Elena Hynes

As a student athlete there are trials and tribulations that are put on you physically and mentally. When I started my collegiate career I was focused on the physical aspect, but didn't really have a grasp on what the mental toll would be. I couldn't be more thankful for the opportunity to play at the Division I level and what it has taught me as a woman, leader, and soon to be professional.
Growing up, I didn't have much confidence. I was a 'fake it till ya make it' kind of girl. I put time and effort but was never satisfied with my performance because I always felt that it was never enough. I hated this attribute growing up, however through my years in college this mindset has served me well. Having this mindset of absolute relentlessness has pushed me to be the woman that I am today.
I committed to play at the University of Connecticut when I was a freshman in high school. The pressure to compete and perform was enormous in the years leading up to my freshman year of college. While at Uconn, I battled ankle injuries that hurt my anxiety and my outlook on collegiate athletics. I made the decision to step away for a year and focus on my academics. This was one of the hardest things I had to deal with internally because there were so many emotions. I felt loss, shame, and failure. But through that process it brought so many new opportunities. As I finished my freshman year, I decided to transfer to the University of Hartford where I would pursue my studies in communications and public relations.
After recovering from my ankle injury and coming to terms with the hard decisions I have made I still felt the loss of my first love lacrosse. I knew my career was not over and I decided to tryout for the University of Hartford's up and coming Division I lacrosse team. After interviewing with the coaches the tryout process began.
Five-thirty in the morning on my first day of tryouts after a long summer of hard work and training, I stepped on the field and was greeted by five coaches. Here is where my second chapter began. I stepped on the line to start my grueling run test which consisted of a timed mile, three hundred yard sprints, and twenty one-hundred yard sprints. The task was daunting and doing it by yourself with five coaches judging you is quite intimidating. It took all the strength in me to finish this test and to perform where I needed to to pass. But, I wanted this so bad, more than I wanted to breathe that's how bad I wanted this. I sat on the turf after and collected myself and thought I have done all I can. The ball is in the coaches court.
That evening I received a call asking to come back for a second day of tryouts. It felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. However, this is only the beginning. My coach told me that they would evaluate me for the duration of the fall and make a final decision by the time of our season in the spring. Every day of the fall I had to prove myself, as a competitive player but more importantly as a teammate. Throughout the fall, I was just the girl who was trying out I was not considered a member of the team which was mentally exhausting. Putting in countless hours of lifts, practices and extra work not knowing the outcome was extremely taxing. However, I persisted and fought each and every day I stepped on the field to be the best that I could be and be the best teammate I could be. When the end of fall came, the coaches informed me that they had invited me to be an official member of the Hartford women's lacrosse team. All the hard work and fight that it took to get here paid off. But this is still not the end of the story.
Season. The most crucial time in a collegiate athletes life. You battle each and every day for time to compete on the field. Through each game there were times where I would play two minutes, one minute, zero minutes. When you love the game so much, and you work so hard to compete its heartbreaking to only see the field when you know you could be giving so much to the team. I knew that being on the team is what I wanted no matter if I played the whole game or none of the game. My love for lacrosse surpassed the time I received. But, as a new Division I program the losses came and it was incredibly difficult to stay positive in games at times. I always kept in mind that the women on the team were fighting for something bigger than ourselves. To build an elite Division I program. I kept that mindset in every practice, every game, every lift. When it came to the end of my sophomore year, my coach told me that this was a year to earn respect from the team whether I was on the field or off the field, she told me I had accomplished this despite my little time on the field. At first my sophomore season seemed tough but, when I look back it taught me to lead in a different way. Maybe not always on the field but, being a supportive teammate and earning respect from my peers with encouragement, attitude and integrity.
Throughout my career, I had always struggled with shin problems. In high school I played through stress fractures that never seemed to heal quite the same. At the end of my sophomore year I was healing from some shin injuries as well. My junior year came around and I was on a rapid decline with my shins, they have never felt worse. After battling shin issues for six years and countless doctor visits, a doctor did a compartment syndrome test. Compartment syndrome is a rare injury, when your calf muscle is essentially being suffocated by the casing of your calf called the fascia, causing extreme pain and can cause greater issues if not treated surgically. The testing I endured was painful and invasive. After testing was done it was concluded that I did in fact have compartment syndrome of my lower extremities. Again many emotions came into play. I was relived that they had an answer for the pain that I had been dealing with for the past six years but didn't know what that meant for my career as an athlete. My doctor told me that I could continue playing in short increments and after the season proceed with surgery to remedy the injury. For the duration of my junior year prior to COVID19 I was not practicing only playing in games. This brought a whole new host of challenges because it was a different dynamic of only playing in games through as much pain as I could tolerate and then taking a seat on the bench. It was very difficult. After our fifth game the NCCA cancelled all sports for the spring and we were sent home due to the pandemic. At this point, it was mentally challenging to know that our season had been cancelled but, a relief because this meant I could get surgery faster.
May 13, 2020 I had compartment syndrome surgery of the bilateral and anterior compartments of my lower leg.
After rehab and recovery my legs were still not feeling right at all. I was still having pain in my legs and tingling and numbness down my legs. I went back to my surgeon and expressed my concerns. His response was, it is too early to tell if you have reoccurring compartment syndrome or if you will need another surgery. I was devastated. There were so many unknowns around my diagnosis and I felt in my gut that there was something more here. I decided to get a second opinion from a specialist in Boston.
After running some tests in Boston I was diagnosed with a rare condition associated with compartment syndrome called popliteal artery entrapment. An extremely rare and dangerous diagnosis that could result in the amputation of the legs if not treated. Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome of PAES is when your leg is pressing against the popliteal artery in the back of your knee restricting or in my case cutting off all blood-flow and circulation to my leg. There were no words to describe how I felt in this moment. I felt crushed inside. I felt scared. I felt hopeless. The doctors advised me that the only way to fix this was yet another surgery. Because of the invasiveness in nature both legs cannot be done at the same time. Therefore, that meant two surgeries in my senior year of college during a pandemic.
My surgery is November 27, 2020.
I wanted to write this article for anyone who needs to hear that you can do it, and that you are strong. Our bodies are strong and can handle incredible things. Through my journey I want to help people to cope with whatever they are going through and give them the confidence to feel strong in the process. I am a believer that everything happens for a reason. I would not be the woman that I am here today if it were not for all of these trials and tribulations. I simply would not. They have taught me grit, relentlessness, and the strength to move forward and learn from every experience. I know from just a handful of experiences that I have the fire inside of me to withstand anything that comes in this beautiful crazy life and I can't wait to see what life has in store.
More to come...
This upcoming June I will be getting PAES surgery for my left leg.