On Monday November 24th, 2008 I was in a tragic accident. I tore my ACL playing indoor soccer.

On Monday January 12th, 2009 I had ACL constructive surgery using part of my hamstring.

Today, Wednesday January 12th, I am stuck on a couch with nothing to do. I am so bored that I resorted to watching American Idol. Shoot me. 

When I tore my ACL I was really scared that it would ruin my plans to travel to Honduras over Christmas and New Years. After speaking to my doctor he said it would be okay for me to go as long as I took it easy and didn’t put myself at risk. I did just that and the trip went great quite well (see I was propositioned).

Monday I woke up at 5:45 in order to get to the surgery center at 6:30. Christie and I left  at 6:20 thinking it would be plenty of time but when I looked outside I saw it was dumping snow. We weren’t too late when we arrived at 6:45 and I was the second surgery of the day so check in was pretty easy and I was in pre-op before I knew it.

After all of the questions and verifying that they were in fact replacing my right ACL with a piece of my hamstring they brought in Dr Happy aka the anesthesiologist. Right before they took me back into the operating room Dr Happy gave me some juice to help me relax. For those of you that have had surgery and had this medication understand what I am talking about. As I rolled into the operating room the juice kicked in and I said “oh yeah, there it is” and I think there was some laughter but that is where my memory goes blank.

The next thought I had was “when are they going to start my surgery” only to realize that I was in the recovery room. I was shivering non-stop and I heard the nurse tell me that she would give me something to help me out. After the shot of demerol and a blanket that had hot air piping through it I warmed up and continued through a pattern of wake and sleep.

After about 3 hours in the recovery room they gave me a swift exit (I guess making more room) and I was on for a new adventure. I took up residence on Christie’s futon with my ice machine running while I went in an out of consciousness for the rest of the day. 

Tuesday was more of the same with sleeping most of the day and not doing anything.

Today I ventured to the Physical Therapist office which I thought was crazy. I just had surgery two days ago and I can’t event stand on it and I’m going to PT? The visit was quick but hardly painless. He had me work on an exercise where I try to extend my leg as much as I can while pushing down then lift my leg and hold it for a few seconds.  Now the the most painful thing I can do right now is fully extend my leg so this exercise was like listening to country music (I hate country music) while stabbing myself in the eye. Finally I got out of there and could breathe again.

This is just the very beginning of a very long journey and I’m hoping the worst is over and it will get better each day. They tell me I should be able to jog in about 3 months and run in about 5. After 6-7 months I should be able to make cutting moves while running and be fully recovered after 9-12 months.  Just in time for ski season.

I was recently in Honduras for a vacation with some friends and just past the halfway mark we spent the night in La Ceiba, Honduras. We had some traveling books on Honduras and both of them mentioned that La Ceiba had an active night life and we were excited to check it out.

As we walked towards the main area of town we noticed some police driving by but didn’t think much of it. The streets were a far cry from the scene earlier in the day. The streets were packed with people walking, shopping, talking, driving, honking, selling and haggling. Now it was an empty town as if everyone packed up and left town. We turned on to the main strip and started walking towards the area where more people were.

We passed a street vendor that had a couple guys standing out front. As we passed them one guy seemed friendly and started talking to us as we walked. We didn’t think much of it and kept walking but he kept up with us and continued talking to me and another guy with us. He was telling me that he was a good boy and that it was okay. He then told Christie that he was a good boy and it was okay.

Now I’m starting to get freaked out and worrying about my wallet and my passport. I don’t want to get robbed or beat up or sent to jail so I am looking for a way out of the situation. Next thing I know he tells me that I can have him for $50-$60.

Wait, what?

Thats right, I could have him for $50-$60. Gross.

We make a beeline for a restaraunt, any restaraunt, and walked in to get away from that guy. All of us were freaked out and decided to take a cab home even though we were only 8-9 blocks away from the hotel.

At this point I was ready to go home but thankfully the rest of the trip went very well and we had a great time.

Note to kids: don’t talk to anybody.