It’s almost a month since I stood banging at the entrance to St Luke’s hospital clutching my abdomen at 5am thinking I was having ulcer pains that had gone out of hand. Couple of hours later and maybe six injections later, I was told I required a surgical procedure to remove my appendix that I later found out my health insurance couldn’t cover yet. It’s funny because that morning I was supposed to be on my way to Lome, then Accra for the Chale Wote festival with my people Oluwatosin and Temisan.
The surgery itself was uneventful; I opted to be knocked out while they carried out the procedure. I was already too deep in thought about what could have been and coupled with the fact that Manchester United was playing terribly at Wolverhampton Wanderers, I just wanted to wake up and be done with it. I regained consciousness maybe around 10, and all I could think of were the pains from the surgical site and other places that had come in contact with iodine from the surgery. Manchester United drew that game too, missing a penalty.
This post is really not about the surgery, because I think that was the easy part. The surgery was relatively easy for me because I had friends and family who dropped everything they had making sure I was okay, waiting outside through the duration of the surgery and making repeated visits until I finally left the hospital 5 days later. I am really blessed to have these people on my side and I’ll choose them over again and twice on Sundays. The days since the surgery however, have been some of the most challenging days of my life (if you decide not to count grad school which is a different story).
The first few days after the surgery were pathetic. As someone who exercised a lot and was a regular at the gym, it was a struggle to come to terms with the fact that I now needed help with movement—standing up, sitting down, lying down, walking, etc. I could not even pee the recommended way, which would not cause me any serious pain;Instead , I had to stand up each time I had to pee. I was hooked on IV fluids for maybe three days after the surgery and so there was a lot of peeing—and a lot of pain.
When I started writing this post on September 3, I wanted to talk about the mental struggle I had with not only with dealing with the pains but also dealing with not being able to attend practice sessions with my American football team. Now for a little context, I have been preparing for the new American Flag Football season since January—I’d shed some weight so I could be quicker, watched the food I ate and tried to stay without injury so that when September came I would be in top shape. So you can understand my sadness when I had to undergo surgery days to the start of a new season that meant I would not recover quick enough to help my team in competitive games after learning routes and training multiple times a week.
I felt so lost that barely one week after the surgery I wanted to attend a practice session to ease my fear of missing out—I ended up staying at home that day because I realised I could get excited about a play and start running to celebrate and cause myself pain. After that day I realised I needed to be away from American Football for a while so I booked a flight to Port Harcourt where I have an excuse for why I am not on a pitch doing drills or figuring routes. Right now all I do is count the days until I can do the things I love doing—working out and playing American football. I was thinking about the possibility of returning to these activities at the end of November, but the doctors think I should instead focus on December or January.
While I wait for December or January, I have done daily 5km walks, so I am fit for when I make return to football. It’s even more than a fitness routine because there are some days I wake up and the first things that’s on my mind is getting on a pitch to run to make sure I’ve still got it. I wonder how professional athletes who go through these injuries year in, year out feel—must be hard for them to maintain positive mental energy through multiple surgeries and recovery processes when I’m barely holding it together after undergoing a minor procedure.
One last thing, it is important for you to engage in activities that bring you joy because you never really what will happen the next minute. For instance, I had no reason to think I would require surgery on August 19 when the day before; I was on the football pitch running routes against Kitoye and making him wish he had picked someone else to defend.
Until next time,
Niro.
Niro's Blog 