A local college athlete is now back in top form after years of setbacks due to an injury that can be common athletes.
Lauren Goode has been on the dance team throughout her four years at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. For Goode, it’s been competitive and rewarding but most recently it’s been painful.
“Last year I finally decided it was finally time to put this worry away,” she said.
That worry has to do with a shoulder injury she suffered back in high school. She tried to play through it for years but has dislocated her shoulder 10 to 15 times.
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“It was getting to a point where I would just reach for something on a shelf or kind of stretch back and it would dislocate,” Goode said.
Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin from Mass General Brigham Sports Medicine says once an athlete dislocates their shoulder, "they tear that bumper away from the bone.”
Matzkin says that means it’s 80-percent more likely to happen again and that the bumper, or labral, has to be fixed.
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“In Lauren’s case, it was able to be done arthroscopically through small incisions and we can use tiny little suture anchors that was put in the bone and are able to re-bumper that tissue back up,” Matzkin said.
Shoulder injuries are not uncommon in young athletes but Matzkin said surgical advancements have been a game changer for so many.
“I’m very grateful I took this chance on the surgery,” Goode said.
Now after surgery and two years of COVID interruptions, Goode’s team is headed to nationals in Florida and she won’t have to worry about her injury.
“It can be tough," she said. "It can be tough going through these injuries but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
