The Adventures of Lefty S

A Brief history to what has been the most reoccurring injury in my entire life.


Number 1
Early April of '06

Bunch of friends went up to Mountain High. LAST run of the day, going down the home stretch, sun straight in my eyes, didn't see a mini-ramp. Suddenly got airborne and tried to land balanced. Landed a lot harder than I expected and my upper body crashed down but I instinctively stuck my left arm down to steady myself. The result was about 200+ pounds of force onto it and it dislocated. But I wasn't done wiping out. The pain was incredible and I ate the snow and tumbled all w/ my shoulder out. I managed to pop it back in myself (I learned how to on TV somehow), and snowboard slowly back down to the mountain for Medical Treatment.

Number 2
Regionals 2006

Made a really hard cut during the game vs. New Mexico, and my cleats gave way on the cruddy La Jolla grass, left arm down to instinctively right myself. Second pop. LOTS of pain. This was the first one caught on video. lol gross.

Number 3
Club Sectionals 2006

I made an effort to play at sectionals with the Long Beach team, but this time while playing UCLA, i laid out for a D, almost got it and landed awkwardly and thus forcing a THIRD dislocation. This was the most severe one I had, and a doctor from Faded basically had to lay me down, stick his CLEAT into my left armpit and YANK on my left arm to get it back into the socket.


Number 4
Labor Day, 2006
Playing with EBAY at this Coed tournament. Long story short, laid out 2 feet up in the air to snag a throw, landed hard... POP. Right then and there, the pain was so great I almost passed out.

Time for some Medical treatment right?

I went to the doctor a 3rd time and he recommended Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, so I went to Pro Sport Therapy for 6-7 weeks and had exercises done to strengthen my rotator, as well as massages to even out the scar tissue. Apparently I was the first injury there from Ultimate Frisbee. I should seriously ask them to put my jersey up on their wall with all the ones from the Ducks and Angels lol.

Number 5
Southwest Regionals, 2007

So the therapy helped immensely and I was back playing without the pain. However, after our first round loss to UCSD in Arizona, we were running a cup drill where I was part of the cup. We crashed and with my left arm out, and a teammate crashed right into the back of my shoulder really really hard. The force was enough to knock me down as well as dislocate my shoulder the 5th time. This one pissed me off the most because it wasn't even in a game, and it was the first one after all that work trying to rehab it. That was it... I was out the rest of the season and for the club season.

Number 6
Irvine Invite, 2008

On the mark, shot my arm out really fast to block a high release... bad idea. This dislocation was the warning light... my shoulder is a lot more jacked up than I thought. It didn't even take lay out bids, or collisions to knock it loose... It was dislocating with my own motions and force. Surgery is definitely needed in the future.

Number 7
Yesterday

My roommates and I went swimming and were doing lay-outs into the pool. I ran really hard for one, but slipped on the tile near the edge of the pool. The force of my upper body going nowhere coupled w/ my lower body slipping contorted my body and my arms went in different directions. My shoulder was already being pushed to it's limit and by hitting the water at a very awkward angle, the shoulder popped. It hurt pretty bad but what was worse was that obviously I didn't have my shirt on, so my roommates were treated to what a dislocated shoulder looks like. Pretty gross stuff.


Anyway... the plan now is to finish up this season (carefully), and plan Arthroscopic Surgery on my shoulder in the end of 2008. I want to thank all of you guys who have expressed concern for my shoulder... all the scoldings, all the encouragement. Thank you, and does anyone have any ibuprofin?

-Hammie