Insights From A Tub

This is the third post in a three-part series detailing my journey recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. In these long-form accounts I will dive into the genesis of my injury, the arduous process leading up to and recovering from surgery, and the grueling rehabilitation. This final post describes my experience going through surgery and the recovery process.

July 8th, 2015

This humid July morning I woke up feeling anxious and excited with a hint of nervousness. As I drove with my parents through the Manhattan traffic to the Hospital of Special Surgery I was cautiously optimistic. The proper discussions and due diligence with Dr. A and his staff were complete, which gave me an air of confidence. However all the preparation in the world couldn’t put me completely at ease, as there is always the chance something may go wrong. Continue reading “The Recovery” →

This is the second post in a three-part series detailing my journey recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. In these long-form accounts I will dive into the genesis of my injury, the arduous process leading up to and recovering from surgery, and the grueling rehabilitation. This second post describes the decision-making process leading up to my surgery.

April 6th, 2015

Four days after my injury, I found myself in the crowded waiting room of Manhattan Orthopedic on the Upper East Side. What started out as an early morning 8:00AM appointment ended up turning up into an all-day affair filled with multiple doctor visits and hot dates with x-ray and MRI machines. Continue reading “The Decision” →

This is the first post in a three-part series detailing my journey recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. In these long-form accounts I will dive into the genesis of my injury, the arduous process leading up to and recovering from surgery, and the grueling rehabilitation. This first post describes the full account of my injury.

Summer 2005

On a hot summer night at Scalzi Park in my hometown of Stamford, CT, I decided to meet some friends to play pick-up dodgeball. You read that right, dodgeball, the elementary school gym class game that I hadn’t played in about ten years. Apparently I was after some serious street cred. The previous summer, the movie Dodgeball, A True Underdog Story came out in theaters, which revitalized the game as a summer hobby. The fad carried on, which explains why weeks after graduating from high school I was playing this grammar school playground game.

A couple of hours into playing I found myself jumping sideways in the air to dodge a ball, just like White Goodman avoiding a Peter Lafleur heater. As I hopped over the ball and watched it whiz underneath my legs, the last-minute nature of my sudden sideways leap caused me to land in an awkward manner. My right foot touched the ground first, with the outside edge of my foot hitting the pavement. Immediately I felt a pop-pop! in my knee, with the sensation of something snapping right to left very quickly. Intense heat shot directly throughout my knee, which was accompanied by intense pain. I experienced that clammy feeling you get when you are about to faint, and was pounding the pavement with my right first while screaming in agony. Safe to say it was the worst pain I’ve felt, and it came from playing fucking dodgeball! After a few people picked me up and sat me down in the passenger’s seat of our car, I distinctly remember my twin brother Bryan saying that he wished I didn’t scream like bitch, and that it was embarrassing. Continue reading “The Injury” →

• re·viv·al

  /rəˈvīvəl/

  noun

  • an improvement in the condition or strength of something
  • an instance of something becoming popular, active, or important again
  • a restoration to bodily or mental vigor, to life or consciousness, or to sporting success

  This is the story of my revival. This can mean many things, but in this instance the meaning for me is three-fold.

  One, this is the restoration of a blog that was created two years ago, but like many of its kind was subject to internet limbo. A purgatory where an un-finished idea lingers, an opportunity is not seized and creativeness is stalled. Too many times “life-happens”, and other supposedly more important priorities receive the attention required to fulfill your creative potential. It becomes easy to procrastinate as you worry about what others think. At least that seems to be what happened to me. But no more. Sometimes a major life event allows you to take back what you have been striving for all along. So if the rebirth of this blog is the first revival, the second one is… Continue reading “The Revival” →