Jared McAteer’s Blag – jaredmcateer.com

A couple days after posting the previous artcile about the veteren that overcame his disabilities I have disabled myself, I wouldn’t call it irony, but it’s definitely eeriey. About 3 weeks ago three of my friends and I signed up at a gym, to get fit and make sure we didn’t get lazy throughout winter. It was a great setup, about 4 days a week, we would all go to the gym, pair off and do some weight training. Ajay and I worked through the main muscle groups throughout the week, while Devin and Dale did mostly cardio and circuit training. Then after 45 min to and hour we would go play squash, this gym had courts in the facility, for about another hour or so. It was a great balance, building muscle, burning calories and tonnes of fun. Then on thursday in the midst of an intense tie breaking game between Ajay and I tradegy struck. I was up by one point like 6-5 or something like that, squash goes to 11 and you need to win by 2 points. I planted my right foot, wound up a big back hand return and crushed it, while my arm was following through, I looked back to spot where the ball was going to see Ajay’s return and I lost balance. As I’m falling to the ground, I hear and feel this sickening crunch and the most intense pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I knew right away I had broken my leg, even though I never had a broken bone before there was no mistaking that feeling. The following is a transcribe of what happened:

Jared: AAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! CALL AN AMBULANCE!
Ajay: Are you okay?
Jared: NO CALL AN AMBULANCE.
Ajay: [seeing my foot twisted 90°] oh

Devin, thinking I got hit in the eye with a ball came over from the other court to laugh, instead he sees my foot, rushes in and stablises my leg as best he can, while I pound the court floor with my fists in a very manly way of dealing with the pain. Some of the staff came and tried to comfort me during the wait, two of which were very attractive women… good thing I had no urge to cry otherwise there would have been no stopping the flow of tears. There were a lot of gawkers I guesss, my face was pointed towards the back of the court and the floor so I couldn’t tell, but honestly I would have invited them in to take a look if I knew.

Once the EMTs arrived they must have tried 4 or 5 times to find a vein, poking and proding me. They took my blood pressure and according to it I was calmer than a hindu cow, it was around 125 over 65, christ, I wish that were my regular BP. So they gave me shots of morphine, testing my BP inbetween to make sure I didn’t take, and in the end gave me almost all the amount they were allowed to give and carted me off at to the hospital. The EMT that sat with me in the back, I cannot remember his name, was a great guy, kept the conversation light hearted and cracked jokes to keep my mind off the bumpy snowed up roads. When we got to the hospital he topped me up with what amount of morphine he was allowed to give and turned me over to the ER.

Ajay arrived with my stuff from the gym, he hung out with me until the EMTs were ready to set the leg. Before they did so I asked the Doc if Ajay could take some pictures. The look on the Docs face was priceless but he let Ajay come back from the waiting room to get some. Then they gave me this stuff the EMT called Amnesia Milk, and if there is a better name for it I would not know. Once sec I’m talking to the docs the next I am having my shoulder shaken and asking the nurse when they are going to set it and her replied “they did already” and I look down, sure enough my foot is pointing in the right direction.

At this point I had hoped that it was only a dislocation and not a break, a couple orthopedic docs came by to tell me I need some xrays and they would be able to tell if there was a break, which they were certain there was. So Ajay and I chat while I wait for them to wheel me over to x-ray. Sure enough there’s a break, but not just one, but three breaks! Fuck. “So am I gonna get a cast?” “No you need surgery so you’ll be overnight, then we’re going to put some plates and pins in your.” FUCK. So not only is this my first break ever, but also my first surgery, well go hard or go home.

So I spend the next 4 days in the hospital in and out of a morphine/percocet haze, surgery was quick and relatively painless, except now I have staples going up, at varying lengths, either side of my leg. This means that the only position I can lay down in is on my back… I usually sleep on my side so this is pretty uncomfortable way to sleep. Getting around on crutches is balls, living in a multi-level house makes that tedious. My grandma came over yesterday and took care of me though… she did my laundry, cooked me meals and even filled my perscription for me. I love my grandma. The next 5 weeks are going to suck no doubt about it.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Blag. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.