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Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
the clackamas print 9
bunded athletes persevere
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W.athletes rehabilitate their
Is as sports medicine pro-
ts; returning to the game ap-
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By Steven Weldon
The Clackamas Print
■nan year of high school PE, good ol’ free day,
Sever sport you wanted. My sport of choice,
11. All day, every day. I wanted to get as good as
j-youts were in a mere six weeks. My go-to move
■lit the defenders and get an open basket. It had
tor years. My slight frame and surprising agility
■fenders off guard, leaving them wondering what
■ned.
■midst of a game, I did just this. The same way I
lad been doing it, but this time I lost my footing,
lolled away, as I lay on the court. I clutched my
■ething hurts. “My knee!” I exclaimed as
Well, more than a tad. My hand was elevated above the
place it normally is. I had never in my life seen this grue
someness. I used the only reaction I knew at my young
age, a scream so loud people in Seattle no doubt heard
me.
Turns out I broke my left wrist in two places. I was
trapped in a cast for eight weeks. The worst part? I am
a lefty in every sport. Basketball team dreams? Down
the drain, at least for my freshman year. Coincidentally,
that was my best and only shot at making the team in
the future. Since then, my shooting, once in promising
development, suffered a sharp turn. While I did recover, I
experienced a major setback.
Every day, athletes are exposed to even worse injuries
than I was unlucky to have. Some promising individuals
suffer career-ending injuries.
Recently, the National Football League ran a study on
the effects of constant concussions and head trauma in their
former players. The disturbing find was that most players
suffer brain-related problem^ after their career, such
as depression and
problems.
Now a quick yet complicated procedure can create new
cartilage and get an athlete back to form without replac
ing the entire knee. It’s called microfracture surgery. The
surgeon creates tiny fractures in the bone, generating new
cartilage from a clot. For many who only play sports infre
quently, with physical therapy the recovery time is around
four months. Professional athletes, who have undergone
the surgery though, have a much longer road to travel.
Most recently, the Portland Trail Blazers’ center Greg
Oden had the surgery in September 2007 and missed his
entire would-be rookie season because of it. When he
returned, he, didn’t look like the player
that was seen in college and
high school ranks that made
him the player he was.
■er.
■mate of mine then identified
Iroblem. “Dude! Look
■t wrist, actu-
■s just a
Currently,
100 NFL players have
given permission for their
brains to be studied post-mortem
for the sake of trying to discover
what the long-term effects truly are and
how to curb the trend.
While many injuries are unavoidable, taking
precautions to lessen the long-term damage
is the key to stifling their effects.
In basketball, knees take
a huge toll. So much so
that the cartilage in the
joints will break
down. In the
past, this might
have called
for a knee
replacement
surgery.
Two years later,
he seems to finally be back at that
level of play, showing no signs of slowing by the
procedure.
While the young are lucky, aging players such as for
mer Blazer Brian Grant was not so lucky. He had frequent
problems with his knees in his years after the Blazers and
even underwent the same microfracture surgery, but he
could not be the same player he was prior to the injury
and announced his retirement before the 2006-2007 NBA
season, citing injuries holding him back from his original
form as his reason to leave the game.
Closer to home, the Cougars soccer team had a few
players suffer from injuries. Head coach Tracy Nelson
noted that one of her players suffered a tom ACL
(Anterior Cruciate Ligament), which requires six months
for a recovery with extensive physical therapy.
Soccer players have a very tough time with injuries
because of the physicality and stress put on the legs.
Common injuries include ankle injuries, knee injures and
pulled muscles. However, the Cougars have a huge help
with these injuries.
“We are lucky to have a great trainer [Kevin Arizo]
who works daily with our student athletes in rehab and
getting them back on the field in a timely manner,” said
Nelson.
While injuries can be devastating to an athlete’s career,
with proper treatment and care, the injury’s long term
effects can be lessened. Great advances in sports medicine
have made this possible, and maybe in the figure players
can come back faster and better than before.