Hot Water Music's Chuck tells all about his recent injury.
From Hotwatermusic.com:
Chuck of HWM checks in with the fans to tell the story about his recent accident and into his recovery:
This letter I would have to say is a bit overdue. But it's been an absolute whirlwind of a few months, as if that's anything new. At this moment I am exactly 138 days post surgery. It has been a long hard road but I'm playing again after I wasn't sure if I'd ever really be able to play again, or even have full mobility at all. For those of you who don't know, have been misinformed, or are just plain curious, here goes. On June 18th after playing at the House Of Blues in Orlando, Florida on short string of shows with Dashboard Confessional, I had an accident. It wasn't anything spectacular, daring, or dramatic, but more just clumsy dumb luck. I was sitting by the lake with my lady having a glass of wine before I was staring into a hole in my left hand. I had stumbled back to place my hand directly down upon a fragile wine glass. I crushed it. A shard of glass about two inches long went deep into the palm of my left hand. The damage was severe. The glass was about ¼ of an inch from cutting clean through my hand. All and all I severed 4 tendons, (two profundus and two superfiscialus tendons to my ring and pinky finger,) the artery, and the majority of nerves on that side of my hand. So immediately, two of my fingers were completely immobilized, the loss of blood was something horrific, and I went into shock. The only good thing about it was, that since I severed all of the nerves I felt very little pain. If not for Jill, I would have been totally lost. She found out where the nearest emergency room was since the receptionist at the Embassy Suites was no help whatsoever which was where we were all staying. She helped me stop or actually slow up the flow of blood, which was a task unto itself alone. She comforted me and just took charge of the situation completely. Everyone was already sleeping when we got back to the room. It took a little while to get a game plan together since no one who worked there were was any help to us. I want to thank Mike Frey who woke up and came out to drive us to the E.R. He was a serious anchor of help when I was so frazzled and desperate. It'll never be forgotten my friend! When we got to the E.R. it was around 2 am. There was no one there who could perform the extensive surgery that I needed but there was a doctor who pulled out an impressive shard of glass, flushed me out, stitched me up, and loose wrapped my wound. I believe her name was O'Brian. She then arranged for an appointment with George M. White, M.D. the next morning. Who happened to be an incredible micro vascular surgeon in Orlando. Frey slept in the parking lot while Jill and I were in the E.R. After we were released we headed back to our room to wake everyone up. It was about 8am. Needless to say, it all seemed pretty surreal. After seeing George White that morning, I was confident that he was the man for the job. He spoke plainly and was the most comfortable doctor to be around that I had ever known. At the time I was pretty much a wreck not knowing whether I would ever be able to play or work or feel or anything again. He didn't perform the surgery then but reserved a time for me on the 22nd. So since I was all wrapped up and coherent, I wanted his permission to play the last show at H.O.B. that night. Thanks to Dustin from Thrice for taking the time to sit down and learn some tunes, we were able to get through a few songs of him playing my gear and me singing with my wing in a sling. We made it happen regardless but had to cancel the rest of the shows. Jill and I stayed in Orlando while the rest of the camp went home. Once again, thanks to everyone on that tour for having us and being so supportive when we had to walk away.
For more of the story plus some awesome pictures click href='http://www.hotwatermusic.com/journal/journal_chuck.htm' target='_blank'>HERE!