A Year Later, I Am Certainly Thankful

Sunday, August 20, 2023, is a date that I will never forget.

Playing in a recreational softball league, just eight days after my 39th birthday, I suffered the most significant injury in my life. It’s an injury I had read about, and written about, and never thought, in a million years, it would happen to me.

I’ll briefly set the scene as to why and how it happened before I do the big reveal.

Playing in the semifinals of the end-of-season tournament, my team was down by double digits. I get on base, make it to second. A teammate of mine hits a blooper beyond shortstop but in very shallow left field.

I got a great read on the ball and knew it wouldn’t be caught, so I started to book it to third. I thought if I could score on this play, maybe it would put some pep in the young guys on my team and spark a comeback. Maybe. Plus, no one expected me to try to score.

Not only did I get a great turn around third, but I had an inkling the guys fielding the ball would bobble it off the bounce; therefore, it was going to take close to a perfect throw to get the ball home.

I was right — he didn’t field the ball cleanly.

As I rounded third base, I started to run at full speed, something I hadn’t done in I don’t know how long. Boy, did those first steps feel great! I felt like a teenager again.

But that’s what did me in.

Only a few feet into a couple of full strides, I felt a tweak in my left knee.

“Oh, that felt odd.”

The next step just came naturally: “Woah, that hurt, and something is not right.”

And down I went.

After a tumble, in the heat of the moment, I tried to get up to score, and my leg just completely went out from under me. I could hear the gasps from the dugouts and bleachers. Something wasn’t right. Either I broke my leg, or my knee.

I should note here: The throw went to the backstop, and the catcher had to run around to get the ball. I probably would have scored!

I crawled to home plate to still try to score, but the play more or less didn’t matter. The catcher got the ball and tagged me, but even he was more concerned about my well-being. I appreciated that.

Eventually my wife, Stephanie — who took the news amazingly well — came down to the field and took me to the emergency room at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead because it was closest to our home. Although X-rays provided closure that there weren’t any breaks, it would be days before I finally got an MRI that eventually revealed I had completely ruptured my ACL and also did significant damage to surrounding ligaments. They weren’t totally torn, but some were pretty close to it.

Wednesday, November 8, is another day I’ll never forget. It was the day of my first major surgery, to repair my knee.

Having gone to Peconic Bay led me to meet Dr. Victor Adeola Olujimi, or, as he’s often referred to, even by local high school athletes who have had the pleasure of working with him, as “Dr. O.”

I liked Dr. O. He was right around my age, understanding of my situation, both personally, with a young family, and professionally, with it being the busiest time of year in high school sports.

I thought I’d have surgery as soon as possible, but as Dr. O explained, we were going to start with “prehab” first and schedule the surgery weeks later. Prehab is rehabilitation of the knee and the surrounding area so that you’re as strong as you can be right out of surgery.

It took a few weeks after the injury, but eventually I was hooked up with Dr. Peter Johnstone and Dr. Nicholas Byrne at Peconic Bay Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Center in Riverhead. I came to learn that physical therapists, much like nurses in childbirth, are the real angels of the medical field. Their expertise and attention to detail was second to none. I was nervous going into that surgery but I didn’t panic because Pete, Nick and their entire team there had prepared me for it.

What was supposed to be about a two-and-a-half-hour surgery wound up being double that. Dr. O had prepared me and my wife that that could happen if he went in and didn’t like what he saw. The damage was extensive and therefore required the additional time in surgery.

I don’t know if it was a reaction to the anesthesia, or the extensive time I was under, but I was really sick directly out of surgery. I was out of it and not looking good. My wife was concerned. The hospital wanted to discharge me, but my wife basically pleaded with the doctor there, who agreed that I should stay overnight. I had tachycardia, and it wasn’t until I vomited (sorry) that I started to feel normal again.

I was discharged the next morning, and that’s when my journey of rehabilitation started. I took two weeks off from covering games — and so that’s why, if you saw me at games after that, I had a big leg brace on.

A year later, and my knee is very close to 100 percent. Will it ever be completely 100 percent? I doubt it. When I completely stopped rehab about five months or so ago, I was not close to what they call a “full bend”; that is, bending my knee as close to preinjury as possible. But I have found that I am still making progress.

This time of year, I’m feeling thankful to be able to do everyday activities relatively normal again. There was basically no Halloween with my children last year. There also seemed to be a dim light around Thanksgiving and Christmas since I was laid up.

I’m thankful to everyone — my wife, family, close and extended who all helped out in various ways, all of the doctors who had a hand in getting me back, and, last but certainly not last, those at The Express News Group who not only stuck with me during this entire ordeal but were very caring and understanding of my situation. I will be thinking of all of those on this day we give thanks.