Here is the fourth part of my medical journey and the part that I think most people have heard me talk about in some way shape or form previously. If you missed the first three parts here they are (in order) #647175 #648403 #650989

Sorry for the gap between part three and this... I took some time off this weekend to visit friends and disconnect!

Some of you might recognize this part of the story because of certain details I have talked about with people before but I never discussed it all. For those of you who do not know the kitchen area is typically stocked with treats donated from organizations, people, etc. and given I had just had my third neurosurgery I felt like I had earned eating all the cookies I could! The day the New York Islander Wives and Girlfriends cooked dinner for the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island without even thinking about it my mom had helped me put on my heavy-duty sweatshirt since it was winter after all! This sweatshirt was a Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane one and I enjoyed sitting in the kitchen eating cookies because they had this one area that was like a sunroom so it was all glass and it was snowing that day something to this day I love to watch. 

At some point, my fiancee at the time joined me in this area right off the kitchen and she was wearing the hockey jersey I had gifted her for Christmas (Sergei Bobrovsky when he was on the Columbus Blue Jackets). Rather quickly one of the wives, Josh Bailey's wife Megan, came over and started to talk with us asking about where we were from, how we were feeling, etc. before she looked at me and asked why I was wearing a Blackhawks sweatshirt when I was from Houston. I told her about how I used to be a huge Houston Aeros fan before the AHL (minor league for the NHL) team moved somewhere north to be closer to their NHL team. Well, this piqued her interest big time and she invited us to talk to another wife who was there. 

Who she invited me to meet was Cassie Clutterbuck the wife of NHL player Cal Clutterbuck. Her husband had been drafted by the Minnesota Wild and spent on and off for two years playing for both the NHL team and also their AHL team..... the Houston Aeros! My mom had joined us at this time (honestly I think she was amazed I was so talkative because typically I had been pretty quiet) and started to talk with both Megan Bailey and Cassie Clutterbuck about Houston. It turns out that the Clutterbucks both enjoyed Houston even though it wasn't like any other hockey town they had lived in. Before I knew it there was a full-blown conversation going on with both of the wives completely abandoning their cooking job and sitting and talking with my mom and me (my Fiancee was just silent refusing to engage in conversation with anyone because of course).

Megan Bailey then asked if I had ever been to an NHL game before given how I was a hockey fan but I didn't have an NHL team near me. When I told her no I had not but I hoped to get to go to one soon she said lets change that and get you to a game before you leave. I was stunned, excited, probably a little confused but I couldn't accept fast enough. Megan got my mom's and fiancee's mom's numbers to set it up, we were going to be guests of the Bailey's which was really really cool, took pictures with us before leaving. 

It turns out that the Islanders, at the time, were on a road trip and wouldn't be back in New York for almost a week. My mom and I were supposed to fly out the day before the next upcoming home game so I called my dad and asked him to move our flight please so that I could go to this game which he gladly did. The night of the game the Islanders were playing the Carolina Hurricanes and my mom, fiancees mom, fiancee, and I Ubered into New York City to the Barclays Center, the Islanders home at the time. When we arrived we had an assigned place for us to enter that was different than the other entrances and honestly it was some of the nicest stadium staff I have ever met!

Once through security which given the fusion and neck brace was a little bit of an adventure a lady came up to us and gave us our tickets and told us that at X time to meet her back in this area so we could go back and high five the players when they first go on the ice. None of us knew about this and I was stunned and extremely excited to be able to do something I had seen on TV before. At that time we all returned and there was a whole group that went down there. It was surreal with how every single player went down the line high fiving us. I surely had never experienced something like this before and it will always be a memory I have.

After the highfiving our group thought everything was done and returned to our seats for the game. The seats were absolutely killer and I understood why they were $250 a seat (the price was still on the tickets lol) so that meant Megan Bailey had spent $1k on tickets for us... mind blowing. Originally when we had set out and made these plans the idea was to stay until the start of the third period to beat the traffic and because it would have been pretty late considering I had just had a huge surgery. When it got about halfway through the second period I went back up to where our liaison lady was and asked her if there was anyway to get a puck and I what she said next stunned me... "You arent going to stay to meet Josh after the game?"

Honestly pretty sure I just stuttered in response and probably said something like uhh I need to go talk to my mom racing at that point to her and my fiancee mom (they were seated close by but not next to us). When I told them my mom was surprised as well and was really open to the idea the fiancee mom however.... she didn't care we had to still leave. I mean I am pretty sure they could have offered her a billion dollars and she wouldn't have wanted to stay. Irritated I then walked over to my fiancee who hadn't heard a single thing and dropped the bomb of what we were offered but how her mom still wanted to stay. She got up and I am sure yelled and cried at her mom for ruining everything and low and behold we were staying! 

The rest of the game really went by as a blur. I know the Islanders ended up losing by one and it was a close game throughout but alas they came up short. At the end of game our liaison came up and told us that once most fans left we would be headed back to the locker rooms to meet Josh. Again the experience was absolutely surreal as Josh Bailey had talked to his wife about us or at least remembered what was told as he asked questions and was super engaging the entire time he talked with us. He grabbed us pucks from the game and signed them, signed towels for us and was ready to sign anything else we could have possibly had. 

This meeting has left a lasting impact on me and to this day I get asked about me being a New York Islanders fan, I have a ton of gear from all the years that Bailey played with them, and I tell people no I am a Josh Bailey fan no matter who he plays for. A little over a year ago in fact when he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks I was so excited since that was the other team I cheer for. Sadly though he was bought out not long after the trade (super stupid mistake I think btw) and while he had a PTO last year he didn't make the team. Since then there hasn't been much information about him and it seems he has pretty much retired without officially announcing it. 

Recovering and PT was brutal and it was experiences like this that really helped get me through it all. I have honestly quite the collection of Josh Bailey memorabilia including a game-used jersey, multiple goal pucks, and possibly the coolest thing... the lineup cards from both teams for his one and only career hat trick! The moral of this story is not only are these athletes human but simple acts of kindness can go a long long way. I hope to one day meet Josh Bailey again and thank him for what he did for me.