05/03/2021
Subluxation? That’s a silly word! What’s that?
It’s when your joint partially dislocates. Most of mine haven’t been that bad, especially when there hasn’t been a trauma. I used to be able to do it on command at certain joints. I can normally catch it as it’s happening (normally at my shoulders), slide it back in, test for nerve or vessel damage, and then rehab it on my own. They’re normally a result of me doing something dumb or getting lazy with my movements, so there’s nobody to blame except for me and my collagen.
The traumatic ones though, those suck. The following story is about one of those. My worst one happened going into my sophomore year of HS. It happened on what my friends refer to as “Plude’s Bad”. This is one part of that day.
During a tackling drill at my school’s preseason football camp, I went against one of my teammates. The drill didn’t go well for either of us. He got a concussion and I MESSED up my right shoulder. It felt like it was dangling and I couldn’t move it at first. Then with the help of my left arm I got it in just the right place and felt a clunk. After that I could actually move it a little and it didn’t hurt as much. I didn’t get medical treatment for a few days— that’s a story for a different day. I eventually had a nerve conduction velocity test. The results said I had done a number on my axillary nerve. I went to PT and slowly got some function back in my shoulder. I was on the field for our Thanksgiving game after a long conversation about the risks with my PT, MD, and parents. I think I had 2 or 3 sacks in the game! My coaches were excited I was “back” but I knew, I wasn’t going to be playing football again.
The injury ended up being one of the best thing that happened to me. At the time I definitely didn’t think so, but in the long run it guided me into choices that would shape who I am today. It introduced me to my profession, made me shift my focus over to my true love, baseball, even though it was my second best sport at the time, and made me learn a lot about mechanics as I retaught myself how to throw. Without this experience I’d never be the clinician and coach that I am today.
