NEWTON - He heard too many different things from different doctors and trainers. None of them were comforting.
Then there was the time therapists were forcefully tugging on his leg, pliers in hand, attempting to remove the stitches from his mangled left knee with no success. If only they knew that the stitches, under the skin, had been tied in a knot.
The sight of David Givens biting a towel between screams of agony should have tipped them off to that.
This was when it all crashed for Givens, who played wide receiver for the Patriots from 2002-05 and was an integral part of two Super Bowl championship teams.
Just 10 months ago, he was confused and fearful, unsure of what the future held. Never mind his once-promising football career. He just wanted to know if he'd ever walk again without a limp, or be able to run.
He had endured three surgeries on his left knee. There was another surgery on his right knee. He feared he was slipping into depression, and he'd also just been cut by the Tennessee Titans only two seasons into a five-year contract.
At that point, the cellphone went off. He shut it down, closing himself off to most everyone in the world, except for his dogs, King and Sampson.
There was nothing anyone could say, because no one could change what unfolded Nov. 12, 2006, the day that forever changed his life. They also couldn't come close to understanding the physical nightmare he'd be living since.
Givens was running a pass pattern in a game against the Baltimore Ravens that afternoon, as he had done thousands of times over his career, whether it was at Notre Dame, with the Patriots, or with the Titans.
As he exploded out of his cut, the inner workings of his left knee had the equivalent of a three-car highway pileup. The anterior cruciate ligament was torn. So was the meniscus - medial and lateral. The femur behind the kneecap broke off and shattered, as the knee shifted in directions it wasn't designed to go.
Four doctors turned him away for surgery because of the severity of the injury, and by the time Givens traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to see noted orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, the words he was hearing were scary.
"He performed the surgery and basically told me that he hadn't seen such an extensive injury from a wide receiver," recalled Givens, who now has artificial bone plugs in his knee and leg. "He let me know that it was going to be very, very tough to come back from, and that it could be a process of three or four surgeries, or it just may take some time. That was very tough to hear."
Meanwhile, friends such as former Patriots receiver Troy Brown, in the days leading up to last season's Super Bowl, openly wondered about Givens's well-being and whereabouts. Only now is Givens beginning to re-emerge.