In the summer of 2016, Bryan Gee would wake up and immediately go to the gym. He would spend hours lifting, completing three to four sessions each day.
Then, after a morning of full-body aches and vomiting, Bryan went into Centra Southside Community Hospital on June 16, 2016. After his initial examination, the doctors told him he would need a simple appendectomy done.
However, the common surgery took a turn for the worse. Bryan's parents, Longwood University’s head basketball coach Jayson Gee and Lynette, were forced to sit on the sideline as their son Bryan fought through unexpected complications.
“To have a second son to be challenged and in ICU (Intensive Care Unit), having his life interrupted by his health is certainly something as a parent you don’t anticipate. It was extremely difficult, so we leaned on each other as a family and depended on our faith and trust in God to get us through,” said Jayson.
An appendectomy is viewed as a common emergency surgery performed to treat appendicitis, an inflammatory condition of the appendix. However, when doctors pulled the tube from his throat, Bryan had a laryngospasm, an involuntary muscular contraction of the vocal folds.
This condition usually lasts less than 60 seconds, but can span 20-30 minutes, blocking one's breathing. Bryan’s lungs filled with blood and fluids.
“It almost suffocated me," he said.
During this time, Bryan was unaware of the severity of what he had just been through: a simple operation that turned life threatening. Bryan didn’t realize how serious his condition was until he attempted to get out of bed days later. And now, over a year later, Bryan continues to have complications, forcing him to sit out during his junior year with the program.
“I was just confused, like why did they have all these IVs, a catheter and all this terrible stuff hooked up to me, getting shots every few hours throughout the day,” said Bryan.
He couldn’t walk, run, or speak for days after his surgery. At times he even coughed up blood.
“Even through all that I was thinking, ‘why am I not practicing?’ I couldn’t wait to get out of there, it was torture,” said Bryan.
As a point guard for the Longwood men's basketball team, he said it wasn’t the first time he had trouble breathing.
Longwood Director for Sports Performance and Leadership Rick Canter was one of the first to notice Bryan’s problem breathing as the point guard struggled with the summer’s workload.
When Canter noticed Bryan’s difficulties, he said he notified the athletic training staff. Throughout the beginning of the season, Canter and athletic trainers closely monitored Bryan’s condition.
“It continually got worse, and that’s when we started the process of looking into what was going on. We have a typical process with our staff and athletic trainers where we look deeper and get the team doctors involved,” said Canter.
Once Bryan’s unrelated appendix surgery went south, it stunted his breathing even more. Bryan displayed passionate emotion while explaining his commitment to his team.
Trembling with glary eyes, he spoke of his high hopes to finish the season. This ultimately was not the case. Bryan’s team started off conference play with a record of 3-0 with him leading the charge at point.
With the absence of Bryan, the team failed to win another game. Canter and Jayson thought Bryan was the missing puzzle piece.
In the summer of 2017, Canter saw slight progress in Bryan’s condition, yet Jayson didn’t feel as confident in his son and player’s strides. After Bryan’s season was ended early due to his trouble breathing and keeping up with everyone else’s speed, the doctor urged him to rest his body for a four-month period.
He was diagnosed with overtraining syndrome, a condition where one’s body is worked beyond its ability to recover. Overload on the body without adequate recovery causes the body to backfire and decrease performance, resulting in physical and psychological symptoms of overtraining syndrome.
In early August, the doctor suggested Bryan sit out a year to help his body heal, due to his struggles throughout the summer to get back to health. One might take this news as a devastating shot, yet Gee believed it relieved some of his son’s burden.
“I think his health was really weighing him down. Once he lost the pressure of having to get well as soon as possible, I think that really helped him mentally and physically,” said Jayson.
“I was more prepared this year because I didn’t see a big improvement physically. Seeing different signs that I may not have caught the first time around as a coach or a parent better prepared me to be able to get out ahead of this, and really confide in the doctors,” he added.
Though Bryan may feel less pressure, he would surely love to be on the court this season with his teammates. As Bryan stared, eyes heavy and thick with emotion, he broke the silence with a brief sigh.
“Not being able to play is tough,” said Bryan. “I really love basketball so much.” The 6-foot-2 redshirt junior sniffed after going silent.
As the room filled with melancholy, Bryan said, “Basketball does something that normal stuff just doesn’t do for me. But I’m able to get through it because I just see my teammates and I like speaking life into them, trying to live my season through them; so when they succeed, I feel like I succeed with them.”
Bryan will continue to support the team off the court, cheering them on. Jayson said his son and point guard brings as much energy off the court as he does on it.
Canter agreed, saying Bryan enhanced the team's morale and will continue to do so as he recovers. He said Bryan will use the year to "progress slowly" and learn what exercises cause certain levels of stress.
"He’ll just need to be mindful of that and continue to work on that process and continue to try to stay healthy," said Canter.
Bryan said he thought this could be a really good year for him, because after putting so much into basketball physically and emotionally, he now has time to focus on other things he holds dear.
Though this season ending injury was devastating for Bryan, coaching staff and team, he said, “I would love to be a part of the team because I feel as though we’re going to do special thing this season. But obviously that’s not in God’s plan, so I’m cool with whatever he has planned for me.”
