Battling Back: Jessica Shults

March 1, 2012

By Andrew Gilman | SoonerSports.com

NORMAN, Okla. -- Even when the pain was so bad she could barely get herself out of bed, Jessica Shults never told anyone about it.

Not when she had to leave class on a regular basis because she couldn't stand the pain. Not when it was so severe even playing the game she loved caused her pain.

"I didn't want to tell anyone," Shults said. "I wanted to keep playing."

Shults just thought it was a stomach bug, or a stomach problem. Initially, Shults even considered it maybe just a bad meal.

"When literally, I couldn't walk because it hurt," she said. "I decided I needed to go to the doctor."

Now, almost a year after those symptoms appeared, Shults is back in the starting lineup, leading her team in hitting and thankful.

For her health.

Turns out the stomach pains were really caused by ulcers in her colon and Shults was diagnosed with pan ulcerative colitis. She missed seven postseason games because of it.

"It was just real exciting to get back on the field and be with my team," Shults said. "It was hard watching the regionals and the super regionals on TV. That was a motivation to me to get me back for this year with my team."

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Well, Shults is completely healthy, has no side effects aside from a change in diet and she's healthy enough to be hitting a team-best .474 with a team-best 14 RBIs through the Sooners 10-3 start - all while behind the plate, catching for ace pitcher Keilani Ricketts.

"I had never heard of it," Shults said of pan ulcerative colitis. "I've learned it's not very common. My first thought was that I wasn't going to play softball again. But everything worked out. My family and friends were behind me and I think that was the difference."

And now Shults is a long way from the pain - pain she tried to play through for more than two months.

"I just thought I'd play through it," she said. "But then I couldn't eat anything. I was throwing up everything, and I still didn't go to the doctor. It was continuous pain. I thought I was tough. You couldn't see anything wrong, so I looked the same and didn't tell anyone for about a month and a half. It hurt every day, pretty much all day. I didn't want to say anything because I wanted to play. I just wanted to fight through it and be there for my team but it ended up making it worse."

And despite the pain and the uncomfortable feeling for a good part of the season, Shults, a junior from Valencia, Calif., was an All-Big 12 second-team selection. She hit .338 for the year and led the team in slugging.

She didn't even tell her parents, but since she's healed and since she's been back on the field, pain-free, her dad passed along a message to Shults.

"My dad reminds me every day to think about how bad it was," Shults said. "Now I can really appreciate things. "It was a wake-up call. That's why I came out with the story. I wouldn't want someone to have the same problems to have to hide it."

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