Tri-Valley’s Rollison Winning Battles Both On and Off the Court

DRESDEN, OH

A key member of the Tri-Valley girls basketball team, senior center Jacie Rollison is an integral part of the Lady Dawgs’ dominant run this season. But her dream of playing basketball almost came to a sudden halt two years ago.

Not many are aware of the disorder known as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, but unfortunately, Jacie found out first hand the trouble it can cause.

“My armpit started to swell, and then I was just having really bad pain in my upper arm, armpit area” says Rollison. “Then the biggest sign was that after one of my games, my arm turned purple.”

But what exactly is the rare disorder commonly referred to as “T.O.S.”?

“So it’s when you’re collarbones and first ribs are too close together, and it pinches all the blood vessels and stuff up there, and it can cause blood clots and because it damages the veins overtime” Rollison continues.

It’s a rare enough disorder that Yale Medicine estimates there are between three and 80 cases for every 1,000 people, and it is more common in women than men.

Rollison says “Well at first I thought I just pulled a muscle, and then my parents, when they saw my arm turned purple, my dad started to get kind of nervous. He said, ‘I think something’s wrong, circulation-wise”.

“So yeah, that was kind of scary to realize that something serious could actually be wrong.”

After a stop to the emergency room in Zanesville and an appointment with her pediatrician, Jacie found herself at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, which ended up being more than just a quick visit to Ohio’s capital.

“I was admitted to the hospital and I had a procedure to get the blood clot removed, or whatever they could get out of it. From there, we just kind of learned that I had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, because it’s pretty rare, and then learned what my next steps would be to try to fix it.”

Following the procedure to get rid of the blood clot, she had two more to remove each of her top ribs before being discharged after five days in Columbus.

“Since I had both my first ribs removed, I’m pretty cured from that aspect from it, but there’s always another chance of getting another blood clot, since my vein is kind of still damaged from it. Once you have one blood clot, you can get another one, but they don’t think it’s very likely that I could.”

Jacie has since made a full recover and is now an inspiration to everyone that is able to watch her play.

“Truthfully, I think she was more of an inspiration to our team. Just the fact that she was going through that and was so positive” proclaimed Tri-Valley head coach Kurt Kaufman. “I really believe that was an inspiration for our girls, so I think her going through that, she probably did more for us than maybe we did for her in that moment.”

From a dream that was almost ripped away from her, Jacie will now continue her playing career beyond the gym at Tri-Valley when she suits up for Indiana Kokomo next year.

“It was really surreal, because we never knew if I was going to play basketball again after everything. So it was really good to see my dreams come true because I’ve always wanted to play college basketball. So it was nice to know that after I worked back to get to where I am now, it paid off.”

For as long as she chooses to lace them up on the court, Jacie will appreciate every moment, knowing she won a battle that few could ever imagine.