I swam for the first time in seven years today!
I’ll start off with the swimming. I quit swimming when I was eight. I didn’t see the point in it since it only made me exhausted, and there were no results. I was swimming for 3 years, and I only managed to build up from 10 laps, 250 yards, to 12 laps, 300 yards. Swimming for me was exhausting. I wouldn’t even be halfway through a lap until my heart started pounding, my breathing would become desperate, my ears started ringing, and my vision would be blurry. That was my life.
It makes me sad that I couldn’t play sports like my classmates. If it wasn’t for my heart I would’ve advanced in swimming, maybe be on a team. Maybe I could’ve gotten a scholarship to college if it wasn’t for my heart. I could’ve played other sports too, like soccer or basketball.
After seven years of not swimming, I felt so much better in the water. The water soothed my joints and massaged my muscles. Immediately after transplant I was so sore that I couldn’t even stand.
I plan to start swimming as a sport. As I mentioned above, with my damaged heart I didn’t have the ability to play sports and therefore I was sad. After transplant I have a chance, and I’ll take it.
