Anthony Arvanitakis - HomeMade Muscle: All You Need is a Pull up Bar

It is March of 2008 and I am working the late night shift as a pizza delivery guy while finishing my studies in sports science and physical education at the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki (Greece). I'm driving in a dark alley when suddenly big bright lights unexpectedly blind my eyes. I crash with a big automobile and I start floating into thin air...

Movies tell you that in moments like these, time goes into slow motion and you see a reel of memories playing a short version of your life. Although I didn't see a short trailer of my life, time indeed felt to be flowing a lot slower. What was probably a 3-4 second flight felt more like 15 seconds. I experienced a weird, but pleasant, state of weightlessness. It felt as if I was going to keep ascending into the vastness of the dark sky.

Then suddenly, I hit the pavement, twenty-three meters away from the crashing point (as they inform me later on). I still haven't fully understood what happened. I try to get up and I look at my leg. Something is wrong. The lower part of my leg is twisted and my ankle... wait a moment that can't be right. I close and re-open my eyes to confirm what I had just seen. My leg is twisted in such a way that my ankle is lying on top of my knee. This is not a good sign, I think to myself.

The weird thing is that I feel no pain yet, which made me wonder if my eyes fooled me for a second. Fortunately, the human brain releases hormones that relieve pain in situations like these. Unfortunately, this doesn't last as long as you would want it to. Suddenly I sense a weird electrifying feeling. It is as if burning electricity is starting to flow through my leg. The endorphins that were relieving my pain start to fade away and the affected nerves start to wake up.

As I lay on my back, pain and fear start to overwhelm me. I hear people around me shouting to call an ambulance. With the side of my eye I can see a puddle of blood next to my leg on the pavement. I can't see much more than that because I am wearing long blue-jeans. I lay there and look at the dark sky while I feel people gather around me. The pain is growing stronger and stronger so I can't pay too much attention them. I just close my eyes and hope that the ambulance will come as soon as possible to take me to the hospital (and hopefully numb the pain). At one moment I feel a presence next to me, I hear a male voice talking to me, trying to comfort me. I don't remember what he said but he gave me his hand and told me to squeeze it. I did and it helped a little bit with the pain.

After about twenty minutes, which felt more like hours, the ambulance finally arrives. They start placing me on the stretcher and the moment they lift my leg I start screaming. They pain is excruciating. We are now heading to the hospital and I'm in the back of the ambulance with a paramedic. He asks me if I have a phone on me and someone I should notify. I say yes and I reach into my pouch (you know the one pizza delivery guys wear). As I'm reaching for my phone I notice that the floor is covered with my blood. I have never seen so much blood in my life before so I start stressing out again. I asked the paramedic why is there so much blood? I haven't realized yet, that both bones of my lower leg, the tibia (the thick one) and the fibula (the thin one) are sticking out of my skin. So I asked the paramedic what is wrong with me, why is there so much blood?! I don't know why, but he doesn't respond. I asked again. ''Hey man! Why is there so much blood, am I dying or something?'' He doesn't answer again... Well, that can't be a good sign I think to myself.

I wondered for quite some time after my accident why didn't he answer me, or at least try to console me. Who knows, maybe it was his first day on the job and he was also freaking out. Anyway, back to the story.

The drive to the hospital seems like it takes forever. Because there are no available hospitals nearby, we had to drive all the way to the other side of town, which took a good twenty minutes. Twenty whole minutes on a bumpy road, and every bump firing up the nerves in my leg, causing me to clench my teeth and breathe heavily out of my nose. The paramedic reminded me to call someone, so I decided to call my parents. I took two deep breaths, and used a fake calm voice to inform them that I had a ''little'' accident and they probably should come to the hospital. When I arrive at the hospital I start to doze off as the pain is a bit more bearable. Maybe they have given me something for the pain, I don't know. Everything is really fuzzy, as if I'm in a dream.

Suddenly they take me in a room to clean my leg wound. I'm not sure but I think they are using some type of water hose, designed for these kinds of situations. The pressure of the water on the open wound brings me back into reality. This is probably the most uncomfortable sensation I have ever had. I start to groan again and the nurse tells me ''relax its just water.'' Yeah right, I thought to myself; easy for you to say, you didn't snap your leg in two an hour ago. I am informed I have an open fracture and I'm going to be operated the moment a surgery room is available. After that, I dose off again.

I wake up in a surgery room and a surgeon with a very calm voice and a smile on his face starts talking to me. He asks me typical stuff like what's my name, where did I grow up and other similar questions to calm me down. But suddenly, the seriousness of my injury overwhelms me with horrific thoughts. I begin to think what if I might not be able to run again? I loved mountain running, especially on the cold and crisp-air highlands west of Greece, where I grew up. The thought that I might not be able to do that again makes me panic. I tell him I want to run again and that he HAS to fix my leg. I grew up being an exercise-nut and having a healthy leg meant everything to me at that moment. I was 23 years old and I felt too young to become crippled. A sweet sense of drowsiness disrupts my stressful thoughts. The anesthesia has kicked in. I slowly fall asleep.

After what I was told was a 5 hour-long surgery I wake up vomiting. There's a reason doctors don't allow you to eat for a day before surgery I guess. It felt as if I was already puking for a while before I even came to my senses. The doctor was relieved that I woke up. ''You got us worrying there for a moment champ.'' They had some difficulty waking me up, I am told later.