Graham Geraghty: ‘On scale of 1 to 10, the pain was 15’

Graham Geraghty: All-Ireland captain with Meath in 1999. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Meath legend Graham Geraghty opened up about the excruciating pain he suffered after brain surgery and revealed he counts himself so lucky to have escaped with no side effects.

The 1999 All-Ireland winning skipper underwent a seven-and-a-half-hour operation last October after suffering a bleed on the brain. Speaking on BBC Sounds’ The GAA Social podcast, Geraghty said there was a moment during his recovery when the pain was so severe that he said, “I have enough, if you’re going to take me, take me”.

The 48-year-old Meath U20 selector has since fought back to near full health and says that while he does require a couple of naps each day to fight off fatigue, it’s a great outcome overall.

“The first week was horrific,” said Geraghty of his post-operation experience. “On a scale of one to 10, the pain was probably about 15. I couldn’t stick the pain really. I was on a lot of medication and painkillers. There’d be a lot of things going through your mind, ‘Are you going to see your family again, your friends’. It kinda brings everything home.

“There was one stage I was in that much pain I just said, ‘Listen, I have enough, if you’re going to take me, take me’. At that stage this African priest put his head around the curtain. I had one eye half open and he went off so I called him back and he sat there for probably 40 minutes just chatting, getting a bit of background about my family and different things.

“He came back to see me then every night until I went home. I wouldn’t be a holy person but it was good to have someone be there for you when you hadn’t your family.”

The two-time All-Ireland winner, a social care team leader, was at work in Trim when he experienced a “horrific pain at the front of my head that went straight through into the back of my neck”. 

He was brought to Navan Hospital by ambulance and transferred the following day to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for surgery. The ex-International Rules star revealed how grateful he is to be able to live a normal life again.

“I’m generally good. I get very tired, a couple of naps a day, I still have to. I usually get up at about half seven, quarter to eight and by 12 o’clock I’d have to lie down again for half an hour. If I do anything I feel quite faint or get dizzy.

“Then that goes again when I sit down or rest. I’d take that any day. I could have been paralysed, loss of limbs, speech or anything like that. I count myself very lucky.”