Dealing With Having Back Surgery :: Personal Narrative Athletics Medical Sports Essay

Dealing With Having Back Surgery Starting my freshman year at County High School, I played basketball and loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t be conceited enough to say I was good, but God did bless me with the talent to play. My life revolved around the sport of basketball; some would say I slept, ate, and breathed every part of it. I spent all my time training and practicing to make myself a more dedicated athlete. This dedication not only helped me as a player, but also molded me into the person I am today. It somehow helped to prepare me for what defeat I would face with back surgery in the future. Beginning as a freshman I started every game never, but to sit on the bench unless there was a major problem. This repetitious cycle mirrored itself over and over again until there was a problem, physically, with my body. I had felt a pain in my back that ran down my leg for some time, but no one other than me knew of this pain. I am a very strong willed and determined person, not letting pain stand in my way. The pain started to vaguely effect my everyday activities, such as walking across Wal-mart which put me in agonizing pain. The only way I played basketball with this pain was by focusing on the goal I was out to achieve. 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. Tests after tests including MRI’s, X-rays, and experimental procedures were performed to show I had five ruptured disks in the lower lumbar section of my back. Tedious Examination done by a group of doctors concluded I had a crippling disease of the spinal column called spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal that causes compression of the spinal cord. (Lohr,1) If this disease was ignored any longer, it would lead to many other problems affecting other areas of my back to help support this weakness. It was an extremely rare case for an athlete my age.