hardest hit to my life so far was me being hit. The physical pain of headaches, the mental pain of the slower brain processes, and the emotional pain of losing the ability of playing the sport that I love so dearly, have all affected life in many aspects. I was removed from sports, dance, school, and even at times I felt like I was removed from my own body.

Today is the first football game in my high school career. I am beyond excited so the school day goes by very fast. I then go into the locker room where I meet many of my teammates who are very excited. They all are saying, “ What day is it?! Gameday!” Today we play the De La Salle Spartans who are a respected program in the football community. It is now time for warm ups and me being the punter of my team I go out early for warm ups. I then warm up my leg and after I do that, the team comes out and I join them for warm ups. Finally, it is game time, the moment I have been waiting for all summer. Our team wins the toss so as the starting tight end for my team I go out with the offense for our first drive. We end up going three and out so I have to

Throughout our lives, every person encounters hardships that put a strain on other aspects of our lives. The biggest hardship that I have faced was taking care of my wife after she suffered a severe head injury while at work. The injury was the result of a salad fridge door falling and striking the back of her head, causing her to receive a severe concussion that lead to post-concussion syndrome. As a result, she became completely dependent on me. Some of the major hardships that we faced during these times are finances, helping her cope with her injury while she recovered, and maintaining my 4.0 GPA.

Over the past four years, I have seen more doctors than an average person will see in a lifetime. From endocrinologists to neurologist, I have tirelessly sought medical treatment for multiple brain injuries I incurred at a young age. Through my personal struggle, I learned that there is limited treatment for concussions and traumatic brain injuries in the state of New Mexico. It has become apparent that there is a lack of treatment not only for brain related issues, but for all health issues in the state of New Mexico, especially in rural communities such as mine.

On February 8, 2016, throughout an extremely aggressive basketball game, my life drastically changed. After three strenuous quarters, my team was losing by five points and needed a miraculous win over our opponent. One of my teammates stole the ball from our rival and made a prolonged pass across the court during the last six minutes of the competition. As my feet left the ground in hopes of completing the play, a heartless player from the opposite team intentionally charged my body with an intense force causing me to land on my right knee in an absurd manner. Consequently, the healthy athlete that I was, became someone unable to walk or get herself up off the court.

Four years ago, my entire life changed without warning. I was in a bike accident that ended in a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), which left me unconscious for a few hours and caused several seizures. This injury was enough to make my doctors unsure as to if I would be able to walk, talk, and function correctly. Not only did this affect my life at the time, but it still affects my life every day, and may affect me for many more years. Most people do not understand the effects of brain injuries, even if they know someone who is afflicted, and may even assume that after that person is healed that they will return to normal. This single day in my life, one that I will never fully remember, is also one that I will never forget.

It is time to speak about my injury that happened about two years ago. A lot of people nowadays ask me almost every day “Deshaun why don’t you play football for the M state Fergus Falls Spartans? “ and I tell them I didn’t get all of my football equipment in time, so the coach didn’t let me play, but in reality, I can’t play because I have a very bad back injury. So now for the people that are curious about what happened to my back here is my story from the beginning to the end.

that we're conditioned to not ask questions and have been marginalized into this as our only source of news .

Yet another disruption to my junior year education, I leave school early to go to the doctor’s once again. As I drive home my leg is visibly shaking on the pedal.