As nationals came closer, the pain grew worse.
I did my best to just play through it.
It actually hurt less while i was playing.
It was once i stopped that i realized it hurt.
maybe it was because my mind was on the game when i played.
i'm not quite sure.
And by the time nationals came, the only thing that kept the pain away was playing.
The more i thought about it, the more determined i was to play through nationals.