A whistle blew and a yellow flag appeared on the ground. “Offsides on the offense,” the referee proclaimed. Our team had just scored and we were going for two points. Now because of the offsides call we would have to go nine yards to get the extra two points instead of three yards. We broke from the huddle and I lined up at my position, running back. The play was a counter to the left. The center snapped the ball and I faked to the right and then took off left where the quarterback handed me the ball. As I ran I saw our wide receiver make a block on the linebacker, opening a pathway to the endzone. I was just about in the endzone when I saw a defender coming. I dove with the ball outstretched and the ball hit the inside of the pylon as the defender tackled me out of bounds. I anxiously waited for the touchdown signal by the referee and finally he signaled a touchdown. My teammates and I ecstatically celebrated. This would unknowingly be my last play I would ever play in a football game.

Throughout the fifth grade to my seventh grade year I frequently would come home from sport practices, especially football and wrestling, with bruises, abnormally, all over my body. During the summer of my sixth grade year I went to a hospital in Oregon to have tests done to see what was wrong. The Oregon doctors came up with the diagnosis shortly after the game which I scored the two points in. The diagnosis was that I had dysfibrinogenemia, a bleeding disorder. This caused the abnormal bruising that continually appeared on my body. Dysfibrinogenemia is a very rare disorder with only 400 known cases. There is minimal information on it, so there are many questions of affects of the disorder.

Because of all the unknowns, I was told not to play football or wrestle anymore, for the fear of me receiving a concussion. Doctor’s fears that because of my abnormal and easy bruising, if I were to receive a concussion it would cause my brain to bleed and I could die. There is only one treatment for my disorder which is frozen plasma. Anytime I acquire a more serious injury I am required to have a frozen plasma transfusion. To date I have only had one transfusion, which occurred in seventh grade after I broke my leg. Another complication with my disorder is that when I receive injuries it takes longer for them to heal than the average person. Such as when I pulled my hamstring it took over a year to heal even with proper treatment. However to this day I still, at times, have trouble with it.

When my doctor first told me of my disorder I felt as if there was nothing to live for anymore. I took it extremely hard and it bothered me for probably a year. Gradually, though, it stopped bothering me and I found other activities to fill the vacancy’s of football and wrestling. I went back to playing soccer, which had been my first love in sports. Also I took up skiing during the winter, which was a totally new sport for me. During these and other activities I do take precautions to help prevent injury, especially head injuries. I now think that this whole ordeal has worked out well and am at peace with knowing the unknown of my disorder. I believe that the most important thing that came from this was that I now never take anything for granted because you never know when it will be your last time.