It was November 5th, 2014. I had just finished a full afternoon of Ballet and Hiphop classes. We did a routine to “E.T” by Katy Perry that day. We had been working on different tricks over the last few weeks, but this week was different.
I was focusing on doing backflips, I could do them, I was nailing 4 in a row. My dance teacher and one of the seniors in my class were on either side of me, spotting me to make sure I wouldn’t fall.
The class had already ended but me and one of my friends, Lucy*, had stayed after to work on backflips. The room was warm and muggy, the air outside was crisp, it was late, around 9:00 pm.
Neither me or Lucy had our driver’s licenses at this point, so our moms were waiting for us to finish up. They don’t typically come in to watch, but for some reason, on this day; my mom, my brother and Lucy’s mom came to the doorways to watch us practice.
I was so proud of myself, my 6th backflip however; did not land so well. I went for it, like I did with the other 5, something happened mid-flip. I don’t remember much, but I know that I felt a pop and landed on the ground, next to the mat, on the hardwood floor. I stood up and instantly knew I was injured, I just wasn’t sure what part of me was hurt.
The pain flooded in, my elbow was dislocated. I didn’t say anything, I was in a state of shock, my mom could tell from my face that I was hurt. “NOPE, NO MORE” I heard her shout. I dizzily walked over to the doorway into the hallway. Lucy’s mom sat in the hallway and looked at my elbows in comparison to each other. I was in so much pain, but I hadn’t started crying because I hate when people see me cry. Mom said that she was going to take me to the Emergency Room.
The second I walked outside, I started crying, bawling my eyes out. The cool air hit me as I walked to my mom’s car. I got in her car and held my arm out straight in front of me. Every turn she took made pain rush through my arm. It felt like the longest car ride of my life, when in reality it lasted less than 10 minutes.
When we got to the hospital it was pretty empty. There was an old man in the corner of the waiting room, and the two receptionist were at the desk asking about paperwork. I sat in the waiting area, screaming in pain. It was the worst pain I was also really mad that they weren’t letting me in the room. I have ever experienced.
After about 20 minutes of waiting for them to bring me to a room, the finally brought me in. The nurses asked me all the usual questions “Are you pregnant?” “Do you smoke” “How much do you weigh?” “How did you get hurt?”, blah, blah, blah… I just wanted the pain to stop but they had to keep asking me questions.
They put an IV in my non-dislocated arm, and drugged me up on morphine. The pain started to fade away, but I became loopy. I was giggly and sassing my nurse, I still don’t remember everything I did when I was drugged but, but I know the pain was gone.
They brought me in to get x-rays done. The nurse in charge of the x-rays was really nice, she was pregnant, I’m not sure why I remember that. But I was giving her a lot of sass, because she kept making me move my arm, and when I moved it, it hurt. When I moved my elbow into a different position to get the x-ray done, I accidentally popped my elbow back itself.
In the long run, I am really glad I did it myself, because it would have hurt more to have one of the doctors do it. They brought me back to my room and finished up and gave me a sling to wear. I wasn’t able to dance for a couple of weeks, but I couldn’t do hiphop for over a month. Putting weight on my arm hurt, for months after my elbow healed. My elbow still pops once in awhile, but I’ve been back to hiphop for over 3 years now.
Moral of the story: don’t do backflips. It’s not worth it, it’s so easy to get hurt while doing it. My hip hop class hasn’t tried backflips again since that night, but we still do other tricks that aren’t as risky. Don’t try to do a backflip. Just don’t do it.
*Name changed for confidentiality
Photo credit: Nick Moise via Foter.com / CC BY
1 Comment
I liked your story, and I can see how it would have been very scary to break your arm in that way. It stinks that you had to take time off from dance because of it. I think that this wasn’t a huge mistake because you were trying to push yourself harder and learn new tricks for your hip hop class so be proud of yourself for trying something new and scary.