00:00Well, guys, after two weeks, I finally made it out of the hospital.
00:04It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I've ever faced
00:14in my entire life, times 100.
00:18I'll give you the full rundown.
00:21Basically, I had a complex tibia fracture.
00:24I also factored my fibular head, my tibial plateau, just kind of everything was in pieces.
00:33And the reason why it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome.
00:40And compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there's too much
00:47blood and it gets stuck.
00:49And it basically crushes everything in the compartment.
00:53So all the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies.
01:00And Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg.
01:04He saved my leg from being amputated.
01:07He did what's called a fasciotomy where he cut open like both sides of my leg, kind of fellated open,
01:14so to speak.
01:17He let it breathe and, um, he saved me.
01:22And, you know, I always talk about everything happens for a reason.
01:26But if I hadn't torn my ACL, which I would have torn anyways with this crash.
01:30Um, if I hadn't have done that, Tom wouldn't have been there.
01:34He wouldn't have been able to save my leg.
01:36So I feel very lucky and grateful for him.
01:40Um, for the six-hour surgery he put in on Wednesday to rebuild it, which went amazingly well.
01:48But, um, I was in the hospital a little longer than I had hoped because, uh, I had a very
01:55low hemoglobin from all the blood loss of all the surgeries.
02:00Um, I was really struggling.
02:02Pain was a little bit out of control.
02:04And, um, I had to, I had a blood transfusion.
02:08And that helped me a lot.
02:10Um, I turned the corner and now I am out.
02:15So I want to say thank you to Tom and all the medical staff in Italy and Colorado that helped
02:21take care of me.
02:22It's been quite the journey.
02:26Um, and it's going to be a long road.
02:28Um, I'm in a wheelchair right now.
02:30I'm very much immobile.
02:32I'll be in a wheelchair for a while because I also broke my right ankle.
02:39So, uh, I hope I can be on crutches in a little bit, but we'll see.
02:45And probably at least be on crutches for, for two months.
02:50Um, but I'm going to get right to work on rehab and see what I can do.
02:56And, um, take it one step at a time, like I always do.
03:01But it's been, I can't tell you how painful it's been.
03:05Um, it's been really hard.
03:08And, uh, it was definitely not the way I wanted to end my Olympics, but it's been really inspiring to
03:16watch my teammates.
03:17Um, everyone's just been incredible.
03:19And watching Team USA dominate has been really uplifting.
03:24So, um, I'm really proud of all you guys.
03:28And, uh, yeah.
03:31I'll keep you guys updated.
03:33It's going to be a long road.
03:36But, I always fight.
03:38We'll keep going.
03:39No regrets.
03:41And, uh, I just appreciate all the love and support.
03:45It's been really amazing.
03:47Overwhelming to an extent.
03:49You know, I, I wish I, I wish it had ended differently, really.
03:57But, I'd rather go down swinging than not try at all.
04:01And I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with.
04:06Um, you know, this year was incredible and so worth everything.
04:11You know, I worked really hard to get back.
04:13And it was so worth it.
04:14You know, this was just one blip on the radar.
04:20It was one thing that I wish didn't happen, but life is life.
04:27And we have to take the punches as they come.
04:29So, I'm going to do the best I can with this one.
04:31It really knocks me down.
04:35But, I'm like Rocky.
04:37I'll just keep getting back up.
04:39I love you guys.
04:40Thanks.
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