Back with the Braves for the first time since his emergency appendectomy, right fielder Jason Heyward was noticeably slimmer, moving gingerly around the clubhouse and, he said, nowhere near being able to swing a bat.
His goal is to return to the lineup no later than the end of May but first he has to get back to feeling normal again.
“It feels like I could pull something,” Heyward said today, a week after undergoing surgery in Colorado during Atlanta’s road trip. “That’s the feeling. Not that I will (but) it feels like if I do anything too quick that’s what will happen.”
Heyward said his daily routine consists of trying to sleep in spite of the discomfort, eating and resting. He said he watches the Braves play but finds it frustrating because he wants to play.
Heyward said still hasn’t lifted objects during his daily routine (though he admits to picking up a bat a time or two) and plans to start normal activities a week from now. Heyward said the sensation of feeling as if he might pull something is a “mental thing” that comes with the surgery and that the first step in getting back on the field is doing normal activities and then getting feedback from his body “to know that it won’t be bad.”
But Heyward said he and the Braves agree that he needs to take his time because of the risk of a more serious injury if he rushes back.
“The consequences of coming back too soon would be a pulled oblique (muscle), which would mean two months probably, or a pulled hernia, which would mean more time,” he said. “I don’t want any of those to happen. My goal, I would like to say, (is back in the lineup) no later than New York at the end of May. But, again, I have to wait for my body to tell me.”
Heyward is batting .121 with two home runs and five RBIs in 58 at-bats. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has used Jordan Schafer and Reed Johnson in right field during Heyward’s absence.
Gonzalez said he thinks Heyward benefited from being around the team again Monday but he’s not putting a timetable on Heyward’s return.
“It’s whenever he feels comfortable,” Gonzalez said. “I leave that up to the athletes and the trainers and the doctors. He may say that (end of May) and then, all of a sudden, five days from now he wakes up and feels great. You never know. I leave that kind of stuff alone.”
Heyward, 23, initially thought he was suffering from a stomach virus during the Braves’ series at Pittsburgh. His condition worsened once the Braves arrived in Colorado; Heyward said he at first felt pain in the general abdominal area but by Monday morning it was acute pain in a smaller area.
“It felt like a lump on the lower right side, and I thought, ‘OK, this is no longer a stomachache,’” Heyward said.
Heyward called on Braves trainer Jeff Porter and team physician Joe Chandler. Chandler accompanied Heyward to Rose Medical Center, where Heyward said he was told he had appendicitis “and you don’t have much longer before something bad can happen.”
Heyward said he was in surgery within an hour and and the procedure took about 15 minutes. A cousin who lives in Denver was able to keep his family informed.
“It went from,’ Hey, I’m at the hospital to get checked on’ to ‘Hey, I just got out of surgery,” Heyward said. “That’s how quick that turnaround was.”
Heyward said he appreciates all of the well wishes he received from fans after his surgery was announced. He said the only scary part about his ordeal was during the time he wasn’t sure what was wrong with him.
“As soon as I knew it wasn’t a tumor, that was a relief,” Heyward said.
