Pritchard Windsurfing

Matt’s Monday!

Hey Everyone-  I just wanted to give you guys a big update as lots has been happening in the life of Matt these days…… Where do I start???

When I realized both my legs were broken, my first thought was as long as they aren’t broken in the ankle joints, I’m stoked- easy fixes….. Well that was only the case on the right side. The night it happened, because it was a compound break, they fixed it up after only 9 hours of being transported around to get me to a hospital that had room for me. My first operation was on the right leg and they slammed a titanium rod through my knee and fixed her up.

My left leg was a different story. The big leg bone just exploded right above the ankle joint- I crushed the bone up into a bunch of pieces and put it all out of alignment. It was pretty nasty. The doctors down in So. Cal didn’t really want to attempt the fix. I went to a specialist in LA and his advice after checking out a CT scan and lots of X rays was to leave it in a cast for 12 weeks and it should heel itself! That in theory sounded pretty good- but deep down I could feel that my ankle was not right. I didn’t feel like this was the best solution. I went ahead and researched into it some more and talked to more and more doctors. Here is where things get interesting!

I got an email from a friend of mine up in San Fran- she is a anesthesiologist that has taken a couple of my wave camps in San Carlos. She said let me know if I can do anything for you- I said, yeah- can you pass my Xrays around to your friends and  see what they had to say about my left leg? As it turns out, she works with one of the best ankle docs in the country. He checked it all out and said, “I can fix this!” He said, you need to get this fixed! If nothing happened I would have major arthritis within a year and possibly face having to fuse it- NO THANKS! The more I learned, the more I knew that it had to be operated on.

We got approval and were scheduled to be on the operating table on Monday- that was 2 weeks after the accident happened.  Without question, we loaded up the truck and made the 6-hour drive North. We were treated with amazing care and all the Docs knew me up there because of my friend Linh that had set this all up! I felt like a superstar. A couple of the docs were windsurfers so I fit right in…..

To say the least, I was pretty nervous about the surgery.  From what I was told, there were only a handful of Doctors in the world that could pull it off. I had to wait all day long with no food or drink until it was my time. After talking with the Doc, he assured me this was the right thing to do and I just put my head down and entered the zone- not my favorite competition zone, but my healing zone. My new reality for the next 3 months!

Anesthesia is the greatest thing ever! I was gassed out slowly but surely. What they ended up doing was cutting me wide open, going in and taking out all the broken bones and then rebuilding the joint. They threw away the little broken pieces and then used the larger pieces and screwed them all back together nice and tight. They had to build a wire cage to keep everything all in house and then sandwiched that with some plates to keep it all together. The wire cage came out once all 15 screws were in place along with the custom made contoured plate…. Pretty cool huh? It took almost 5 hours for this little fix up! I wish I could watch it all on TV one day- I had a rough day in recovery- They put a block on my nerve so when I woke up I wouldn’t feel a thing! It was awesome until 4am when that block wore off. I had the magic pain button to inject myself with pain killer- I could do that every 6 minutes if I needed. I was pretty out of it.

Just when I thought it was all over, the next day the doc came in and said we needed to go back in and adjust a few things- nothing major, just a little tune up to suck one of the bigger bones tighter in. The good news was that they checked out my right leg and noticed that the original repair was done well but if they plated my fibula then I could start putting weight on it much sooner than expected. At first I was told I would be non-weight baring for 10-12 weeks…. OUCH. But this “good news” was that if while my left leg was getting tuned up, they could go in to my right leg and throw in a big plate and some screws and I could walk out of there- COULD being the operative word I have now come to learn.

I had another day to wait to get back in the operating room! I was pretty comfy in the hospital. I had a great support team and some awesome drugs! I was in la la land in San Francisco! Another day of no food or drink and I was back on the table. That went all well and just as planned. I had some even better pain medication for this recovery and was feeling pretty good after another day of recovery and lots of drugs in the hospital. Our time ran out and I had to man up and get out of there- I was getting spoiled with the pain meds and needed to get back to Santa Barbara! My wife was by my side the entire time- she has been amazing through all this!

The 6 hour drive back was not pleasant at all. The last 2 hours were excruciating!   I wish I would have waited another day but what don’t kill us makes us stronger right? So now I’m officially on recovery road.

I can’t say enough about how great our windsurfing community is. Everybody has really been supporting me and helping me out in this whole adventure. I have gotten so many emails and words of “Get Well Soon” that is just blows me away! My docs have been incredible. They took a real interest in my situation and fixed me up like they would if it were there own family.

Thanks to everyone for all your great support- keep it flowing! I’m going to get some pics up for you guys to show you how intense this surgery was! I now have a total of 26 screws, 2 plates and a titanium rod holding my legs together- watch out Bionic Man, here comes Bionic MATT!!!!!!!

 Can’t wait to get back on the water and sailing with you guys! As for now, my immediate goal is to get on crutches this next week. Nothing like challenges! Keep tuned in- I now have time on my hands to keep you updated. 

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