Have you ever had an injury that seemed to end your sports career before your eyes? Like hearing that you’ll be out for a season or maybe even, out forever? In and out of physical therapy trying to heal as fast as you can? We’ll, I can relate.

In 2017, I had woken up with unusual pain in my foot. When I walked it sent shooting pain up my leg. It looked a little swollen but I didn’t think much of it. I just told myself that I must have slept wrong. 

After a little I realized it was not getting better. Eventually I went to the doctor and they took an x-ray. From the x-ray all they could see was that it was inflamed so they put me in a boot and sent me to an orthopedic.  They also prescribed me some pain medications to ease the pain. 

The orthopedic took a bit to make an appointment but after a couple weeks I was able to be seen. They talked about how it could just be a little irritated or a spider bite but they did not believe it was anything  too serious. This made me happy because it meant I could hopefully walk without a boot real soon. Although the doctors still wanted me to get an MRI to be sure. After they took my MRI, they recommended I stayed in the boot until my results came back.

After one month, I was scheduled to see the orthopedic again. I couldn’t wait. I had such high hopes since they did not believe it was anything serious. I was still in pain but I didn’t let it get to me.  While I was waiting for the doctor to come in I was so anxious.

When the orthopedic came in and said he had bad news, my heart dropped. He told me that I had a bone infection which caused my bones to shift a little which then had lead to bursitis.

My dance career flashed before my eyes. There was no date given as to when I was able to resume physical activities. Then, they told me my next step was to go to the podiatrist. 

 Once I was seen by the podiatrist, they took more x-rays. I was then told that I would have to get these special sneakers with insoles once my inflammation is gone to get out of the boot.

Also, the podiatrist told me to see a physical therapist to help build up my foot to be able to start to walk normally again. 

It took a long seven months until the boot was finally able to be removed. It was a long and painful time in physically therapy trying to walk properly again.

I was still constantly in and out of doctors to make sure it never came back. They all told me that doing a sport didn’t seem like the greatest idea. They told me to just relax and let my foot be. Hearing this news made me furious.

Dancing was all I knew. I’d been dancing since I could walk, and it was always a career aspiration of mine to become a dance teacher. So to hear that sports as a whole seemed to be officially off the table made me heartbroken.  

The summer of 2018, I kept going to physical therapy to help my foot but at home I would still dance a little. It hurt a bit but I was determined to get back to what I love. Regardless of what the doctors had told me.

Right before summer came to an end I had received a card in the mail saying there was a dance studio having an open house. I had convinced myself that I was going to check it out and audition for the team.

My family thought I was crazy but proud that I didn’t let the odds of what the doctors say stop me. After auditioning, it turns out I made the team. I was beyond happy.

Still to this day I dance competitively and the bone infection has not come back. I know that at the time finding out about the news seemed like a huge boulder in the road that seemed unbearable to move but I’m so glad I conquered it.