Brittany Rathbun

For Falcon pitcher Brittany Rathbun, the 2007 season at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is one that almost never was.

With a stellar 2006 season, things looked rosy for the right-hander who was chosen as one of the team's 2007 co-captains. She led the NCAA Div. III in saves (9), pitched a no-hitter, and was named the team's Co-Most Valuable Player. Everything pointed toward a new season with great promise.

But then a series of injuries threw Rathbun's junior season into a frenzy with the possibility that she would never be able to play the sport she loved.

The problems started when the combination of weight lifting and the repetitive arm movement of pitching blocked off the space where blood vessels in the shoulder pass, This blockage caused thoracic outlet syndrome--numbness, tingling, swelling and discolorization of Rathbun's right hand and arm. If the blood to the area was completed cut off, a dangerous clot could have formed.

So in July Rathbun underwent a rib resection for the thoracic outlet syndrome. The thoracic outlet is a space between the rib cage (thorax) and the collar bone (clavicle) through which the main blood vessels and nerves pass from the neck and thorax into the arm. The nerves and blood vessels leave the neck between the scalene muscles.

Surgeons at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rathbun's hometown of Rochester, Minn., removed the first cervical rib in a one and one-half hour operation. The surgery went well, and because of Rathbun's fit status as an athlete, her doctors said she was ahead of the game in pain and rehabilitation.

She was in a sling for one week to protect her arm and shoulder and started rehabilitation immediately. Rathbun's main goal was to regain her range of motion, and the physical therapists told her not   to lift anything heavier than two pounds for one month.

Getting ready for the fall season was looking good. But everything changed just three weeks after the surgery.

Like other Minnesotans enjoying the beautiful summer weather, Rathbun and her parents Sue and Rick and other family members were spending some time "up north" at her Uncle's cabin on Little Boy Lake near Longville, Minn. Relaxation among the northern quietude was in order to speed her recovery. What harm could happen with a little ride around with her cousin on the back of an ATV?

Her cousin was carefully driving the ATV, but thee front wheel got stuck in a rut in the mildly rugged terrain, and the four-wheeler suddenly tipped.  

Rathbun landed on her right shoulder and broke her collarbone, and her left arm got caught under her, breaking the ulna in two places. To make matters worse, a stick went through her left wrist, splitting the fascia. The accident happened about a half-hour away from the cabin where Rathbun's family was relaxing.

"We got the ATV back to the cabin and Mom and Dad freaked out," recalls Rathbun. Thankfully her mother, Sue, who is a registered nurse at the Mayo Clinic, immediately covered the injuries in ice, and the family carefully loaded Rathbun in a car and drove her to the hospital in Crosby, Minn., which was an hour away.

There the emergency room staff stabilized Rathbun, gave her IV pain medication, and took x-rays. Indeed, Rathbun needed surgery on her broken ulna. There were two options: to have surgery in Crosby or to travel the four hours back to Rochester.

The family arrived at 7 p.m. in the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Ironically, four other patients who needed the same type of surgery were waiting in line, so the family decided to wait and have Rathbun's surgery commence on Monday.

The family left the ER at about 1 a.m.--Rathbun now with both arms in slings and her left arm in a temporary cast.

"We went home and everyone was just so tired," said Rathbun. "I was hungry so I got a shake from McDonald's, and that's when I cried for the first--and only--time. I discovered I couldn't feed myself because both arms were in slings."

On Monday, Rathbun's second surgical procedure in less than a month went well. Doctors inserted a plate and seven screws into her ulna. The good news was that she didn't need surgery on her shoulder, but she found out later that the reason her collarbone snapped was because of rib resection surgery.

Rathbun was in a cast for a month and a half--until mid-September. By then classes had started at UWRF and fall softball was in full swing. Due to her limited mobility, she could not catch a ball until December, and she could not exercise with weights until January. After the cast came off, doctors discovered she still had a hairline fracture. Back came a new cast and split until mid-October.

Now stringent rehabilitation was need if she was to be ready for the spring season--on both the right shoulder and the left wrist.

"I worked with the UWRF trainer Gary (Stump) Eloranta on stretching and finally getting the arm to go around in the pitching motion," said Rathbun, who used minimal weights. "We spent about 10 hours a week on stretching, icing and massage."

She also worked with UWRF strength and conditioning coach Carmen Pata. "I lost a lot of muscle in my right arm, and Carmen put together an individualized weight program that helped me regain strength."

By the start of December she finally started throwing hard. Her wrist, however, was still bothering her when she caught the ball but things all came together later in December.

When the second semester start in January, the team's practices intensified with the season start set for Feb. 28. She wasn't out of the ballpark yet--in mid-February Rathbun noticed some discoloring and swelling in her right arm and hand after pitching.

Initially she thought the worse--that the first surgery wasn't a success. An ultrasound showed lymphedema, which is a painless swelling due to an impairment in the flow of lymph from the arm.

Doctors suspected that her lymph system was irritated from the rib resection surgery, which caused fluid to accumulate in her hand and arm as it could not flow back out of her limb. A tight isotonic glove and sleeve remedied the problem by helping to carry the fluid out of her right arm and hand. She wears it after throwing during practices and between innings of games.

A fierce competitor in any forum, Rathbun admitted to becoming frustrated with that latest development when she first started to pitch. "My teammates were great--especially Margo [Taylor], who continued to remind me of how well I was doing and where I was three months before."

Next came swinging the bat. Rathbun, who hit .259 this year with five RBI, has played several games in her career as the team's designated player. "I started slow swinging the bat," she said. "There is a tweak in my left wrist when I swing; it's just something I've gotten used to."

After two weeks, she started hitting light-flights and a regulation ball. The "tweak" didn't affect her much in a game against a WIAC foe, UW-Whitewater, on April 29 when she hit her first career home run--a drive over the left field fence.

Of all the events, Rathbun says the ATV accident was the most difficult to overcome. "The accident interfered with my daily life; I wasn't able to do the day-to-day things," she said. "And, it was an emotional roller coaster. It was very frustrating."

But quitting was never in Rathbun's playbook. Despite two surgeries, a few problems that followed the procedures, and months of rehabilitation, no one--coaches, teammates, heath care professionals or family--would have protested if Rathbun would have simply said, "Enough is enough."

"My parents and I had the same mindset--to get better--and that helped," said Rathbun. "But I'd be going crazy if I wasn't involved. I live with several of the players and seeing them going to practice would drive me nuts!"

Rathbun's dedication to hard work and rehabilitation and to overcoming the physical pain and emotional challenges of multiple injuries have paid off. The 2007 season was very special in the Falcon athletics history books. Rathbun carried a 15-7 record with a 3.03 ERA and has pitched 104 innings with recorded 73 strike-outs. The Falcons won a school record of 32 games. Moreover, she was named the WIAC Pitcher of the Week on April 9 after she threw her second career no-hitter, a 10-0 win over Hamline. She holds the UWRF career save record with 14.

Despite all the challenges, Rathbun says she finds several lessons in her experience, which will help her as she pursues her personal goals and professional career as an elementary school teacher and coach. She is on track to graduate in 2009 and hopes to teach in Wisconsin or Minnesota and coach softball at the high school level.