Wow, when I look back on my injury that day on the soccer field, I realized I probably didn’t warm up as long as usually do. In fact, I know I didn’t. You have to understand, I’ve pretty much played soccer all of my life – from when I was a little boy to playing college level and then, onto local soccer clubs in Virginia, Washington and Maryland. And up until my injury, I was playing three to four times a week. That’s where it happened. I had just taken a shot, landed on my left leg and looked down to find that my kneecap had slid sideways. I stopped playing, drove home and iced down my knee. At the time, I was only having a little pain. The next day when I woke up, my knee was swollen. That’s when I got a recommendation from a teammate and ended up scheduling an appointment to see Dr. Faucett at CAO.

I remember going in to see him back in October of 2017 and learning that my MRI showed I had a high-grade tear of my ACL and a tear in my meniscus, plus some signs of some deterioration in my left knee. I was luckily able to get my surgery scheduled in mid-November, where Dr. Faucett and his team performed same-day surgery on my knee to reconstruct my ACL and repair the tear. I spent the next two weeks working at home on increasing my range of motion as instructed and started physical therapy as part of my recovery plan. And on the third week, I began commuting from my home here in Virginia to DC again for work. Over the following year, I got back to working out in the gym and some light warm ups with my team, with the even bigger goal of returning to the field and playing at the level I had before my injury. That’s how I entered 2019 – on track to be back on the field with my team come Spring. I’m ready.