The Comeback- Whitney Wagganer

After a week of not walking, no putting pressure on her leg, and not showering, Whitney went back to her doctor, Doctor Azar. He told Whitney she could start walking again and start doing physical therapy to make her quadricep strong again. He said it would take a lot of time and patience to get used to everything again. Whitney started doing physical therapy. When she first started doing therapy, she couldn't even lift her left leg. The doctor said it's because her leg was "still asleep." One day in physical therapy, after weeks of doing it, Whitney was very determined to lift her leg. Then she did it. She was so excited and very proud of the process she had made in just weeks. Whitney knew, anything was possible at this point. A couple more weeks went by, and Whitney went back to the doctor. He told her, she didn't have to use the crutches anymore and that she could stop wearing the brace, but she still had to wear it to sleep to keep her extension from being anything less than one-hundred and eighty degrees. Whitney then got released to start doing squats and working on getting her full range of motion. Once Whitney started getting more and more physically active again, she went to the gym and shot baskets with the Riverside Lady Rebels. The coach, Spencer Hoffman, only allowed her to shoot baskets from below the free throw line. Whitney would get very discouraged with him because she wanted to be like the rest of the girls like Hattie Milligan, Haven Robertson, Brittney Sain, and Lotti Hoffman and shoot from farther distances. Spencer Hoffman made her realize, after talking with her, that Whitney can't do those things because her leg was not ready. She wanted to be ready so bad. She knew she couldn't over push her self because she didn't want to go back to square one. She cried her self to sleep many nights. She even got frustrated with herself because couldn't do many things she loved, like swimming, running, or even track anymore.