Health And Body Essay Research Paper In

Health And Body Essay, Research Paper

In all parts of life there are periods of adversity that we must face, the real challenge however, is what and how we gain from conquering those trials. There have been many times that I have been faced with adversity, it has happened in all aspects of my life at one time or another. Whether it is dealing with the ups and downs of hockey or balancing the pressure that comes with an elite hockey schedule and high school, there are always obstacles. Some of these challenges can bring about positive effects that influence the path of one’s life. In one such experience of mine, the amount of adversity was not near as great as the positive out come that came from my experience. It happened when I was thirteen, I suffered a hockey injury that helped me to realize the area I wanted to study and hopefully have career in. The time it took me to rehabilitate my shoulder was a time of great learning for me but it also came with a great deal of adversity. It was an injury that sidelined me for weeks while at the same time pushed me on my way to a new work ethic and a new enthusiasm for learning.

When I was in grade seven, I was playing my second year of peewee hockey and playing for my junior high school team as well. The junior high league allowed checking and the peewee league did not. Because of this I was not accustomed to the new aspect of hockey brought on by checking. I was injured in an intense game against our rival junior high, which was filled with plenty of checking. I was on the receiving end of a brutal check from behind which is something not permitted in any league, the player that hit me received a penalty and a game expulsion. I tried to continue playing but it was no use, I was barely able to raise my arm. I ended up in the hospital where the doctor informed me that I had severely dislocated my left shoulder and would have to miss up to three weeks of play. I had never been forced to miss hockey because of an injury before and it was the worst news I had ever heard. The time I missed from hockey was one of the most difficult periods I had been through up to that point.

The doctor at the hospital referred me to a physiotherapist, whom I met with three times. The physiotherapist, who seemed to be a little unfamiliar with my injury, gave me an exercise program that was supposed to heal my shoulder. Because the doctor and physiotherapist I initially met with were not sports specialists I would later be confronted with the fact that a dislocated shoulder takes more than just a few weeks to heal and it can’t actually be determined how long it takes until it has been healed. I religiously followed the exercise program given to me by my physiotherapist but was seeing minimal improvement.

After the initial three weeks was over I was still in a great deal of pain and still had trouble moving my arm. As obvious as the fact that I could not play was, I still tried to convince my parents that I could return to playing hockey. They felt it was better for me to have it checked by a specialist. Because I was still feeling pain I decide to take their advice. My dad arranged an appointment with one of the top orthopaedic/sports medicine specialists in Nova Scotia. She examined my shoulder and found that my previous rehabilitative regime was ineffective, the damage was worse than I had thought and she told me that I would not be able to participate in any contact sport for the next three to six weeks.

A referral from this doctor sent me to a physiotherapist and then a kinesiologist who gave me a different, more rigorous exercise program that produced great improvement to my shoulder. This program was much harder physically and took much more commitment to follow. I was getting up one hour earlier for school each morning so that I could do the exercises twice a day. I had never had to work so hard at something before in my life but returning to hockey as soon as possible was something I was very determined to succeed at.

While following this program I gained a strengthened work ethic. I realized for the first time that to accomplish something as big and as important as this, it would take a desire that out weighed all other distractions; I had made returning to hockey my main priority. This new understanding of the commitment it took to overcome such obstacles gradually showed up in other areas later on in my life.

Along with this new work ethic I also found I had developed an enthusiasm for rehabilitative sciences. The things being told to me by the therapists and specialists that I was regularly meeting with were fascinating to me and motivated me to try and gain more knowledge about what they were telling me. Through things like independent research into strength training and asking my physiotherapist as many questions as I could, I was gaining knowledge of the human body and how it works from a muscular standpoint. The things that I was learning about my body were a great deal easier to remember than what I was learning at school and I was getting enjoyment out of it as well.

The process of rehabilitating my shoulder ended up taking four weeks more than expected but with the guidance of the new specialists I was meeting with, it went smoothly and was a success. My shoulder healed in time for me to join my teams for play-offs and both ended up doing quite well. That however was not the gr