I grew up in NYC and fell in love early with the greatest game in the world - football ⚽️! Throughout my childhood, I remember commuting countless hours on the LIE and I95 to get to play for an elite club team on Long Island as well as the State and Regional Olympic Development Teams. Injuries affected me like any other serious athlete - they sucked, and by the time I got to college, I had already had two knee surgeries, multiple serious ankle sprains, and countless muscle issues. After playing 4 years of division I soccer at Colgate University and joining a couple of post college recreational teams around the city, the pain / swelling on my right knee became unbearable. My previous surgeon kept recommending that I get injections and continue with physical therapy but this just made my situation worse. It wasn’t until I saw Dr. Alaia at NYU, that I got the wakeup call that I so desperately needed - I had a knee that resembled an 85 year old - aka NO CARTILAGE! This scared me but Dr. Alaia gave me hope when he told me his plan to fix me. Fast forward a year and a half and two knee surgeries later and my knee has never felt better. Thanks to the best surgeon in NYC who performed a flawless Osteotomy and MACI (Matrix-Associated Chondrocyte Implantation) procedure, I now have my cartilage back! The dopest part of this operation is that the cartilage is really MINE because they came from MY cells! Thank you, Dr. Alaia for getting me healthy and back out on the field doing what I love to do the most!
