[MUSIC]
It was a normal day, and nothing really was bothering me.
And I went into the game late, maybe fifth or sixth inning.
And then I felt sort of a, maybe a pull or
like a tweak in the back of my shoulder.
I got pulled from the game.
By the clavicle area and my arm swelled up a little bit and
then the pain got pretty excruciating.
We saw a shoulder specialist through another local hospital.
Had MRI's, did the whole x-ray thing, all that came back clear.
So there was no labor issue, there was no rotator cuff,
there was no bone issues.
That it was only after another couple weeks of not finding
anything on the scans that the local doctor got the ultrasound,
and sure enough, there was a blood clot.
>> So the next step was to come to the local hospital, and
he was admitted to ICU,
and they did a procedure to break-up the blood clot.
Over the course of a couple of days between the medication and
the ballooning, they were able to break up the blood clot.
Now that the vein was clear, they could look and
see more specifically what the problem was.
And they said that he had thoracic outlet syndrome
where the vein bumps over the first rib and so
the likelihood of a blood clot forming again, was pretty high.
It was a really difficult time for
all of us as we were unsure of what was gonna happen.
>> Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or TOS is a group of disorders that
result due to compression of the Thoracic outlet area which is
located right here underneath the collarbone.
But above the first rib and
bordered by some different muscles in the neck.
>> So I was on blood thinners to make sure it
didn't further clot.
But other than that, we decided the best route was surgery.
So that's when we decided, and
that's when we moved on to trying to find a specialist.
>> We started making phone calls.
We were very excited to get an appointment then at Hopkins,
because they are so well known.
We did our own research online.
In addition to the doctors we had been consulting with
locally, they had told us that Hopkins is really
one of the best places in the U.S.
to be able to go for surgery addressing TOS.
Hopkins squeezed us into an appointment and
it was like before the very beginning of the day.
It was like seven o'clock in the morning, they squeezed us in.
>> Our first consults.
It was very comforting.
It was very clear that this
is not a surgery to take lightly but that he's done it before.
That I can't speak highly enough of Dr. Lone.
From the bat he was young, energetic,
you could tell he was very passionate about what he does.
What I do every day is play baseball.
What he does every day is help people with this kind
of surgery.
>> Erin Ruper contacted us in the middle of spring and
we were able to see him pretty quickly and then get him,
work with his schedule and our operating schedule.
And get him scheduled for surgery pretty quickly so
that he could undergo rehab during the summer and
then restart his baseball season towards the end of the year.
>> The surgery was as very successful.
Post surgery it was about two or
three weeks of doing absolutely nothing.
Kind of bed rest let everything heal.
After that was when the rehab program started.
That was roughly five months of rehab without baseball.
There was it was mainly range of motion stuff moving into
strength and everything so I could get back to baseball.
And then about nine months post surgery, I was cleared
completely to throw and that was right before our season started.
>> It was tears.
We had tears in our eyes really when he pitched his first game.
It had been nearly a year, it had been 11 or
10 months from the time that the whole thing had happened.
And we didn't know if he'd be able to pitch again and
here he was 100% being able to throw again.
>> Right now, I'd say I'm definitely as strong as before I
was diagnosed or had any symptoms of TOS.
As strong as I've ever been, which is pretty exciting.
[MUSIC]