In the beginning of November, about a month and half into my swim season, I started to notice a pain in right shoulder. This pain in my shoulder progressed and it made it hard for me to complete practices let alone swim the events that I enjoyed swimming.

As the season went on, the pain in my shoulder increased to the point where I could not finish warm up without having to start kicking on the side for the rest of the practice. After practice, I would get bags of ice taped to my shoulder to help with the pain. My geography teacher liked to make fun of me for it as I had class right after practice.

Winter break came along and I decided that it was time to go to the doctor. I was then sent for X-rays and to see a specialist about my shoulder. Although my x-rays looked as if there was a bone missing or out of place, I was told that I just had rotator cuff tendonitis and it would go away with rest and stretching (Which didn't happen and I later found out that the specialist was wrong and there was something else that was causing the pain). With this information, I went to rehab, did stretches on my own and when my team went on our winter training trip, I kicked the whole time to avoid straining my injured shoulder.

My shoulder started to feel a little bit better and with only a month and a half left of the swim season, I tried my best to hang up my kick board and swim as much as I could to finish out the season strong. Although I usually ended up grabbing the kick board or stretching on the side almost every practice at some point, I was still pushing myself as hard as I could physically push.

At the championship meet, I was ready to prove that I could still compete and drop time. The whole weekend, I had extreme pain in my shoulder, but I pushed through it as it was the last meet and I had nothing to lose. It was now or never. I ended up getting personal bests in all three of my events and the event that I time trailed.

Since the season was over, I thought that my pain would be too. Oh how I was so wrong. Now, four months later, I am in doctor's offices and getting MRI's to see if my shoulder pain needs surgical intervention or if I am going to spend my summer with a physical therapist. Both seem like unpleasant solutions.

After this season, I learned that when you have an injury, you have to tell your coach or doctor and treat it as soon as possible so it does not get worse. I wish I got help for my injury back in November instead of pushing myself despite the pain that I was in. Maybe if I got help seven months ago and took a real break and didn't push myself as hard, my shoulder would not still be injured. Now, because of my denial of my injury and me pushing myself, I do not know if I can continue my swimming career and that hurts more than the pain in my shoulder.