“Be careful,” my dad said to me as I was getting out of the car for tumbling practice. A little while later I was staring down the blue, spring floor runway like I had a million times; but I never expected what came next.

It was February 19, 2008, and I was getting ready to throw a tumbling pass I had only worked on for a few weeks. At about 7:00 p.m. after I had thrown that pass, both my parents received a phone call from my coach.

“You need to come to the gym right away. Your daughter has broken her arm. The bone isn’t sticking out, but you need to come right away,” he told my mom.

When they arrived, the sight they saw was not your typical injury. Both bones in both of my arms had snapped in half and I was laying on my stomach about halfway down the floor with my arms pointing the wrong direction.

My dad was the first one to get there. He came, sat down by me and talked to me.

“I just want to give you a hug right now,” I told him.

I wanted nothing more than to get up and try my pass again. But unfortunately, my arms were pointing all different directions and I was laying in a puddle of my own pee which I was unable to control due to the shock my body was in. It was too much shock to even cry, I screamed at the beginning but eventually went numb.

The paramedics came fairly quick and wrapped up my arms to put me on a stretcher.

“Have you ever broken a bone?” one of them asked me.

“No” I said.

“Well now you have broken four” he told me.

I was helped to the stretcher then placed into the ambulance and taken to Wesley Medical Center.

I was not too happy about getting an IV. It had to be placed in my foot because they could not get to a vein in my deformed arm. The screams from earlier continued when they put the needle to my skin. I stayed in the E.R. for several hours after that, getting my bones reset and recovering from the anesthesia. I went home sometime after midnight. I slept sitting up straight on the couch that night, unable to lay down with my new full arm ceramic-like splints that bent at the elbow.

It affected everyone around me. I could no longer do anything for myself. Someone had to feed me, clothe me, bathe me and everything else. I was an infant again, but this time I was aware of what was going on and how to take care of myself. Being restricted that privilege is a very frustrating thing.

It affected some people emotionally too, my dad in particular.

“He was very upset. I had to be the calm and quiet one. Our roles completely changed that night,” my mom said.

He is still unable to see any gruesome bones.

“I just did not understand how that could happen,” he said.

I have been told how nervous and frantic he was. My coach was also affected by the sight. He was very protective of how far I pushed myself with my skills and did not tell me to try that skill again for a few years. They were the two people who saw my injury in the worst state.

While I was gone from school, my class sent me a giant support basket with a ton of candy and letters, which I still have to this day. I rested at home for the rest of the week. When I did go back, I had to take some half days out of exhaustion. I was still unable to feed myself when I went back full time. Luckily, I had an amazing teacher who let me stay in for lunch so I could eat without being embarrassed.

My friends took turns feeding me every day. We actually had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. Which led to a couple of “spit ups” from me onto my friends, who surprisingly still continued to help me.

I was in casts, splints, slings or braces of some sort for a little over eight weeks and was not cleared to go back to tumbling until the fall that year. Getting my casts off, I was more freaked out than I was when I actually broke my arms. I was scared they would cut to far and cut my arm.

The recovery process was fairly simple, with physical therapy to help the slight nerve damage in my right arm and strengthening stretches to help my arms get back to their full strength.

The whole thing was a very interesting experience.

When I was finally released to go back to tumbling, I went as soon as I could and took it lightly but was more than excited to be back at the gym.