Maddie Heineman and Jadin Reeves| Staff Writers

“I remember looking down at my hand in fear and just screaming because the everything happened so quickly,” Ebert said.

Junior Caitlyn Ebert dislocated her hand from a fall on a trampoline, but little did she know that this injury would change her life forever.

“I was on a trampoline and the trampoline was extended when I fell, and so the force of the trampoline against my hand coming up during my fall caused it to dislocate,” Ebert said. “I can’t feel anything from the wrist down anymore.”

Even now, Ebert faced many struggles throughout her journey of recovery in her hand.

“The hardest part was probably trying to stay calm because my friends and family have never really seen me fall apart,” Ebert said. “I am usually the stronger person and I have stayed calm through it all and It was really difficult because It was the most pain I have ever been through.”

The recovery has been long and painful for Ebert in the process of getting her hand back to normal.

“This is an 8-week recovery and I am still going to a surgeon often now,” Ebert said. “I still have pain all the time, every day.”

The steps to recovering her broken hand are painful and difficult, but she continues to push through it with the motivation and encouragement of her family and friends.

“Norah Armstrong has been the biggest support because she actually witnessed the dislocation,” Ebert said. “She is one of the sweetest girls and she has helped me through so much because I lost so much that I loved.”  

Ebert has slowly been able to retrain her hand to write and do small tasks.

“To learn how to write I had to re-teach my fingers how to curl and retrain my hand to actually hold a pencil,” Ebert said. “From there I had these really big pencils with three grips and slowly took the grips down as my hand got more ability to move.”

Retraining her hand was not something Ebert always wanted to do, but It had to be done to maintain the movement in her wrist and fingers.

“In order to actually improve my handwriting, every day I just had to sit down and work at it,” Ebert said. “My handwriting went from very hard to read, to somewhat readable now.”

Although the entire experience has been emotional and stressful, Ebert has had a goal throughout her whole journey to recovery, which was to learn how to write again.  Before the accident, Ebert loved to draw and write, and with everything she had lost, she was determined to do these once again.

“I remembered how much I loved creative writing and drawing. I just missed it so much and It was such a big part of me,” Ebert said. “I know I couldn’t get back volleyball with the condition my hand was in, so learning how to write again would be getting back a part of me that I lost and I would still get to do what I love.”

Though Ebert said, “it is absolutely crazy to be 17 and having to reteach your hand how to write,” she continues to work hard to meet her goals and get back to doing the things she loves to do.