Injuries suck, simple as that.

I am quite familiar with the whole idea of injuries.. sadly.

I have had knee problems for the past two years, so I am used to it by now. But, when I hurt my lower back during my most recent tournament, I panicked.

I guess I never fully realized how much your back does for you, and how much you use it, until it hurt so much that I was afraid to move at all. Thankfully, this injury happened during one of the last points of the set, so I was able to sit down and rest it right away. I told my coaches that I think I had hurt it, and one of them tried to pinpoint the exact location by pressing on my lower back. I started tearing up because of the extremity of the pain. I sat out for the rest of the game and attempted to stretch it out in the hopes that it might feel better and I could play in the finals. But after the game had finished, the pain had not become any less, if anything, the pain was even worse than before. I sat out of the finals and cheered on my team from the bench. Later that night, I went home and iced my back over and over. The next day I stretched it out and iced it more. It was still tender but slowly getting better, which means I didn't do any permant or serious to my back. Thank goodness.. I went to practice two nights after the intial incident and I felt pretty close to good as knew. I guess it was just a scare, nothing serious. You have no idea how grateful I am for that fact.