Gibbons on the mend

RENO - Gov. Jim Gibbons said this week that he is still in pain and recovering from a broken pelvis but that he is conducting state business while in rehabilitation.

Gibbons literally broke his pelvis in half, fracturing it in several places, when he was thrown from a horse two weeks ago.

"It's one of the more painful breaks you can have," he said Wednesday. "I recommend against it."

He said doctors told him he was "extremely fortunate" he didn't end up paralyzed from the waist down. One break, he said, was just an eighth of an inch from the spine

But Gibbons, interviewed in a makeshift conference room set up for him at Renown's Rehabilitation Center in Reno, said the injury isn't preventing him from conducting state business.

"Other than that, we're carrying on the functions of government every morning," he said.

He credited the managers at Renown for accommodating his and his staff's needs, saying "we have displaced a lot of their day-to-day operations."

The need to focus on state business has one consequence for Gibbons: he has to be very selective about taking painkillers that dull the senses and reasoning powers.

"We make no decisions when there is pain medicine involved," he said.

He said that means starting the day with a clear head and no pain pills. A stream of state officials and his top aides arrive as early as 7 a.m. each morning to brief him. Some come in person, some check in by cell phone. Wednesday morning, he said he talked by phone with Department of Information Technology Director Dan Stockwell about his budget needs.

But by afternoon when he starts therapy, he said the pain pills are necessary "to allow your muscles to start working."

"I will be teleconferenced in on critical meetings like the Board of Prisons or Board of Examiners," he said. "I'll be there. I just won't travel there."

Gibbons was thrown from an Arabian mare as he tried to mount up at a ranch north of Pyramid Lake. He went to the ranch that Tuesday afternoon following a lengthy morning meeting with his department heads on the proposed state budget.

"I got one foot in the left stirrup but when I reached up and grabbed the horn and pulled myself up, it spooked her," he said. "She came out of that chute at 100 miles an hour and I still only had one leg in the stirrup."

Gibbons said there was no way to get control of the horse "so I decided to exit the horse."

"It made a left turn. I made a right."

As a going away present, the horse kicked him in the stomach, causing some internal bleeding to add to his injuries.

He said his brother Glen "was looking at me and saying, 'what's wrong with you?' I said I thought I dislocated my hip."

The damage, however, was much worse than that. He said pre-surgery X-rays showed the two halves of the pelvic arch nearly 4 inches apart.

To repair the structure, doctors inserted two 10 inch long bolts and fixed the pelvic arch with a plate and several more screws.

Gibbons said doctors have told him if he works on his rehabilitation program, he should recover completely.

"My goal is to put that same saddle back on that same horse and ride," he said. "My goal is to finish what I started that day and, in the meantime, I'm going to finish what I started four years ago - moving Nevada forward."

Asked for an update on state business, he said the budget developed by agencies and the budget office "is almost ready for submission to the governor."

He was in a wheelchair Wednesday and said he expects to need that chair for up to eight weeks.

"I'm going to get red and blue lights and a siren on this thing," he said.