A Life of Words

For the past five weeks, I’ve been hanging out at TMI Sports Medicine in South Arlington for about an hour and a half twice a week. Those physical therapy sessions, combined with the work I’m doing at home, have all been part of the effort to get my right leg fully functioning after my middle-of-the-night splat April 26 that fractured my right femur all the way through while I was carrying our new puppy Win-Win to the backyard to go potty.

Each session brings new and sometimes challenging exercises, but it’s all gone much more smoothly than I expected after my accident and surgery with Dr. Brigham Au to insert a rod and screws. This week it’s felt like I’ve taken a small step back after my pain level increased (I haven’t taken pain meds for several weeks) and it seems like I might have strained my hip flexors, so I’m going to try to take things a little slower – at least with my home regimen.

From the start of PT until today (Thursday, May 30), the cool guy pictured here next to me, Brandon Norvelle, has worked with me every session and been absolutely fantastic. (Ignore the photobombing dude in the background.) Not only is Brandon patient, very knowledgeable and has a great bedside manner (if a physical therapist can have that, much like a doctor), he’s also got an insanely funny sense of humor.

Brandon’s always joking, and I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes. Once he found out I’m a huge Astros fan (a couple of my T-shirts kinda gave it away), he didn’t hesitate to give me crap about it. He grew up in Arlington, so he loves the Rangers, Mavs, Stars … and I assume the Cowboys, but we’ve never talked football.

So one day Brandon brings this metal thingamabob over to me while I’m lying on a therapy table and sets it next to me, then gives me one of those little hammers doctors use to test your reflexes. He tells me to bang it on the metal thing when I’m done w/the exercises he’s got me doing. Looking at it sideways (that’s my excuse, anyway), I don’t pick up on the fact that the metal object is a small trash can, so he’d pulled a fast one on me by telling me I could bang on the trash can to get his attention — and those of you who follow baseball will remember that the Astros got caught up in a sign-stealing scandal several years ago that involved, um, banging on trash cans. LOL, you got me, Brandon — big time. 🤣

Unfortunately, today was Brandon’s last day working at TMI, as he’s going full time at his other gig, where he’s a massage therapist at a spa in Fort Worth. All I can say is he’s made my PT experience much more bearable and enjoyable because of the way he treats his patients and makes them feel at ease — and that includes making them smile and laugh. Thanks for everything and all the best to you and your family, Brandon! 😄