If you know me and have seen that huge scar on my shoulder and have been wondering what it was from, you are about to find out.
In all started during my senior season at Archbold High School. We were practicing one day and I took an elbow straight to the shoulder. I remember that it hurt pretty bad right at first, but I didn't think it was anything too serious.
The next couple of days I still had shoulder pain and figured I should probably go to the doctor. We went to the doctor and got x-rays and couldn't really tell what it was. It's been so long I don't even remember what they thought it was at first.
Throughout the entire process I didn't sit out any practices or games because I could still play, I just had a ton of pain. I remember the day it started to hurt every time I shot the basketball. Luckily I was decent enough with my left hand that I would only shoot with my left hand in practice and save the pain for games.
We got a call from the doctor and I was told that I had an extra bone attached to the end of my humorous by my shoulder joint. The doctor in Wauseon recommended that I either get surgery or just let it go and live with the pain.
That doctor had never performed a surgery like that before.
There was a lot to consider. My axillary nerve was right where the bone was and that nerve controls the deltoid muscle in your shoulder. Surgery would be a great risk. If that nerve were to be damaged I wouldn't have been able to play college basketball because the muscle in my shoulder would've been damaged.
I believe that part stressed out my mom for than it did myself. Throughout this entire process I had felt peace and I knew that everything was going to be alright. I am so thankful that God is a God who brings peace.
We decide that surgery was the best rout to take because I did not want to play 4 years of college with shoulder pain. The next big thing we had to figure out was where we were going to have the surgery. We wanted it do be done by someone who has had experience performing that surgery. We checked the Toledo Hospitals, Cleveland Hospitals, The University of Michigan's hospital and we had no luck. After some research done by my mom she found that there was a surgeon who had experience with this type of surgery at The James hospital at The Ohio State University in Columbus.
The growth that I had in my shoulder was called an osteochondroma. Good luck saying that!
I remember meeting with the surgeon one morning and he was confident in his ability to remove the growth without any extra damage.
I remember waking up at like 3 o'clock in the morning the day I had surgery and felt peace the entire morning. My surgery began around 6:15 and lasted a couple hours.
When I woke up I remember being told that if I had feeling in my shoulder that the nerve was not damaged and I remember having feeling. It was such a relief.
God showed a lot of favor to me during that entire experience. One of the ways was the operation room nurses he provide who were on staff during my surgery. The nurse who was in charge had been one of my moms lifelong friends. They had been college roommates and were in each others weddings. She arranged the best group of operation room nurses that she knew. My moms friend was the last who held my hand as the anesthesia knocked me out and told me that everything was going to be okay and that she was going to be right by my side when I woke up.
Another way God showed me favor was through the success of the surgery. The surgery could not have gone any better. God provided the perfect surgeon and his hands were over the entire process.
That experience gave me a whole new perspective on trusting God and trusting in God's plan for me. God also taught me what it was like to have peace in the midst of something that could've been very unpeaceful for a lot of people. From day one of that entire process, I felt at peace and I knew that God was going to give me favor.
I am forever thankful for that event in my life. Every time I look or feel my scare I rememberer how amazing our God is and I am thankful that I am fully able to do so many things happily and healthy.
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