I was in a boot my senior year for a torn tendon in the arch of my foot, so standing in general was really painful for me, even though my orthopedic doctor put me in a walking boot instead of an actual cast. Had I been in a cast and not able to stand without crutches, I wouldn't have been able to stunt and come back too soon, and retearing that same tendon a year later by running. I never felt like I could take the time off to be hurt, as I was cheering for both school and allstar, and had to submit my tryout to NCA in that window of time during my injury. Although I stayed in the boot as long as my doctor told me too, I knew it wasn't healing right by the amount of ibuprofen I was taking to make it through practice because I was standing on it for 3 hours a day, five days a week at the gym, school, and games. Having a coach ask me if I had forgotten how to hit a full up since my foot was in a boot was tough, but I guess it's why I never really wanted to sit out, and I guess it's where my "push through everything" mentality was formed.
Two weeks before Cheersport that year, I got hit in the chest at practice and my legs went numb. Tried to go full out, and I couldn't feel anything, other than intense lower back pain. My arms and legs were numb so I stopped stunting. The next two days were fine, other than my back being sore. Sunday, we were competing at a small competition to prepare our cheersport routines, and the pain was back after my first performance. I couldn't feel my legs walking off the mat and had to lay down in the warm up area crying, with what felt like everyone watching me. No one could really figure out what was wrong with me, but I still had to go out for the team I was filling in for at the time. I laid down until it was their warmup time, I didn't even touch up my hair or makeup (my mom did, which was a big deal for me, because I never let her do anything. That's how you know something wasn't right) I went out with the second team, and got hit in the chest again catching a front full (which in hindsight, was my bad, I was right underneath of it, but in the moment I wasn't thinking). Couldn't feel my legs or arms again but finished the routine. I was a mess. I couldn't get into the doctors until Wednesday, but that's when they realized I had a bulging disc in my lumbar region which was causing my legs to go numb, and the nerves in my shoulders were being pressed by my muscles being so tight from the stress of being in the gym seven days a week at that point.
Thursday at practice, even though everyone knew I really shouldn't be stunting, I still had to. It was the last practice before cheersport, and it was expected that everything was perfect (my stunt was, btw) but my back was hurting to the point of crying but I still had to keep stunting. After practice, I had to sit on a bus for 12 hours which wasn't fun for my back either but oh well.
I had tumbled in six different places during one of the routines at Cheersport, but in the warm up room I was bawling (again) because of how badly my back was hurting, and ended up having 3 of the passes pulled. I felt like a huge letdown to my team, seeing as how two of those passes were in the center of the mat.
The following week, I was still only doing three of the passes, but our tumbling score was the only thing that was lower than the second place team, so I told my coach that I was going to do all six passes so we could have a better quantity score, and he seemed pleased to hear that.
I would never lay blame on anyone but myself for allowing myself to cheer while injured. I had all the power to say, "no, I can't," but I chose not to.