“One year ago today my life changed forever.

To this day I still don't know exactly what or how it happened, but one moment I was on a golf cart and the next I was down on the street. My friends called Ella and told her I was unconscious and I was rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator. We learned I hit my head, suffered a severe brain injury, and had multiple brain bleeds.

While I have no memory of the following three weeks, I have been told my time in the hospital was full of ups and downs. In the first few days my recovery was moving forward at a surprising pace, but that changed on day 5 when things went South.

I was put through an emergency brain surgery in the hospital room due to the swelling of my brain. After a few days, my recovery finally started to trend upward. I had to learn to orient myself in space and time, learning and understanding what year it is, where I am, and who's president (If only I knew it's not 1836, I'm not in Jerusalem, and Hillary Clinton is not the president).

When I was able to orient myself again, I had to learn how to walk and I could finally hug my fiancée for the first time in 13 days. A week later I was transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann where I did inpatient rehab. After 10 days, I finally got to go home and I started outpatient therapy with the TIRR Challenge program where I focused on my return to work. In late July, I graduated from the Challenge program and returned to work.

The past year has been full of unique challenges I was not aware of and every day I thank God for both the speed and extent of my recovery. To this day there is no doubt that God has kept me here for a reason.

People always ask me how I'm doing and it's really easy to say I'm good, but that doesn't mean I'm 100%. The truth is I still have challenges. To this day I do not have a sense of smell and I'm still learning how to handle emotions. I'm grateful to have started brain mapping and neurostimulation therapy to target the parts of my brain that are not working as they should.

I've been extremely lucky and thankful for my support system especially the last few months making new friends who have been very understanding and supportive. I would not have been able to get through this without the support of: My in-laws Brad and Cindy who drove to the hospital as soon as they heard to stay with and support me. My parents who came down and spend 6 weeks with me to help me learn to be a person again, and my now wife who, 5 months before our wedding and 3 months before graduating PA school, stayed with me in the hospital working with the care team to provide the possible best care.”