Jaydon Mangiaracina
Sitting in the doctors office waiting for the news that can alter someone’s career with just one diagnosis, is something that some athletes have to face one day, for Chayse Bednarke it was sooner than she thought.
“Everything I worked for all ended with one diagnosis, well for now,” Bednarke said.
Softball had been Bednarke’s dream since she was little. As any athlete, you put in the work, hours on hours of the day. For Bednarke she did put in the hours but was always in pain, and not knowing why she was always in pain. She was recently diagnosed with Exertional Compartment syndrome, where you have two compartments in each leg where it builds pressure in those compartments, with having this syndrome you build up too much pressure that the compartments can’t deal with.
“And all four in both my legs had too much pressure in them which I didn’t know what that meant until I finally got a test to check the pressure where they stuck a needle in my leg like 24 times during activities they had me do so they could read the pressure,“ Bednarke said.
While playing softball Bednarke was majoring in sports management but with getting more time during the days since she isn’t in a sport she switched her major to exercise science which she feels she is better suited with.
Having to get this surgery interfered with her plans to play softball, with now having to go through college without the community of having a team as a support system. Since her surgery she is not on the softball team at Florida Southern College anymore. Bednarke also has a long journey ahead of her since she still hasn’t recovered fully from the surgery and still can’t run.
“Since I am still on campus and not technically playing a sport, I feel a little out of place just because I am not in my usual habitat. I don’t go to their specific gym anymore now I have to go to my gym out of school, I don’t wear softball gear anymore I just feel that I shouldn’t now that I am not on the team anymore so I definitely feel a little out of place and sometimes get a little sad when I see other athlete wearing there backpacks and stuff which its a feeling that’s hard to explain because it’s unfortunate I can’t play right now but I did what was best for my body but it still stinks,” Bednarke said.
With finding the obstacle of getting the injury Bednarke said she is still working forward to try to play again, that be at another school with other opportunities or back at FSC. While she still wants to play softball this isn’t what Bednarke’s goal is that she is striving for as her career. Majoring in exercise science as of now that’s the plan she plans on staying on and if she gets the opportunity to play somewhere else next year she will look into that opportunity when it happens.
Even though getting an injury was discouraging for Bednarke, she got to see who was really there for her and tried her best to always stay positive about the situation. When going through something along the lines that Bednarke went through there are a few ways that people can take it. Everyone is different with coping but for Bednarke, she took the approach of looking at the best of the situation, she changed her major with having the freedom of more time, made new friends and got a closer connection with God.
“It’s okay to cry and be upset, don’t stay upset, look on the upside,” Bednarke said. “But crying helps.”