
photo: Andrew Kovalev
This article is a detailed account of the past 90 days of my life. A big part of me wants to forget everything that happened to me over the past three months, but something inside of me wants to tell the story. I warn you, that every time I go into detail about what I actually went through, people squirm and shy away, so this is my forum to get it all out. It was the darkest, lowest part of my life to date and I am still only just collecting myself to re-establish some normalcy for my family and business. I returned to work just a few weeks ago, under three weeks after my fourth eye surgery in two months after I was struck in the right eye with a hard orange floor hockey ball on August 19th, 2014.
My wife and three children were away at our family cabin. I had returned to work for the week after an amazing almost 3 week holiday, but I only made it to Tuesday before my world changed. Earlier in the summer a client had told me about a regular pick up floor hockey game at a nearby community centre. I went a few times before my vacation, but I was the new guy amongst a group that had been playing together for a while. The only guy I somewhat knew was my client who had told me about the game.
The game was social, but competitive. Every guy had a different level of protective gear, but most did not have any form of eye protection. I happened to have my squash goggles with me, but forget them in the car because I was running late. I had never worn eye protection playing floor hockey before, but was definitely considering it with this group; unfortunately I never got the chance. I decided to jump right into the game and was having a great time. I scored five goals in the first two games before it happened. I ended up in the corner just off to the side of net. I turned back to follow the ball when I saw a split second of an orange ball flying right at my face. Read More