The King's: October 2009

Happy kids playing together

Max 8 months now

Sophie and Grantz playing 'Little Red Riding Hood'
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Ringside seats...what a view!
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that was quick...
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"Oooh that's gotta hurt!"
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I should have gone home at this point

Initially it was a bit of a laugh – the first night away from the wife and kids in a long time – and I come home with a severe hangover, an empty wallet and a broken wrist.
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We (The Rock) sponsored the Tua v Cameron “Fight of the Century” in Hamilton and part of the deal included a ringside table valued at a whopping $15,000 and even though the fight was short and sweet– the atmosphere in the stadium justified the price-tag and some…nothing short of electrifying.
So after dining on fine food and free wine for over 7 hours a bunch of us headed into Hamilton City for the official after party – I knew I was getting a little tipsy that later on in the night when I found myself on stage in a bar…singing in a band …and it became abundantly clear, pretty quickly, that I was the only person in the bar that thought I sounded O for Awesome too– the rest of the evening was a bit of a blur – I do remember the kind gentle bouncer dragging me outside, I remember a few verbal pleasantries being exchanged…(apparently I can get a little cocky and arrogant when pissed, Ingrid says) and then I have vague flashbacks of me sliding down a wet footpath like a bowling ball on a slippery lane...
So after a politely thanking the bouncer for throwing me – I rounded the night off with a few games of pool, a couple more drinks and a long drunken walk back to the motel.
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I knew something wasn’t quite right when I jumped in the shower the following morning and felt sharp pains shooting through my wrist whiled I tried to wash my hair and by the time I got back to Auckland that afternoon, my hand had almost doubled in size and was really quite painful at this stage. Ingrid drove me to A&E and the docs confirmed that I had a broken my scaphoid in my right wrist - and shortly afterwards dropped the pleasant news that due to the severity of the break, I had to have surgery later on that week to get a couple of pins inserted…
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So after a couple of days of getting the piss taken by everyone at work – I headed into surgery. Thankfully I was first on the list for the day, so it was nice and early when I went into theatre – the operation took a couple of hours and after waking up and spending an hour in recovery, I was allowed to go home. Ingrid picked me up and we stopped for a coffee and some lunch – I was even talking about the Music Awards that night and feeling up to going! I still felt a little dazed from surgery so decided to have a bit of kip in the afternoon…I slept for about an hour and then woke with what felt like lightening bolts surging through arm – going from the tips of my fingers to the base of my elbow – I’ve never had surgery so I wasn’t sure if this was a normal reaction or if I was just being a bit of a soft-cock, so I downed a few pain killers. Instead of nullifying the pain, it seemed to increase it…I couldn’t touch my arm by this stage and was trembling, as white as a ghost and felt like throwing up – Ingrid rushed me back to Hospital and they admitted me straight away. As it turned out I had developed a rare reaction called R.N.S. (Regional Nerve Syndrome) – It happens sometimes when the anesthetic wears off too quickly and the nerves don’t have enough time to register or react properly – so then the nerve endings start freaking out a little and become extremely heightened and super sensitive– and believe me – having nerves that are freaking out to that point, ain’t pretty! I spent the next couple of days in hospital feasting on combinations of morphine drips, nerve pills and pretty sweet painkillers.
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Thankfully Nicci (Ingrid’s mum) had come to stay for the week which turned out to be a blessing as she became the built in care giver for the kids while Ingrid ran around looking after her leper husband…

I’ve had my arm re-cast since theatre and I have to attend hand physio a couple of times per week. I’ve only just started to move my fingers un-assisted the past couple of days, so I still can’t tie my shoe laces, change nappies, bath the kids or hold anything in my right hand…and to think, I thought it was kind of funny finding out I had broken my hand and not really remembering it…I know one thing for sure though, I sure won’t forget the days after breaking it…