During her senior season of high school wresting, Kate felt something was off.
When Kate’s right shoulder dislocated from her socket during a wrestling practice, pain started to occur. Kate dismissed it at first but soon, this pain became persistent during every practice and started to impact her everyday life.
Her shoulder constantly dislocated while out on the mat and it held her back from taking good shots against opponents. Kate continued to persist through the pain until she could no longer reach for something or close a car door without discomfort.
“When I walked through the halls at school, I felt my shoulder being separated from the socket. It felt loose – that’s the only way I can describe it. It is a scary feeling when you know that your arm is not properly attached to your body, let alone wrestling with it,” says Kate. This injury had a tremendous impact on Kate’s life. “Wrestling was such a big part of my identity, and I couldn’t imagine not being able to wrestle,” Kate says.
When Kate went to see Dr. Alvin Su, a sports medicine surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health, Deptford for an MRI, she was hoping to receive a call back saying nothing was wrong. However, Kate learned that she had a Labral tear. Her shoulder was unstable and would need surgery.
“I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to the doctor’s office, but everyone at Nemours worked together to help calm my nerves and explain procedures in detail so I could understand what was happening. All my questions were always answered thoroughly and without judgement. I remember the first time I went in to have an MRI on my shoulder I had a panic attack. The team stopped the procedure and rescheduled me for a different date so that I could take anti-anxiety medicine beforehand,” Kate says.
After surgery, Kate attended physical therapy every week and looked forward to seeing progress. “I never thought I would be excited about being able to raise my arm all the way up, or at least an inch higher every week. Dr. Su’s confidence in his work before the surgery brought me peace of mind as well,” Kate says.
Kate went from eating, sleeping, and breathing wrestling to not stepping on the mat for months. “It is hard to see your body go from casually running six miles to being out of breath after a few feet,” says Kate. “I wanted to pick up right where I left off, deadlifting 200 pounds and repping out pullups, except I couldn’t. I have never felt both weaker and stronger at the same time in all my life. I was physically weak, not able to pick up a 15-pound weight with my right arm. But mentally I was strong, I knew I was showing up for myself and doing the work. I wanted to quit so many times, but we are nothing if not resilient.”
Kate has now fully recovered and is grateful to be back on the wrestling mat. She plans to attend Cornell University after graduation where she will study Law and is starting a varsity women’s wrestling team. Currently, Kate is training for the US Open in April. Through this experience, Kate learned that listening to your body should never be overlooked. “There is immense pressure for athletes at all levels to push through injuries and to be tough. One thing I learned is that taking time to recover IS being tough,” says Kate. “While my shoulder is fully healed now, my outlook on healing and recovery is to take it one day at a time. I admit sometimes I got too excited about my progress and took it too far, but I’m grateful for my physical therapist Meghan who was always there to keep me in check. I am the type of person who wants to excel at everything, and the way to excel at healing was to take it slow, which was hard for me. It was worth it, of course. I am back and better than ever. Whenever wrestling or life in general gets difficult, I remind myself what I went through and what I overcame. I know I am stronger and better for it.”
