Surgery is the process of treating an injury through the penetration of flesh. As an athlete the thought of surgery transmits an icy jolt down my spinal cord. One of my dreaded fears is encountering a doctor's merciless scalpel on the operating table. Looked upon as a good goalkeeper, people often wonder how a person of my build has the ability to leap and not get injured. I am a little shorter than most of my friends and maybe a little chubbier as well, so people question how this brown eyed Lebanese boy can leap incredible bounds and still maintain a "Colgate smile" on his dimpleface. Life on the whole is fantastic, I have superb friends and I am attending a great school, it seemed to be a dream come true.
After horrible terrorist acts on innocent civilians in Riyadh, the school year came to an abrupt end. My family and I left the Kingdom and went home to Lebanon where we started our three-month vacation. Returning to family and friends added more of a smile to my beaming face. Nothing could go wrong, I was at the right place at the right time with everyone I wanted to be with. The summer vacation ended relatively quickly and consisted of nothing but fun. It had been the best vacation of my life until some horrible news shocked me completely. I had been complaining of shoulder pains, but I didn't think that the slight pains meant something drastic. Just some muscle cramps perhaps. When a family friend advised me to see a doctor it was obvious that the pains were more serious than I had expected.
An appointment with an esteemed orthopaedist assured us that the pains were not everyday muscle cramps. It was in fact a serious injury that had occurred to both shoulders over the past three years. My ball and socket joints on both shoulders were dislocating and slightly rubbing away the cartilage. An operation on both shoulders was needed. Unfortunately, I was leaving to Saudi Arabia the next day and the possibility of an operation in Lebanon was not an option.
