Pat Patriot
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Nick Folk got a field goal blocked, and his football team lost.
But after the last week and a half of his life, it could have obviously been worse.
The Patriots kicker was back on the job Sunday, after having an emergency appendectomy on Thanksgiving, then being released for a week and coming back.
“I practiced Wednesday, ran a couple errands after work to get some stuff and then I had to go back to my hotel, and about 7:15 [p.m.] I started getting some stomach pain and by 10:15, I’m driving myself to the hospital,” Folk said, via Doug Kyed of NESN.com. “So, it happened pretty quick. It was some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life, and I’m just happy I caught it before it burst because at that point they said it would be a long recovery. Just happy that it happened how it happened, but I’m also upset because I missed last week, obviously.”
It’s impressive, the compartmentalization skills of football players, that the worst pain of their lives is merely an impediment to a game against the Texans. But after working out last Thursday, he was cleared to return, and said he wasn’t concerned about contact so soon after the procedure.
“No, it was just a couple of incisions,” he said. “They kind of go through your belly button and pull it out. So, that’s the one that’s the most painful. It’s really not much pain anymore. It’s just really incision healing and then dealing with the pain. “From everything I’ve heard from the doctors here and my family’s a bunch of doctors. One of my uncles, that’s all he did was the general surgery stuff. And he said you really can’t hurt it. It should be healed up by now. The incision, obviously I have a little pain there, but other than that, I’d be all right.”
Other than the 41-yard field goal which was blocked, Folk hit his other field goal and his only extra point attempt, so it appears he’ll continue to kick — after having an internal organ pulled through his navel.