Merry Christmas guys and gals! It's 2:00 a.m. in Cameron, North Carolina, and it's December 25th-Christmas! I'm waiting on Santa to arrive and have been helping Tamran set up my new picture album dedicated to the "Matt Hardy Big Ass Christmas Bash 2007!" You gotta check it out! Within the next 24 hours, I'm gonna hit you with a gigantic blog catching everyone up to speed--on what's happened to me in the last month, my current health, a rundown of my crazy ass Christmas Bash that happened Saturday night, and much, much more!
You no longer have to wait my cyberamigos! Here it is-The Merry Christmas Novel Blog!
Well, here we are again ladies and gentlemen. Me, you, and a bunch of words called a blog. These particular words though, will cover alot of ground, alot of emotions, and alot of experiences. I'm gonna cover about a month in one blog-this is gonna be alot to take in a one time. But I know you guys, you're ready and waiting. And by the way, you're gonna get a ton of exclusives in here.
To begin with, as most of you know, I was gonna miss some ring time after MVP injured my left knee. I was planning on appearing at the Smackdown show on Tuesday, November 20th, but I never made it. I got extremely sick and was in agonizing pain Monday night in Tampa. I suffered throughout the night with the pain, playing Mr. No Sell, hoping my body would correct itself somehow (I never get sick, for the record). I spoke with the WWE trainer about 1 p.m. on Tuesday and he feared my appendix had ruptured from the symptoms I described. I was having overwhelming chills while sweating, my abdomen felt like it was going to explode, my intestines felt like they were being cut with a dull knife, I was running a dangerous fever, and was fighting to stay conscious. The hospital's CT scan proved the WWE trainer right-I needed emergency appendectomy surgery. My appendix had ruptured sometime late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, and my organs in my lower abdomen were being poisoned rapidly. The Tampa hospital got me into surgery as quick as they could, before the toxins poisoning me made my body septic. The surgery went well. They removed my appendix, and cleaned out my abdomen by using a saline power washer, brushes, and then rinsing-then repeat this process. Usually a normal appendectomy takes 45 minutes to an hour. With all the cleaning they had to do, I was in there for over two hours. The doc told me they thought they had gotten all the infection and toxins out, but because there was so much of it, there was no guarantee. As they told me several times, this situation I had encountered could have killed me.
For three days, I was pretty bedridden and was pumped with powerful antibiotics to kill any of the infection they may have missed. Several of my friends stopped by from the area, so that made spending Thanksgiving in the hospital in Tampa a little better. My friend Andrew flew down and stayed with me and helped me with all the things "I needed to do but couldn't" during those days. Jeff and Beth were gonna come down, but I insisted they stay at hope with our Dad who had been having some health issues and not feeling very well. I'd be fine with the help of the Bullet. Andrew helped me to fly home that weekend-which was a painful and draining experience in my condition. But alas, I was at home in Cameron, in my own house.
I improved and felt better over the course of the next 10 days, and started doing a bunch of home improvement stuff. As you know, I was hitting you guys with some occasional updates on my condition via my MySpace blog. But on the evening of December 6th I starting getting sick again. I starting running a fever, was having terrible chills, and was completely drained of energy. I uncomfortably made it through the night, and actually felt ok the next day. I didn't have a fever, I wasn't having chills-I thought maybe I had just had a flu and needed to slow down and not overdo it with my physical activity. But then night struck again. On the night of December 7th, I got violently sick. Fever, chills, sweats, vomiting, no energy, abdominal pain-it was bad. i called my surgeon in tampa and left a message that night. He called me back the next morning and advised me to go to the emergency room. He feared I had an poisonous abscess that had formed in my abdomen from some of the infection they didn't get. Off to the hospital I go again.
In the morning of December 8th, a CT scan of my abdomen showed a had a large abscess of poison right above my pelvis. My latest doctor suggested I admit myself into the hospital (which I didn't wanna hear or do), and let them treat the abscess with heavy duty antibiotics. I went back into the hospital for the weekend. The plan was that I would be treated with extremely powerful antibiotics that would hopefully kill the infection. I'd have another CT scan done on Monday to see if the antibiotics had dried up the abscess. Monday morning, I have the CT scan, and it revealed the abscess had gotten even larger. The antibiotics weren't working at all. They told me the abscess had to be removed-or in time, it would continue to grow until it kills me. The doctor's next step was to attempt to drain the abscess with a somewhat arthroscopic procedure if it was possible. If it wasn't possible, the doctors were going to have to majorly cut me open again, which would be a major setback for my in-ring return. With a little luck and God on my side, the arthroscopic procedure worked. They drained almost a total of 43 cc's of poisonous, infectious fluid out of my lower abdomen. For the next 24 hours, I had a tube inside of me draining out pus, infection, and blood into a clear bag I had to carry around-pretty gross, even to my nasty ass. I went home on Wednesday evening, December 12th.
Those five days in the hospital threw all my scheduling for that week off, as I had alot of appointments set up. The most important scheduled events, though, were to take place on the 13th and 14th, Thursday and Friday. Those days consisted of Jeff and I doing some long time booked WWE commitments at our houses. The WWE offered to reschedule my stuff, and just do Jeff's, but I insisted I'd be fine. I put in two majorly long, draining days that Thursday and Friday-but we got everything done.
I watched Armageddon from the comfort of my own home on the December 16th. I thought it was one helluva pay-per-view. I've never been more proud of my brother Jeff professionally and personally then I am right now in 2007. It was an extremely happy and proud moment for me when he pinned Triple H and earned an opportunity to wrestle for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. As soon as the pay-per-view ended, I spoke with Shane Helms and learned that his Mother had died. All that joy I had just experienced quickly turned to pain and sorrow for the terrible loss suffered my dear friend.
It was a strange following week. As the week went on, my health continued to improved and everyday I would feel better. I felt terrible for Shane though, who had lost his Mom at such at terrible time during the year-the holiday season, Christmas time. Shane was such a warrior during this week-he stayed very strong and kept everything together for his family in more ways than you'll ever know. On Wednesday, December 19th, myself, Jeff, Beth, Shannon, Pat and his wife attended the wake and evening funeral. It was a really sad event, but I'm so glad we could be there. Speaking from personal experience, Shane's been there so many times for me-he's truly a great friend and an amazing person. We got to spend alot of time with Shane and his family afterwards, which I think was a good thing. My prayers were with Shane, his family, and his Mom in a major way that week.
I had determined by the middle of that week that my annual Christmas Bash was definitely gonna be a go. Several people had suggested I postpone it until later-but-I was physically feeling good, it's the only time everyone was really "free", and it's important for me to get everyone together that one time during the year. Jeff, Beth, and a couple of my friends helped me get everything together house-wise, and I made all the necessary invites and arrangements.
On Saturday, December 22nd, it was time for Matt Hardy's Big Ass Christmas Bash 2007! I am so glad I was healthy enough to have the MHBACB-it was the best one ever! All the regulars that are always there-Matt, Jeff, Beth, Shane Helms, Shannon, Marty, Benny, Scott, Kirby, Rebecca, TJ, Thomas, Timber, Yuk, Alesia, Kimo, Johnny, Shane, the Gas Chamber Ink crew, Jimbo, Tracy, Trevor, Otto, Caleb, Brad, Heather, Tracey, Benji, etc. There was also alot of people who I was happy to have as a guest for the first time-Talia, Cathy C, Daffney, Shannon's House of Punk wrestling school students, Brandi, Jeff Rudd, Phil, Ric, Jake, and believe it or not, Santa! You can see him (Santa) in my MHBACB pics album. There was a ton of other great peeps who made it out including friends, girlfriends, wives, & husbands. I'm glad everyone could make and they didn't destroy my beloved house. Well, at least not to bad, LLC!
Here's a synopsis of what all when down that night. The early crew started rolling in about 5 p.m.-people were catching up on the latest THS and checking out the OMEGA dvd. At 6:30, 25 large Bob's Pizza pepperoni pizzas rolled in. We had pizza, chicken, chips and a ton of deserts (It is the holiday baking season) on the menu. Jeff actually hired a professional karaoke company for the entire evening, which was badass! As you can imagine, the karaoke was hugely popular and an (ear) smashing success. Jeff and I sang or butchered some Pearl Jam, however you chose to phrase it. HA! As the night went on, Shannon decided he wanted to take Thomas to trial for some remarks made in the OMEGA dvd. I'm pretty sure Shannon found him guilty and chained him to my security light pole and mildly tortured him in a humane-type way. Things are a little blurry for me during that time, but that was a good thing! HAHA! When I kick out, I notice several people have face-paint on. It turns out Jeff was running a face-painting booth in my garage (just like the fair, LOL)! When I wasn't looking, people start mimicking the Hardy Boyz and start jumping off my balcony onto my couch. Around this time, someone spills my vodka and cranberry drink onto my shirt (which can be seen in all the pics where I'm wearing the green shirt). I start taking pics with several of my guest at that party when a fight spontaneously breaks out. All of a sudden, my office, my front door, and my shirt looks like a murder scene with all the blood. We break the fight up, and I head outside to diffuse everything while several of the girls use peroxide to clean my carpet and house. Thanks again ladies! Everything and everyone is now cool again, and the good times continue to roll. I'm wearing the black Punisher shirt from this point on, as you can see in my pics. Some people are now rebelling against the fight, and getting naked in the hottub, which is outta control in itself. It's around 2:30, and people are starting to drop from drinking now. There's one of my guest rooms upstairs with three beds in it. It seems like whoever ended up crashing in that room ended up naked-it was crazy. And just for the record, you can't keep clothes on a wasted Cham Pain! HAHA! Shannon is in a state of insanity in my bedroom, actually my master bathroom-The Reject did it BIG! It's 4 in the morning and people are either crashing (which most people did cause they had been drinking) or heading home. At 6:30 a.m., Jeff and myself and a small crew start ribbing the passed out partygoers. Cham Pain was attacked by the flesh-eating European cottonmouth while he was in a very vulnerable state-f*cking hilarious-i'll leave it at that. At 7:30 a.m., the guys and gals that were still up and "ready to fly", have their last group shot of Jager! I finally lay down for about an hour at 11:30 until someone comes back who lost their car keys. I finally have a clear house about 2 p.m. on Sunday-21 hours after the party had originally started. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called "Doing It Big!" Kinda like this blog, LLC! The next day, I cleaned up my house, recuperated, and slept.
I spent the majority of December 25th-Christmas-with my Dad, "The Legend" Claude G. One of the coolest things we did was go to one of my Dad's best friend's house for a Christmas dinner. My Dad's friend was old school-there's was like 30 items on the dinner table in HUGE portions-and there was only 8 people present. The food was awesome-especially the turkey salad and stuffing. I haven't had a meal like that in ages-probably since my Grandma Moore was alive and healthy. Afterwards, I sent a personalized text to everyone in my cell phone's phonebook. It took forever! Over 3 hours! Let me tell you why I did this-there's a good story behind this. I used to always sent a good but generic blanket text to everyone on holidays. Something similar to this, "Merry Christmas to you and your family, hope you're having a great holiday!" That's not bad I thought. But last year, someone I worked with, who's no longer with us, replying like this, "Thanks for your text Matt. I hope you, Jeff, and your family are great Matt and having a great Christmas Matt!" And I realized he always responded to my blanket text by repeating my name several times in his return message. As to say, I want you to know you're the ONLY one getting this particular text. It's a personal, genuine greeting from me to you-not a generic, required, impersonal, blanket text message. And that really stuck with me. So tonight, I spent 3 and a half hours sending personal, genuine, thoughtful Christmas wishes to my friends and family. So that's something that was floating in my head tonight that I wanted to throw out at everyone-food for thought.
So to wrap this monster blog up, I wanna talk about the past and the future. The year of 2007 was an amazing year for me professionally and personally. I definitely feel like it was my most successful year I've ever had in the WWE. And although it sucks I was forced out of action due to health issues right when I was getting red-hot, it makes me want it even more. In 2008, I plan on coming back stronger than ever and becoming white-hot! There's no reason Matt & Jeff can't fulfill their goals of both being World Champions within the WWE. I feel 2008 will be the year of "The Hardy Renaissance!" And personal, I am so comfortable with every aspect of my life mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I've learned that you can always change yourself, your surroundings, and your situations-but you can't change someone else's. I used to get so frustrated that I couldn't change people outside of myself in the past. I meant well, but it came off as seeming overly-controlling and ended up counterproductive. I now give my two cents, and lead by example and influence. It works. Especially for my soul and peace of mind, HA! Here's a little secret I'll also let you all in on. The best way to figure out what you want in your personal life is too realistically figure out what you don't want. More food for thought. So I'm posting this Novel Blog right now, I'm not even gonna re-read it or proofread it-I fix any grammatical errors later! So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. Thanks for taking the time to actually read this large batch of words. May God bless us all and Godspeed my amigos!
Quote of the day - "But I see through it all, see through, and see you" - A Perfect Circle, 3 Libras
