Surgery and the Post Op Experience (9/24 - 9/26)

The surgery was planned for 6-7 hours. It lasted 11. I slept for 14. Never saw that coming...

Apparently, the surgeons discovered at least a dozen bone fragments that had to be retrieved and pieced back together like a puzzle...in addition to re-building my nose with a piece of my skull. In the end, I received a titanium plate to close a dime-sized hole in my right orbital, two "new" skull bone pieces in my nose and 39 - 1 mm titanium screws to hold it all together. All of that would stay in. They also installed tubes in my nose, a temporary drain in my head and 50+ staples to close my ear-to-ear-over-the-top-of-my-head incision. Now I was a real metal head.

The first things I recall after are seeing Kate, my parents and Jaime; Hearing that it was 11:30 PM and realizing I'd made it through; Sipping Sierra Mist and tasting the sugar!

The surgeon told me I'd be going home on Wednesday morning...about 40 hours after surgery ended. I fell asleep restlessly with a smile on my face knowing that I could TASTE again.

The medical staff asked if I was in any pain. Of course, right? But it wasn't anywhere near my face! My calves and my low back hurt like hell. With anesthesia, I couldn't lift my 50 lb. head, so I asked the nurses to get me to a seated position...so I could stretch! I guess laying flat for 14 hours is not good for my back. I later learned that my calves were being exercised constantly during surgery by machines to prevent clots. No wonder I was sore...14 hours of calf exercises.

The next challenge was "filling the bottle" within 6-8 hours after surgery ended. Not easy to do when one's bladder is larger than normal, two nurses are present to keep me company and the pressure is on. I think it took 20 minutes with no nurses and me propped up, standing against a wall with a bottle in my hand. They had tried privacy and running water. In the end, what worked? The sound of helicopter blades, some relaxed breathing and the threat of a catheter.

Another memorable event - my 6'2" body was crammed into a bed seemingly made for a toddler. None of the nurses remedied the situation, but a cleaning woman who I had met the week before became my hero. After laying in the toddler's bed for 12 hours, I learned from the cleaning lady that this $15,000 bed could be extended with the touch of a button! Why couldn't a nurse have done that???

Another small world event - turns out my post op nurse and I were connected. Her husband's college friend and I shared the same name...and as it turned out, the nurse's sister-in-law and I were friends who worked together for the same company on the same floor of a building in Florida. In fact, I had pictures of the sister-in-law at home! We had lost touch 10 years ago...and through the most bizarre of curcumstances, we are reconnecting now. Who says this was a tragedy? Good things ALWAYS come from "bad" things if you just pay attention and see them...
The surgeon asked if I'd had any questions. What I wanted to know was what they played on the IPOD for the 11 hour surgery. The anesthesiologist asked the same question. I just wanted to know how far I'd made it in the pre-op, post anethesia countdown. He started me at 20. He said I made it to 10. I only remember getting to 13. Always competing...

I forced myself up and walking about 10 - 12 hours after the surgery. Of course, my cute physical therapist "date" helped with motivation. Also, it didn't hurt that my vision has been effected, and I saw TWO of her! We walked for so long that the nurses had to page me to return to my room.

The next day - 9/26 - I was up and out "jogging" the halls with my IV pole at 6 AM. I met the surgeons at the elevator at 7 AM. They released me at 1:30 PM. Although they gave me an antibiotic and Vicadin perscription, I didn't fill the Vicadin. I have never really felt any pain in my face - just swelling and discomfort...just as they said I would.

Everyone there was very nice, but I was ready to go home...

Preparation and Surgery Consult (9/16 - 9/23)

I spent the first week at home preparing mentally for the surgery and the recovery. Kate and I were looking forward to meeting with the surgical team of Drs. Fedok and Ruggerio on Friday, 9/21.

People always ask if I was nervous. I really wasn't. I figured I had no choice. I had to go through the surgery and recovery. I had no power - and no time machine - to change what had happened. All I could control was myself - my attitude about it all. I had met the surgical team. We bonded over jokes and sarcasm. Seemed to be the right folks for me. :-)

On Thursday, 9/20, I returned to "the scene of the crime" to meet the player who threw the ball and the one who didn't catch it as well as the umpire and the teammates who had witnessed the accident and heard the crack of ball on bone. At that time, I didn't know if I would ever be able to play sports again. I was working through that notion. Given the choice between never playing again or never tasting/smelling again, I decided I'd choose to give up the sports. It's a long life without taste and smell. On one hand, you save $$ on spices; on the other hand, you can no longer do the smell test for previously-worn clothes, and you are always self-conscious about your breath.

Anyhow, I met the players and the umpire from "the game", showed them I was alive and let them see the damage. I learned that people respond with interest and offers to help or they run away wishing the whole event would just disappear.

On Friday, 9/21, we met the surgeons. THE PLAN - take a piece of bone from my skull to create new bone/nose pieces and add some plates, screws and wire mesh to hold it all together. The whole procedure would require incisions inside my upper lip, under my nose, inside my right lower eyelid and across the top of my head from ear to ear. They would peel my face down to access the damaged area. No major scar to see that way...

They told me a lot of stuff: 6-7 hours of surgery. Up to a year for the "new nose" to settle into place. A second follow up surgery and a piece of rib to fine tune what the initial job 3-6 months from now. I could play sports again, but my face would be weaker. I could box in 6 months if I wanted to. The only sport I should give up was chess. My chance of recovering taste and smell was 90%.

It was better..and worse..than I expected, but I was ready to go.

...The hardest part was psychological - knowing my face would be peeled down. That's a hard picture to wrap your head around.

I told the surgeons I knew they would be successful with my nose and face. After all, they had great raw material to work with...

Diagnosis at Hershey Medical Center (9/13 - 9/15)

My first ambulance ride was eventful. A student EMT tried and eventually succeeded in placing a second IV in my arm - an IV I learned later could not be used because it wasn't considered sterile. I thought he was using a hammer and nail. I know he did his best. After feeling every bump along the way, I asked the driver if he'd been driving a trampoline. They were good guys.

I learned right away that HMC is a teaching hospital. How? The young, overzealous trauma team greeted me by cutting every stitch of clothing from my body. What was the point? I'd been laying around for 2 hours. I could have taken off the jerseys, shorts, pants, belt and boxers myself and saved the cost of the clothing. I potested the whole time. At least I got the spikes and socks back in one piece. I didn't get it. After all, wasn't the entire trauma ABOVE my neck?

A more detailed diagnosis came at some point. A Naso-Orbital-Ethmoid (NOE) fracture. Traslation: Bilateral frontal sinus fracture. Bilateral orbital fractures. Septum fracture. Cut requiring stitches. I smashed my face, and there were bone fragments everwhere. Instead of being vertically straight, my septum looked like the letter "Z." I'd also lost my sense of taste and smell.

Eight hours later, Kate finally left at 5 AM on 9/14. If I slept an hour, I was lucky.

By the end of day 2, I swear I'd met 80 medical staff in 48 hours. I was a bit of a medical celebrity..."Smashed Face Guy." The doctors wanted to push on my face. The med students wanted to see me. EVERY PERSON who came into the room asked me, "How did this happen?" I decided that if I had to be there under these circumstances, I was at least going to have some fun with the situation and my caretakers. :-) Fortunately, everyone had a good sense of humor.

Way too many stories to tell...They sent me home in the afternoon of 9/15 - just in time for my birthday.

WHAT Happened????

On Thursday night, September 13 in the 1st inning of the second game of a doubleheader at Brightbill Park, I was hurt by a thrown softball. As I slid into 2nd base during a double play attempt and my feet hit the base, I suddenly realized I'd been hit with something near my head an instant later. My ears rang. As I leaned face down on my elbows with the blood pooling beneath me, I knew for sure I'd broken my nose. But the field was dead silent.

This would turn out to be much worse than a broken nose...

My immediate concern? I was off the base. I reached over and grabbed the bag. "Was I safe?," I asked. Everyone laughed. They told me I could take my hand off the base. About 10 minutes passed before I was helped from the field with towel and ice over my face. The only person I saw was the umpire. He had a look of horror on his face - as if I had 10 bullet holes in my body. I'll never forget the horror on his face. This was a bad situation...

A long ride to Pinnacle Health in downtown Harisburg allowed time for the pain to set in. I was overwhelmed at this point - 45 minutes after the accident. Although I NEVER lost consciousness, I don't think I opened my eyes much for the next 8 hours. I don't know exactly what they did. Pain meds. CT. X-ray. Getting rid of a liter of blood in my stomach made me feel much better.

The official diagnosis - "You really did a number on your face." TRANSLATION - You smashed completely your whole face between your eyes.

Surgeons later told me that although it wasn't common, they would not at all have been surprised if the throw had killed me.Pinnacle sent me to Hershey Medical Center via ambulance...two hours after arriving there. As I learned later, my surgeon-to-be at Hershey Med was a nationally known doctor who specialized in NOE fractures and facial reconstruction surgery - one of only a handful in PA and the only one in Central PA. How lucky was I? That was my injury.

The "coincidences" only got better...