What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, I was laying on a table getting surgery on my left elbow and wrist. It still amazes me how messed up I was from simply falling while playing tennis.
The doctors have all said that I, and I quote, “hit the lotto for this injury” due to the fact that people rarely fall in tennis and when they do they at most fracture their wrist — and they are usually like 70 year olds. I guess I hit the lotto in something… still amazes me how long this past year has been and I’ve still got a road of recovery left to travel over the next couple of years.
Back on May 22nd, I was playing a friendly, self-feed game during a “Fundamentals” adult tennis clinc at my local racquet club. The player I was playing is a pretty good player so I was running down balls and generally playing smart, or trying to, rather then just smacking winners. I was down 2-3 (playing till 7) and was in the middle of a good point when he lobbed me, or at least I think he did as details of what happened are hazy. I remember being at the net running back towards the backdrop of the indoor court, planting my right foot and then hitting a two-handed back hand through the ball, with my left leg swinging around to face the net…. then all of a sudden momentem kept me going backwards. I do remember skidding off my heels twice and the third time I skidded I started falling with my upper body hitting the backdrop with a collision to either a concrete wall or a steel beam, or both… so I threw my arms out to avoid either!
Thirty seconds later, I’m on my back, facing the the wall knowing full well that wasn’t a good fall. During the fall and subsequent tumble I was pretty sure I saw my left arm in 3 different pieces flopping through the air, so I tried to move my left arm and felt a pain I’ve never felt before. At this point Paul Prior, the head tennis pro, who was covering this class for the regular pro called over if I was alright…. most definitely not. 
About 15 minutes later, I was in the SUV of a very nice friend from the class drove me to the ER and I began my 4 week path to today…
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