One Appendix, Lots of Good Friends — Brandon Belt
By: San Francisco Giants
Tags: MLB, Health, Brandon And Brandon, Brandon Belt, San Francisco Giants

As soon as Haylee and I headed to the hospital Friday night to deal with my appendicitis, the wives’ network sprang into action. Ali Bumgarner picked Grayson up from the daycare here at the park. She and Madison kept him at their house for the night.

Then Mary Catherine Melancon took over. She picked Grayson up from the Bumgarners’ Saturday morning and took him to watch the Melancon’s five-year-daughter, Brooklyn, and the Posey’s son, Lee, play their baseball game.

Then Kristin Posey took Grayson to their house to hang out for the afternoon until we got home from the hospital around 3.

That’s why we live where we live. So many teammates are so close by. The Bumgarners and the Melancons literally live right across the street. As players, we’re gone so much, and the wives are always pitching in and helping each other out.

This all started on our off-day, Thursday. I woke up feeling pain in my stomach, but it wasn’t like intestinal pain or muscle pain. It wasn’t horrible but something just didn’t feel good. Haylee and I had been invited to the Warriors game that night and were really pumped about it. But by early afternoon I had to call our friends and cancel.

I woke up Friday hoping I’d feel better but I didn’t. I took swings in the cage but I didn’t take BP on the field or take ground balls. The Giants doctor, Dr. Murray, checked me out, pushing on the spot where my appendix is. It hurt but again not terribly. He told me if it was appendicitis my body would tell me soon enough.

It did.

Once I started running around in the game, just the vibration of my feet hitting the ground really hurt. It hurt to bend over to field ground balls, to sprint over to first base to take throws. Something definitely wasn’t right. I played an inning and a half, and the doctor sent me to the hospital for a CT scan. The drive there was not fun. I never realized just how many potholes there are in San Francisco.

I went into surgery around midnight and woke up around 4 a.m. I thought it would be a good idea to tweet out a photo of me in a gurney ready for surgery. Haylee had taken it earlier in the evening. In my defense, I was feeling really, really good from all the meds and wanted company. Haylee was zonked out in a chair next to me and it seemed like no one else the whole hospital was awake. So I tweeted out the photo, looking for some love from the Twitter folks. Thank you, Twitter people! You kept me company.

The next day, I told Haylee that I had tweeted the photo and she just shook her head. “Why would you possibly do that?’’ Yeah, it was kind of stupid. There’s the whole issue of privacy. Our head trainer Dave Groeschner was nice about it. “It’s all right,’’ he told me. “Just don’t do it again.’’

Let’s talk about Haylee for a moment here. She’s the best caretaker ever. If anything’s wrong, she takes care of me. I know how lucky I am. [“Don’t say that!’’ Haylee just told me.] I also want to the say that the staff at St. Francis was amazing. They were so nice and so helpful.

And thanks to everyone who tweeted and texted. All my friends and family — everybody checked in. When you’re not feeling real good, it really makes a difference.

When we got home Saturday afternoon, I fell asleep and woke up around 9 p.m. I got to watch the last few innings of the game. Suarez was awesome. Having Joe back is great. But as a player, you hate watching games on TV because you know you’re supposed to be out there. But the guys won, so that made it a lot easier!

I stopped in at the ballpark today so Dr. Murray could check the incisions and see how I was doing. Everything’s fine. I’m still a little sore today but definitely better. Now I dive into getting myself ready to get back on the field and kick some butt.

Thanks again for all the good wishes! It means a lot to Haylee and me.