PHILADELPHIA — Seven days after having an emergency appendectomy for a burst appendix in October of 2008, Chris Mason decided it was time to see if he was ready to play goaltender for the St. Louis Blues. So he strapped on all his gear, skated to his net in front of assistant coach Rick Wamsley, and hoped for the best.
“I was down in the butterfly and he just started blasting shots right at my incision wound on my stomach to see if I could take it,” Mason recalled over the phone on Saturday. “I was ready to go.”
Mason is the most recent NHL goaltender to undergo an appendectomy, but every patient and every surgery is different. But Mason made 28 saves in a 1-0 loss to Carolina just 13 days after his appendectomy, which offers an idea into what Corey Crawford faces as he returns from his own appendectomy on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.
Mason said he was feeling ill for a couple of days leading up to the surgery, and went in for a scan immediately following a Blues home game during which he was the backup.
“I went in for a scan, and I could tell by the look on the guy’s face that it was bad,” Mason said. “He said my appendix had exploded and I had to go in for an emergency appendectomy. My wife didn’t even know I went straight in for surgery.”
Mason spent three days in the hospital, and was in considerable discomfort during that time. Simply moving around was difficult. But a day after he returned home, he suddenly felt “drastically” better. His energy returned and so did his appetite, which was key considering he lost about 15 pounds. It took him a few days to get his conditioning back, but within a week he was back on the ice, and within two weeks he was back in a game. He said he was prescribed Percocet for the pain, but that he didn’t want to use medication, because of the obvious “red flags” that come with such heavy painkillers.
Mason said he had no long-term effects from the surgery.
“I was ready like two days after I started practicing,” Mason said. “Aside from a bit of the conditioning from being off the ice nine days, and the weight loss. The only thing that was a bit uncomfortable was if I dove out and really stretched my incision — I could feel that. That was uncomfortable. But I was good to go.”