I had a complete ATR about  two and a half months ago while I was Irish Dancing. It was the second practice after the  Christmas/New Year break and all of us at the studio were excited to be back and dancing. We were going through our usual warm-ups, and everything felt great! I went up for a glide (for those of you unfamiliar with Irish Dance terms, a glide is just simple jump). When I landed, I heard a loud pop and felt something hit my heel. Thinking one of the nails had popped out of the seam of the wooden boards, I stumbled forward and looked back . . . the board was perfectly fine, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t really put weight on my right foot. My dance teacher came over and helped me to a chair where I sat, icing my foot for the rest of practice. It hurt pretty bad, but not enough to make me cry. I was pretty sure that it was only a sprain or something. After all, I had been pretty stiff from not dancing for a few weeks and I am a healthy teenager - nothing bad ever happens to us, right? Wrong.  Close to the end of practice I tried to get up and walk just to prove that I was perfectly fine and able to drive home. That didn’t work too well and my parents had to come get me.

The next day we found out that I had completely ruptured my AT and the best route was surgery. The surgery was scheduled for 5 days after the injury, and everything went smoothly. I was put in a cast for several weeks then was moved to a hideous walking boot. But hey, at least I was able to walk again. Now, I’m out of the boot and in normal shoes. For the most part, I can walk normally, but dancing is still a long way off.

It’s been a trying few months, especially with St. Patrick’s Day and not being able to show my Irish spirit by performing, but everything has been going well. The doctors say that I’m ahead of the curve. All I’m focused on now is getting back to my love - dance.