A Jawing Mishap
To the left is a picture my friend Paul took before I went on a local morning television show two Halloweens ago. He recently sent the picture to me and wrote, "An eerie foretelling of future tragedy or just an oddly torn, smeary coincidence? You be the judge!"
He's a card, that one.
So.... Nov. 1 my health insurance kicked in. On Nov. 6 I attended my first rugby practice with the Gotham Knights. I was psyched. The guys were really nice and welcoming. And they said I could play with them that weekend in a rugby tournament.
On Saturday the 10th I showed up and helped set up the fields. They told me I'd be playing with their B side as wing. The first game was great. I was a bit rusty but I got to tackle. We mostly played defense because our scrums just weren't winning the ball.
After the first game, our coach said I'd be playing fly half. And then the team captain for the A side called out two names and said to run over to another field as soon as this game was over to play with the A side.
I turned to the guy standing next to me and said, "Does he want that Ted (pointing to one of the forwards) or this Ted (pointing to me)" He laughed and told me it was me (I think the shock on my face was probably evident). That was a big deal for me. I'd only practiced twice and played in one game and they wanted me to help out their A side. It's like being drafted in the first round! It's like being called up to the majors! It's like being asked to the prom by the quarterback (oh wait, wrong analogy).
Once again we were losing our scrums. We would form up offensively but lose the scrum - so we'd have to run up quickly in a defensive position. During one of these times the ball started moving down the opposing team's line. I went in for a tackle and just got crushed. Someone's knee connected with my face.
I'd never experienced pain like that before. I found myself on the ground and saw blood pouring out of my mouth. I couldn't see out of my right eye and my jaw and face were just crushed. It was so excruciating the only thing I could do was kick my foot into the ground repeatedly.
They helped me off the field and I was evaluated by a medic. She told me I broke my nose and had a great black eye. I told her that it was more than just a broken nose. My jaw hurt so bad and I was in horrendous pain. She called the paramedics (they did have an ambulance there but they had taken someone else off to the hospital). But the ambulance got lost and it took them about an hour or more to find us.
They loaded me into an ambulance and one of the guys followed in his car. The coach is a surgeon so he called ahead to ensure i got good treatment at the hospital. As soon as I got to the hospital (about 90 - 120 minutes after the hit) they evaluated me and started me on drugs. They kept giving me more and more morphine. Although it made my body float - the pain in my jaw continued.
After CT scans, evals by various doctors, etc. they established that I broke my eye socket, broke my nose, had a fracture that ran across the entire length of my face above my lip and just below my nose, broke the bones in my cheek, broke my upper and lower jaw and some plate in my face got rotated and turned down and was pushing into my jaw.
My friends Shawn and Keith were both out of town. The only person I could think of to call was my friend Ross at work. So he came on over, joined the other Ted from the team and started making phone calls to my friends and family.
Opthalmology and maxillofacial both wanted to admit me and they couldn't figure out who was going to get first crack at me. Unfortunately there was a shift change (by now it was well into the evening). Instead of being worked on, they released me.
Ted insisted I stay at his place. Fortunately I was so pumped up with drugs I agreed (normally I would just say I could take care of myself and go home). The hospital gave me prescription for pain killers, antibiotics and said to call a doctor on Tuesday (it was Veteran's Day weekend). Ted and Ross hit the drug store at 2 in the morning and I sat in a daze.
My mom showed up the next day to check on me and we headed back to my apartment.
Surprisingly I felt ok. I mean, I was in a lot of pain but it wasn't something that was devastating. I just hurt and that was it.
To make a really long story short. My sister Sue, my dad and stepmother Kathie headed up the following weekend to help me prepare for surgery and to take care of me after.
My sister Michele and her husband also came up for the weekend and brought up a reclining chair (that is beyond comfortable) and a TV for my bedroom.
The doctor operated on me for 5 or 6 hours and inserted a bunch of titanium plates and screws into my face and wired my jaws shut. He did a great job. Aside from surgical scars, you can't really tell anything happened by looking at my face. The only problem I have right now is numbness in my face and my vision still is poor.
I just saw the doc again last week and he told me that I was REALLY lucky. He said I was extremely close to losing my eye or worse. He also said that I really need to consider playing rugby again. We'll discuss it later, but there's a chance I may never be able to play again. I'm trying not to think about that right now.
I have some funny stories that have happened (including my wonderful Thanksgiving dinner just two days after surgery) that I'll share in my next post. But I just wanted to give a quick update.
Here are some fun pix.
He's a card, that one.
So.... Nov. 1 my health insurance kicked in. On Nov. 6 I attended my first rugby practice with the Gotham Knights. I was psyched. The guys were really nice and welcoming. And they said I could play with them that weekend in a rugby tournament.
On Saturday the 10th I showed up and helped set up the fields. They told me I'd be playing with their B side as wing. The first game was great. I was a bit rusty but I got to tackle. We mostly played defense because our scrums just weren't winning the ball.
After the first game, our coach said I'd be playing fly half. And then the team captain for the A side called out two names and said to run over to another field as soon as this game was over to play with the A side.
I turned to the guy standing next to me and said, "Does he want that Ted (pointing to one of the forwards) or this Ted (pointing to me)" He laughed and told me it was me (I think the shock on my face was probably evident). That was a big deal for me. I'd only practiced twice and played in one game and they wanted me to help out their A side. It's like being drafted in the first round! It's like being called up to the majors! It's like being asked to the prom by the quarterback (oh wait, wrong analogy).
Once again we were losing our scrums. We would form up offensively but lose the scrum - so we'd have to run up quickly in a defensive position. During one of these times the ball started moving down the opposing team's line. I went in for a tackle and just got crushed. Someone's knee connected with my face.
I'd never experienced pain like that before. I found myself on the ground and saw blood pouring out of my mouth. I couldn't see out of my right eye and my jaw and face were just crushed. It was so excruciating the only thing I could do was kick my foot into the ground repeatedly.
They helped me off the field and I was evaluated by a medic. She told me I broke my nose and had a great black eye. I told her that it was more than just a broken nose. My jaw hurt so bad and I was in horrendous pain. She called the paramedics (they did have an ambulance there but they had taken someone else off to the hospital). But the ambulance got lost and it took them about an hour or more to find us.
They loaded me into an ambulance and one of the guys followed in his car. The coach is a surgeon so he called ahead to ensure i got good treatment at the hospital. As soon as I got to the hospital (about 90 - 120 minutes after the hit) they evaluated me and started me on drugs. They kept giving me more and more morphine. Although it made my body float - the pain in my jaw continued.
After CT scans, evals by various doctors, etc. they established that I broke my eye socket, broke my nose, had a fracture that ran across the entire length of my face above my lip and just below my nose, broke the bones in my cheek, broke my upper and lower jaw and some plate in my face got rotated and turned down and was pushing into my jaw.
My friends Shawn and Keith were both out of town. The only person I could think of to call was my friend Ross at work. So he came on over, joined the other Ted from the team and started making phone calls to my friends and family.
Opthalmology and maxillofacial both wanted to admit me and they couldn't figure out who was going to get first crack at me. Unfortunately there was a shift change (by now it was well into the evening). Instead of being worked on, they released me.
Ted insisted I stay at his place. Fortunately I was so pumped up with drugs I agreed (normally I would just say I could take care of myself and go home). The hospital gave me prescription for pain killers, antibiotics and said to call a doctor on Tuesday (it was Veteran's Day weekend). Ted and Ross hit the drug store at 2 in the morning and I sat in a daze.
My mom showed up the next day to check on me and we headed back to my apartment.
Surprisingly I felt ok. I mean, I was in a lot of pain but it wasn't something that was devastating. I just hurt and that was it.
To make a really long story short. My sister Sue, my dad and stepmother Kathie headed up the following weekend to help me prepare for surgery and to take care of me after.
My sister Michele and her husband also came up for the weekend and brought up a reclining chair (that is beyond comfortable) and a TV for my bedroom.
The doctor operated on me for 5 or 6 hours and inserted a bunch of titanium plates and screws into my face and wired my jaws shut. He did a great job. Aside from surgical scars, you can't really tell anything happened by looking at my face. The only problem I have right now is numbness in my face and my vision still is poor.
I just saw the doc again last week and he told me that I was REALLY lucky. He said I was extremely close to losing my eye or worse. He also said that I really need to consider playing rugby again. We'll discuss it later, but there's a chance I may never be able to play again. I'm trying not to think about that right now.
I have some funny stories that have happened (including my wonderful Thanksgiving dinner just two days after surgery) that I'll share in my next post. But I just wanted to give a quick update.
Here are some fun pix.
Comments
Best
Damien