Hey everyone,

I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to get an update on here about everything that’s happened. I know that a lot of you have heard bits and pieces and have been left mostly in the dark. I’ll start from the beginning. I had a great flight to Bangkok on American Airlines and got in on Saturday. The hotel was unbelievable and I had some fun taking in the huge contrasts in culture from the United States. The tournament was indoor hard court and I was having some of my best practices of the year. The Monday before my first match I had just finished an hour long hit and felt like I was ready to continue my success from the summer. I was in the locker room and sat down to put on my shoes, as I went to get up, I fell through what I didn’t realize was a glass table. I didn’t feel any pain, but when I looked down at my arm I knew it was serious. I immediately rushed to the first person I could think of who might help, the physio trainer. I was bleeding at a furious rate so we wrapped up my arm as quickly as possible and called an ambulance. It was a long ride to the best hospital in Bangkok at rush hour, but after about 40 anxious minutes we arrived. I was a little panicked at this point, as can be imagined. I was trying not to look at my arm, but I knew I had about a 7cm slash that could be very serious. Lying on the bed at that hospital is when thoughts started to run through my mind about whether I would be able to play in the tournament, in a month or ever again. I was worried I may never be able to have full control of my right arm again. David, Dan, and David’s friend Oliver did a great job of talking with the doctors and making sure I was getting 100% the best care possible. They also did a great job of staying calm and keeping me from totally freaking out.

The doctor came down from his spinal surgery, so I knew he was the top of the line if he was working on someone’s spinal cord. He looked over my arm and told me I had about a 30% tear through two of my fore arm muscles and that he would have to put about three layers of stitches into my muscles and skin. The initial prognosis was that I would be done playing tennis for at least the rest of the year, but that the injury would not be career threatening. I was relieved, but still a little fearful that something wouldn’t go right. I was in surgery for about an hour and the doctor told me everything went well, and I believed that I was in good hands. I was put on lot’s of pain killers and started to realize how limited my next few months would be for such a silly mistake I had made.

I made the trip home the next day and got off the plane and taken straight to the best muscle and forearm specialists in Los Angeles. These guys are some of the best in the world and they reassured me that I would have my brace and stitches in for about 10 days, start rehabbing around then, start hitting a tennis ball in a month and be back in full force hopefully in time for the Australian Open. Everyone has been taking great care of me, my cousin Andrea’s 4th grade class even sent me a box full of get well cards that they had hand made themselves. That was really touching and I started to realize I was going to get through all of this and be alright. I even got to go to an “S” party where every costume had to start with an “S” and my brace allowed me to go as a shark bite victim. I’ll be home for a while, watching football and playoff baseball, but I’m chomping at the bit to get out and start doing things again. Thanks to everyone for all the support and I’m sorry I’ve put everyone through this, but I will be back in action again in 2010!

From Santa Monica,

Sam

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 4:38 PM and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.