Two years ago

Two years ago last night I experienced a nasty knee injury. I was rounding second base heading for third in a softball game when my mind got stuck between deciding whether to slide or not to slide. This caused me to go into third base in an extremely awkard way. I saw the ball coming in from the outfield and the next thing I knew there was a sharp pain in my knee and I was lying on my back next to third base. Knowing that you can be tagged out if you round third my first reaction was to reach out my hand onto the base. I can guarantee you the last thing on the third baseman's mind at that point was tagging me out as he saw the nasty bend my knee took. I looked up and all my teammates were hovering over me. I said "The softball hit me in my knee!" To which someone replied, "No, it didn't". My next thought was simple...shit! My parents came and took me to the ER where they gave me a leg brace and sent me on my way. The next morning I went to the surgeon who prescribed an MRI.

I knew it wasn't an ACL or MCL because I couldn't bend my knee or put any weight on it. I then decided to due some intel on my own where I properly diagnosed it as a ruptured patella tendon and saw the picture below. This was going to be no arthoscopic surgery.

I was also helping coach a baseball team with my friends Howard and Aaron. Two years ago from tonight I went to the game to watch, obviously too injured to actually coach. The team won their first game of the season and all the kids signed the game ball and gave it to me. That felt really good.

I don't think you know how you are in the face of adversity until you really face it. Thankfully, up until this point, I really hadn't had to face much adversity. I was however proud of the way I handled this injury. I just told myself instead of feeling sorry for myself I was going to put in the work and get back to normal. I had to get a cable put in my leg which did a figure 8 around my kneecap and through a hole that was drilled in my tibia. This meant for 5 months I couldn't bend my knee more than 20 degrees. My leg had gotten so weak I couldn't do a straight leg lift without assistance. I had to walk straight legged for that entire time. If you've never tried it, give it a quick whirl, it is quite uncomfortable. Also, give this a try. Sit on a toilet and don't bend one of your knees at all. That can get quite interesting! My physical therapist actually told me this was the worst possible knee injury you could have and still recover from. Anyways, I went to physical therapy, and got the cable removed in September. Once it was removed the physical therapy stepped up. In total it was 8 months of sometimes real painful physical therapy.

But I made it and am still working on getting my leg back to full strength. All in and all I can't complain, my knee generally does not give me problems.

Some of my proudest moments through all this came in physical therapy where I worked hard and had a positive attitude. I had a couple of occasions where other patients told me they had been depressed and demoralized about their injuries and progress, but seeing what I had to go through and my attitude gave them the encouragement they needed to push their own tough times.