CAN YOU SHARE WITH US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY AND HOW YOU GOT TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?

I started cheer 3 years ago and immediately fell in love.

But….I struggle daily with not being naturally flexible and having to deal with motivation issues. I literally had to work my butt off every day to get where I’m at now, and well, I am not your average cheerleader. I have Alopecia Areata which is an autoimmune disease that causes my body to attack my hair, causing hair loss.

I always thought being a cheerleader meant it was a requirement to be extremely flexible and to have these gorgeous hair styles during competitions – so I thought well “I’m not super flexible and I don’t have Rapunzel’s hair – I’ll just give up.” I gave up…until I found cheerFIT!

Seeing all these cheerleaders trying to motivate others like me just made me smile and want to try again.

I learned that I might not ever be super flexible, and I might not ever have Rapunzel’s hair, but as long as I try and that I am happy – that’s all that matters! –cheerFIT Ambassador Skyler Neiter

CAN YOU SHARE WITH US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY AND HOW YOU GOT TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?

When I was 7 years old I was really sick for about 2 weeks. My parents took me to the doctor over and over but they couldn’t figure it out. They kept giving me different medications and every night I would throw up everything. After getting really sick and losing 7 lbs my parents took me to the ER. They said I had a stomach bug hydrated me and sent me home. The next day I threw up 30 times from 3am till 12pm and my mom took me back in. They put me in a room right away and when my dad came in he was rubbing my head and said he felt a lump. They took me for a CT scan and when the doctor came in she looked very concerned and in a shocked voice said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this but you have swelling around your brain and we are going to rush you in an ambulance to children’s downtown’.

My parents were very scared. When I got there they said I had to have an MRI and a spinal tap. They put me to sleep and after I came back and said I had viral meningitis. That night all the pain started setting in. Light, sounds and moving all hurt so bad.. The next morning I woke up in a lot of pain and I called my mom over to lay down with me. She held me in her arms and I started having a Grand mall seizure. My mom says I seized for 45 mins all the way up to ICU.After that I ended up in a coma for 4 days and the seizure pushed the Meningitis swelling around the brain into encephalitis infection in the brain. While I was in a coma I flat lined twice and would scream so loud and tears would run down my face.

The doctors told my parents I would probably never wake up and if I did I would be a vegetable.

I had to have 5 feeding tubes put in and even though I was in a coma I would pull them out. It was late at night when I finally woke up. I had slurred speech and couldn’t open my eyes. All I wanted was water. It was then that everyone realized I had lost the ability to sit up, walk, talk, feed myself, use the bathroom basically anything.

The next morning I was propped up in bed when the doctor came in he said hi to my parents and when I said hi to him he almost fell over.

He smiled so big and say, ‘wow you most definitely are a miracle’.

From there I got moved out of ICU and began a lot of therapy. I worked hard and after 15 days, I got to finally go home.  I left in a wheelchair and promised to go to rehab everyday 2 times a day until dismissed. This was the beginning of June.

By the middle of August 1 week before school started I was dismissed from therapy.

1 year to the day of getting out of the hospital was when I told my parents I wanted to do cheer.

They almost passed out and immediately said no.

After a lot of prayer and 1 determined little girl (ME) they finally said ok. My doctors all dismissed me and said they’ve never seen someone have what I had and come back like I did. I was so skinny and tiny when I started cheer on a junior 2 team. I progressed really fast in flying and tumbling but my body couldn’t handle it. I ended up getting a bilateral pars fracture in my L4 and L5 in my back.

So basically I broke my back in 2 places. I was out for about 10 weeks but I did still fly I just didn’t pull anything and I didn’t jump or tumble. I was supposed to be out for 15 weeks but healed faster. Because of this I have lost a lot of flexibility in my back and still have pain. It’s something that can be reoccurring so

it is important that I constantly strengthen my core and workout my back

I am now on a senior level 4 team and I’m working on strengthening my level for tumbling and starting my full. cheerFIT is perfect for me because I can work my core and my back in a safe way. I really do look at every day as a gift and I thank God everyday that I’m still here. I know God has a purpose for me and I work hard and never give up to show him I’m thankful for that gift.

Thank you for letting me share my story. –cheerFIT Ambassador Emma Barclay