Like my first blog, softball has been my life. Here is my skills video from high school back in 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtRwThWWMc0.
As I was entering my sophomore year of high school, I made these videos to showcase myself. The videos were fun but super embarrassing when friends watched them around me. For that video, I probably through about 100 to 150 for that perfect pitch. During my bullpens, I would throw about 50-60 pitches and go into the game and throw about 100-120 pitches plus my warm up. That puts so much stress on your elbow. My elbow pain started about my junior year of high school. All my coaches thought it was just tennis elbow, which is pain on your elbow but can be healed with time off and wearing a band to stop the feeling.
The advertisement describes the band to help relieve pain. “The Tennis Elbow Band sits comfortably just below the crease of the elbow and provides pain-relieving compression to the sore area. The design includes a silicone pad and extra elastic strap for additional, targeted compression where you need it most. Position the silicone pad on the outside of the elbow to relieve the pain from lateral epicondylitis, more commonly known as Tennis Elbow, or move the silicone pad to the inside of the elbow for relief from medial epicondylitis, more commonly known as Golfer’s Elbow. The band is constructed from our breathable and compressive material for the most comfort and effectiveness.”(https://www.bioskin.com/tennis-elbow-band.html). After high school, I took a year off to let my arm rest.
When I started going to school at Cal State University of Bakersfield, I started to pitch again. Since I was academically ineligible since transferring, I did most of the pitching at practice. When I became eligible, I still continued to pitch. Around January of 2018, I started to have pain again. Of course I thought it was just tennis elbow so I would wear my band. On March 18th, I went to the doctor at SCOI in bakersfield to receive the worst news I could hear. “You need to take time off. You have a stress fracture in your elbow and this can become very serious if you do not rest.” I bursted into tears. He said for the next 4 weeks, I would have to wear an arm brace. From what my doctor told me, a stress fracture is caused my repetition to a movement that can cause irritation within the body. My repetition was pitching. After this, my mental side when negative. “Well if I can never come back healthy?” “Is it even worth coming back?” My head was all bad.
After my 4 weeks, my doctor continued to sit me out. My start date of March 18th was supposed to last until August 2nd. That was about 5 months of no pitching, nothing with my right arm. This made my head become more negative. During those five months, I was very emotional. I was not happy with who I was becoming and I was not happy with who I saw myself as. When I came back to school, I still had pain. The 5 months off was not helping me and I became very frustrated. I was not motivated at all. I decided to give up softball. After retiring from softball at the age of 20, I started to go to a nerve doctor at SCOI. My new doctor now told me that it was a nerve problem. My funny bone nerve is actually caught in my bones and when I was doing the repetition of the pitching motion, I was sort of snapping my nerve in my elbow out of place and it would pop back into place. This made so much more sense. To this day, the thought of surgery is still up in the air but I will never be able to play competitive softball again.
Work Cited: https://www.amazon.com/OTC-Tennis-Elbow-Thrapeutic-Insert/dp/B000JNPHW4,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtRwThWWMc0.
Kaycee's Sporting Injuries 