Back Injury

 Back Injury

Some people only play softball in the Spring but, I play pretty much year round. So as soon as one season was over my next team started. During my freshman year of high school I started developing this strange back pain in my lower back. I kept going to the doctor and all they would say to do is ice and take ibuprofen. I continued to play through the pain except it continued to get worse and worse. The pain would get worse the more activity I was doing and just never get better.

During the summer of my sophomore year in high school I was guest playing for a team in a PGF tournament because they needed a pitcher. It was a 4 day tournament but I couldn't make it past the second day. I was barely able to walk after the two games on the first day. Then when I woke up that next morning I could not get myself up. My parents had to get me up and help me out the door. In the middle of the game that day, by dad had them pull me because I was barely able to throw. We drove eight hours back home. 

I went to the doctor the next day and my parents would not let us leave until they scheduled me for an x-ray. I got my x-ray and nothing came up so they scheduled me for an MRI. I got my MRI, turns out I had two bulged disks. My L-4 was slightly bulging out while my L-5 was completely degenerated, torn, and bulged out over my spinal cord which was causing all my nerve issues down my legs.

I then had to go to so many doctors to try to fix it. I went all the way to Sacramento and they gave me two options, they would give me pain medication or give me an epidural once a month, but would not give me surgery until I lost bladder control because I was to young. None of those options were going to fix the injury just temporarily take away the pain so we had to find another answer. I was told I would never get to play softball ever again. 

After a ton of looking we found this specialized back doctor in Chico, Ca. He put me on a machine called the DRX9000 that strapped my upper half to one side and my lower half to the other side. When it turned on it would slowly pull against each other so my vertebra could pull apart enough for the disks to slip back in. It finally began to work. I was back playing as soon as my next high school season started and I have continued to play since.