[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/10\/lindsey-story-50ph\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/10\/lindsey-story-50ph\/","headline":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Injury No Match for Soccer Player\u2019s Spirit","name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Injury No Match for Soccer Player\u2019s Spirit","description":"Lindsey Buczkowski caught the concern. Heard the questions. Noted the doubts. A serious foot injury Lindsey suffered on a routine soccer play led many to wonder if she would ever lace up her cleats again. That included coaches, teammates, friends, and even her own mother, who suggested Lindsey give up the game. Rather than heed […]","datePublished":"2019-10-03","dateModified":"2023-04-17","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/orthopaedics-regions","name":"UPMC Orthopaedic Care","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/orthopaedics-regions","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/orthopaedic-surgery\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lindsey_blg.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lindsey_blg.jpg","height":1125,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/10\/lindsey-story-50ph\/","about":["Living and Wellness","Orthopaedics","Sports Medicine","UPMC Stories"],"wordCount":1520,"keywords":["Ryan Shazier's 50 Phenoms","Ryan Shazier\u2019s 50 Phenoms Season 1"],"articleBody":"Lindsey Buczkowski caught the concern. Heard the questions. Noted the doubts.A serious foot injury Lindsey suffered on a routine soccer play led many to wonder if she would ever lace up her cleats again. That included coaches, teammates, friends, and even her own mother, who suggested Lindsey give up the game.Rather than heed those thoughts, Lindsey went the other way.\u201cAs a player for the game you love, that makes you angry,\u201d Lindsey says. \u201cHearing that as a young athlete, and I mean, a pretty good athlete, that was just unacceptable to me. It wasn\u2019t an option.\u201dLindsey turned those doubts into determination to get back to playing soccer. She wouldn\u2019t give up until she got back on the field.Hear the Whole Story from Ryan Shazier: Listen to the Latest Episode of the 50 Phenoms Podcast\u2018I Went into Shock Right Away\u2019 It happened on a move Lindsey executed many times throughout her soccer career. A sophomore forward at Shaler Area High School in October 2016, she collected the ball from a punt and turned. But while the rest of her body moved, her left foot stayed in place.\u201cIt instantly tore everything,\u201d Lindsey says. \u201cThen I went into shock right away.\u201dAt the time Lindsey didn\u2019t even know the name of the injury she\u2019d just suffered: a Lisfranc injury.Lisfranc injuries occur either with the breaking of bones in the midfoot or the tearing of ligaments that support the midfoot. They can be mistaken for a sprain, but Lisfranc injuries are severe and can require surgery and months of recovery. If not diagnosed properly, Lisfranc injuries can lead to long-term disability.\u201cThese are often either underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed, or the severity of the injury is not initially appreciated,\u201d says MaCalus Hogan, MD, an orthopaedic foot and ankle surgeon at UPMC. \u201cAnd in Lindsey\u2019s particular case, she had a great athletic trainer and team taking care of her. They were really concerned about her injury from the onset.\u201dDonna Rife, LAT, ATC, an athletic trainer for UPMC Sports Medicine who works with Shaler\u2019s athletes, suspected a Lisfranc injury almost immediately.\u201cI knew we were in trouble,\u201d says Rife, who adds that Lindsey attempted to walk off the field under her own power but couldn\u2019t make it the whole way. \u201cI was hoping by the time she got to me that it was a high ankle sprain because those heal in about four to six weeks. I knew the Lisfranc injury, 99 percent of the time, it\u2019s surgical. It\u2019s something that soccer players traditionally have a hard time coming back from.\u201dThe severity was clear right away for Lindsey\u2019s parents, who watched their daughter battle other injuries over the years.\u201cThat was one of those nights where I could tell she wasn\u2019t going back in to play,\u201d says Greg Buczkowski, Lindsey\u2019s father. \u201cShe was down, and she looked at me, and I could kind of tell. And then I immediately went on the field, which you\u2019re really not supposed to, but I just knew it was serious enough.\u201dThe game never stopped, but Rife helped Lindsey off the field and took her to the bench for an evaluation.\u201cThe athletic trainer removed my shoe, but I was kind of nervous because I thought it was going to look deformed because that\u2019s what it felt like,\u201d she says. \u201cSo she got it off. It wasn\u2019t deformed; it was just very swollen.\u201dRife told Lindsey\u2019s family that she suspected a Lisfranc injury, and the Buczkowskis went to the emergency department that night. They visited Dr. Hogan the next day, and he said he also suspected a Lisfranc injury.An MRI after the swelling went down made the diagnosis official.That was one bombshell. Then came another, when Dr. Hogan said Lindsey would need surgery, followed by months of rehabilitation.\u201cOnce we heard the process and the length of recovery, I don\u2019t know, it was devastating,\u201d says Diana Buczkowski, Lindsey\u2019s mother.\u00a0\u2018No Surrender\u2019Lindsey needed two surgeries. In the first, Dr. Hogan installed a plate and five screws to repair the damage. In the second, months later, he removed them.\u201cAs an orthopaedic surgeon approaching the foot and the ankle, the goal is really to get people back moving,\u201d Dr. Hogan says. \u201cAnd as I look at it, the foot and the ankle, it\u2019s essentially the foundation of our gait, our mobility, our ability to move.\u201cAnd regardless of whether it\u2019s an athlete or elderly patient who just really wants to enjoy their daily activities and walking with their loved one \u2026 you have to take an individualistic approach and a personalized approach with all the patients.\u201dLindsey wanted to do more than just move normally again: She wanted to return to the soccer field. She aspired to become a Division I player growing up, and she didn\u2019t want to end her career with an injury.\u201cA lot of people that sustain the (Lisfranc) injury don\u2019t come back from it, so that was another reason why I knew that I had to try my best to come back,\u201d Lindsey says.Lindsey was on crutches for more than three months, unable to put weight on her foot. But she pressed still through her rehab: at UPMC Lemieux Sport Complex, UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, and at school.\u201cIt was amazing being able to come back from something so devastating,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I had so many people next to me motivating me, pushing me. My athletic trainer and I came up with a motto, and it was, \u2018No surrender.\u2019 And whenever I was frustrated, whenever I didn\u2019t want to do an exercise or workout, she would make sure to send me a text. And it would say: \u2018No surrender.\u2019\u201cAnd I just kind of lived by that.\u201dLindsey made incremental improvements, setting attainable goals and getting better each day. She stayed at school two hours after classes ended each day to work out with Rife. At first, with Lindsey unable to put weight on her foot, the rehab consisted of exercises she could do, such as leg raises or arm workouts. Eventually Lindsey started running in the pool.\u201cI don\u2019t want to say she made it look easy because it certainly wasn\u2019t easy, but she was so diligent with it and worked through it,\u201d Greg Buczkowski says.After the second surgery removed the plate and screws, Lindsey spent two more weeks on crutches. It took about four to six weeks before she could run again. By early April, six months to the day of her injury, she was jogging. And by her junior year at Shaler, she was right where she expected to be: on the soccer field.\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people that don\u2019t come back from that type of an injury,\u201d Rife says. \u201cThey just hang up the cleats and say, \u2018No, I can\u2019t do this.\u2019 I\u2019ve had that more than once. Or, \u2018I\u2019m in too much pain \u2013 I can\u2019t get through this.\u2019\u201d\u2018I Want to be an Inspiration\u2019Lindsey doesn\u2019t consider herself an emotional person. But talking about her injury, even now, can cause her to tear up.\u201cIt\u2019s just a very hard subject for me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd not everybody knows exactly what I went through, and I think that\u2019s hard for them to understand where I\u2019m coming from and for me because it was so difficult. But if you don\u2019t go through something, you don\u2019t know how to handle it.\u201dBut she\u2019s turning her soccer setback into a positive. She learned from her injury how much she enjoyed helping people.\u201cI think she had a little bit of an interest (before her injury) but wasn\u2019t really sure what she wanted to do, and I think this has really piqued her interest,\u201d Rife says.Lindsey worked in the medical tent at the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon\u00a0and the UPMC Health Plan Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May 2018 and 2019. She helped runners who needed assistance. She helped Rife out in Shaler\u2019s athletic training room during the winter of her junior year.She also answers others\u2019 questions about Lisfranc injuries: from a teacher whose daughter suffered the injury, to people who reach out over social media.\u201cI just really enjoy being there for people, and I want to be an inspiration to others to get back to what they love doing,\u201d Lindsey says.Lindsey attends Penn State University; while she doesn\u2019t play Division I soccer for the Nittany Lions, she does play recreationally. But that\u2019s only part of her story: She plans to become a physical therapist or something else in the medical field.\u201cShe made something that could have been completely devastating to a 16-year-old high school kid into something that will motivate her and propel her into the future,\u201d Diana Buczkowski said. \u201cI have no doubt that she would be one of the best physical therapists that anyone could want.\u201d"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Injury No Match for Soccer Player\u2019s Spirit","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/10\/lindsey-story-50ph\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]