My sophomore year, I was going to be the starting varsity catcher on my high school baseball team. One game, midway into the season, I caught a ball wrong and it tore a ligament in my thumb. Lauren (TCO Physical Therapist) assessed my injury correctly and I ended up not having surgery and resting it in a removable cast. I spent the rest of that high school season resting it, doing some rehab, and trying to get it back to full health. During the summer ball season, I went back to pitching with the removable cast on. Towards the end of the season I got back to light bullpen catching, due to the rehab I did with Lauren.
When I played Fall baseball this year, I went back to catching in games. Unfortunately, I took a foul tip to the glove and it did the same thing to my thumb as before. This time Lauren recommended that I get surgery to fully repair the ligaments. I ended up talking to the surgeon and we ended up going through with the surgery. Throughout the post-surgery experience, I would meet with Lauren and we would talk about my condition both mentally and physically. After I finally got my cast off, the doctor was talking to me about not playing basketball ever again in order to keep my thumb safe for baseball. This was a really hard decision for me because, although baseball is my favorite sport and it's the sport I hope to pursue playing in college, I still love basketball.
Lauren and I talked it through and she supported my decision to play basketball and that I wouldn't get hurt if we continued to do the rehab that we had started doing. We continued doing the exercises until the basketball season started and we also played around with tape techniques. This season I was successful in playing varsity basketball for my high school and remaining injury free. While I played basketball injury free, the doctors are still unsure of how safe catching will be for my thumb and the longevity of my career. But overall, I had a great experience at TCO. They helped me through the entire process and I thank them so much.
