“We will use this tube to help you breath during surgery”, says the anesthetist assisted by a nurse. By the 2nd to 3rd deep breath I was completely out and don’t remember anything except seeing the same people after the surgery which I saw before it. My surgery started, I’d estimate, at around 2:15pm and lasted between 60 to 90 min. As soon as I woke up I was taken from the surgery room to the pre-surgery room where I spent about 2 good hours. I was given a menu and was told to order something to eat because it was gonna take a while until transferred to my room. Therefore, I ordered some chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and apple juice.
After a long wait I was eventually taken to my room, which I shared with a kid from Florida named T.J who plays soccer for some high school. T.J had pretty much the same type of surgical procedure I had, and that plus soccer were good topics to talk about that evening. At about 9pm I took my first convincing walk down the hallway and met some other guys who just had the same surgery as I did. In fact, out of a dozen or so of people who had surgery that Wednesday done by Dr. Meyers, most of them were athletes; three of those including myself were track athletes. Mike DiGennaro, who runs steeplechase (PB 8:35) was one of them, and the other was Tennessee’s decathlonist Jangy Addy who took 2nd with 7916 points at the ’08 NCAA outdoors. I also heard that day that supposedly NFL New Orleans Saints’s defensive player Mark Simoneau was there too for the same kind of groin problems.
One of the funniest moments which happened that same day, but later in the evening, was when watching Jay Leno show( one of my favorite TV shows), having Dr. Phil as one of the guests. The TV show is always funny to watch so it was this time; therefore, nothing wrong yet. However, there was a huge problem when laughing at the funny moments because of the surgery, which didn’t allow any sort o pressure on the lower abdominals. As a result, I had to restrain myself from laughing, which at that point was very hard, especially watching Jay Leno.
Despite a very nice and adjustable bed, the night in the hospital felt long for me. I remember waking up at about 4am and being hungry and also tight throughout my whole body. I got up and ate 2 granola bars I had in one of my bag packs and after that took a 5-7 min walk before falling asleep till about 7:40am. I was discharged from the hospital at 11:30, then took a cab till the 30th street Amtrak/train station to get to Altoona PA at about 5pm, where some of my bodies picked me up and took me back to my house in Ebensburg.
Another interesting (somehow funny) moment happened few hours before I was discharged from Hahnemann Hospital. One of Dr. Meyers’ co. workers, who came to visit all the patients before discharge, showed up in crutches. Supposedly he injured his knee playing squash, which is a racket game played in a closed walled court with a rubber ball. I said to him with a sense of humor, “what happened to you overnight?! It seems to me that you need more help walking than I do”. Of course he started laughing and the rest is history.
Now I have already started my rehab training, which includes 1 mile walks once a day for the first 7 days. The pain is pretty annoying and present in the lower abdominal and groins, mostly bothering when trying to get up or squad-even walking is not too pleasant. Good thing is weekend and don’t have much going on, so basically I can just relax and hope that by Monday I will be much better.
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Taking advantage of expressing myself to people using this blog I want to say thank you to Dr. Meyers and his crew and their commitment and service they bring to athletics. Also want to say thank you to all my family and friends who helped and supported me through these tough times.
I will try to keep this blog updated as far as my recovery goes and hope that somewhere around 3 weeks from now I will be able to run.
“One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick”
Rabbi Harold Kushner
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