I'm getting chopped up!

Yep, talked it over with a second doctor. And even though he said it would stick back together, and I would be able to 'live a pretty normal life,' I weighed the pros and cons, and scheduled a surgery with him. Started to have second thoughts, but I think this will be the way to go. Just sucks that even he said if I was going to do the surgery, I should have done it sooner.

Tomorrow is cutting day, so I'll report back when I'm not all drugged up. Take care while I'm gone.

And after 4 weeks....

I'm still broken. That made me more surprised than this panda. Aside from it still hurting, and clunking around in there, I'd never have known. But thanks to modern technology, I can know that it is, in fact, still broken. Along with that, the inner part is pointing more upwards than it used to, and there is no new bone development. The good news is that doc says I no longer have to be in a sling... or anything for that matter. (?!?!?) And he says I still don't need surgery. I'll just be malformed, and should see him in another few weeks. So no improvement, looks worse than before, but it's all good. After hearing him brag about only having to do surgery a few times his whole career, I made an appointment to get a second opinion.


Here's my fancy new x-ray from today's informative meeting.
(I outlined the bone ends as best I could figure out)

Pictures From Ivan in St. Louis

Finally getting around to putting up the pictures from last Sunday. We woke up to find that just about any low spot around town had flooded during the night. And it was still raining...

This was the end of our street. The cars on the right had been parallel parked during the night.

This is a different view of the same street. Beyond this is normally a large field and a dog park.


This is another street in our neighborhood. The two cars in in the background had tried to make it out of the flood, only to stall and be stuck there waiting.


Yet, later that day, the Tour Of Missouri finished it's last (slightly shortened) stage (due to flooding) in downtown St. Louis.


In other news, it's been about three weeks, and I still haven't attached my two pieces of clavicle. Starting to think I should have just gone and had surgery...

Clunking Along

Just had the follow up with the doctor today. He says I won't need surgery to get it to heal properly. Which I thought was weird because the two halves of my collarbone have yet to join. It's an odd feeling with them clunking around inside my shoulder. But according to him, in the next week or two the area will start to calcify, making the whole region stiffen up. Then it will hold the bones while thickening and growing new bone in the gap. Sounds weird to me, but this is one fracture I haven't dealt with. I did also find out that it was not a clean break. There was a bit of the bone that broke off when it split. But I guess when the area calcifies, it will hold that in place too. I wish I could post the x-ray, but it's a digital one. And I guess it's a file way to huge to just e-mail me, and I'm sure they don't want to be bothered by re-sizing things just so I can show people. What happened to the good old days when you got sent home with x-ray? Oh well.

Aside from that, I blended in this past week with all the racers crashing in the Gateway Cup. Everyone keeps asking if I was in one of the crashes. On the plus side, there have been plenty of people to commiserate with. One regular customer separated a couple ribs from his sternum, and separated his collarbone from his shoulder. No broken bones, but painful none-the-less. I've also had a good number of people, old and young, to share broken bone stories. Many bike related, and some not. I will say that helps out when I'm feeling down and honestly a bit stupid. Even when you're being careful, $#!** happens. One guy I met broke his getting out of his car during a dark rainy night, and his black lab decided to meet him before he got to the house. Tripped him before he even knew the dog was there. Oh well, I just hope I've got enough to last me a good while. I'm already getting restless, and it's only been a week.