Hockey helped Scheffer to regain her passion for life
Meeghan Scheffer's love of hockey carried her through a difficult period when she struggled with ill health.
When the Tuks women’s hockey team beat Potch Vaal 5-0 in the Gauteng Cup Tournament recently, it might not seem newsworthy, but for Meeghan Scheffer it was the game in which she got to live again, and she was making the most of every minute.
Scheffer, who hopes to be a qualified teacher at the end of the year, gets emotional when talking about her comeback. She has just reason to do so.
There was a stage last year when the doctors told her she would possibly never be able to play hockey again. She was barely allowed to walk for fear that it could cause damage to her heart and lungs.
Scheffer’s story proves how unpredictable any sports career can be. At the end of 2018, she was at an absolute high. The Tuks women’s team had won the USSA Tournament and she had played provincially.
During the December holidays that year she started working on her fitness to ensure she is at her best when Tuks try and defend the Varsity-title they had won in 2017.
Things changed dramatically when she woke up one morning feeling a pain in her chest. It did not worry her too much, because she thought she was fit and young. However, the next morning, she passed out and was rushed to the hospital. So, her nightmare started. After a scan, she was told her heart was not doing too well.
“From then on, my health kept on deteriorating. My complexion turned yellow. I got pneumonia. Next, all my organs started to flare up. Despite undergoing various scans, the doctors could not establish what was wrong with me. It was thought that I might have some form of autoimmune disease.
“It reached a stage where I could not breathe due to the amount of fluid around my lungs and her heart. I had to undergo an operation to completely drain my lungs. A part of my lung also had to be removed as it was so infected,” Scheffer explained.
Despite this setback she had not given up representing Tuks on the hockey field. Every time she felt slightly better, she resumed training, but within a few days, there would be fluid around her heart and lungs again, and she had to stop. It was only October last year that her health started to improve.
According to Scheffer, she has been prescribed quite heavy medication. Apparently sort of similar as to what cancer patients might use.
“It means when training, I am not sure how my body will hold up from day to day. I still tend to quickly get sick. It is mostly due to the medicine I need to take on certain days. But I am not complaining. The day we played Potch Vaal is the day I got my life back. It was exhilarating to be back on the Astroturf representing Tuks,” she remarked.
As to why she never considered quitting hockey Scheffer said: “I am who I am due to Tuks hockey, and for that, I will forever be grateful.”
That is why she is seriously considering of doing a postgraduate study next year. If she can help win the Tuks women’s team win the Varsity Tournament again next year she would have made a 360-degree turn in her life.
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