Report III : Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well the last couple of weeks seems to have gone well. Every day I can move my arm more, and it feels less 'disconnected.' I'm back to doing repairs in the shop, and have even started riding to work again. I don't know until I have my next appointment how much the bone is/has grown back. So for now, I'm putting most of my weight on my good arm. (which is kinda weird with the balance) And man, after two months of doing nothing more than the average American (walking to the car and the bathroom) the five miles to work and back is a good hard ride! After a few days, I felt like I was training hard again. My legs are sore, and I am wiped out. Not only that, but the last time I was on a bike, it was hot. Now lately my lungs are burning with dry thirty-something degree air being shot down my chest. I don't know what you people did to the weather, but I want my fall transition back.

But the big news is I have finished my first (post crash) miter! It went a little slower than before, but at least it went. This bike is going to be a classic lugged road frame and fork for my old friend Mike in Florida. Should be quick enough to be a fun zip to work, but comfy enough to ride all day. I've also finished my race wheels that I was going to use for the 12 hour at Burnin'. It's cool. Next year awaits.

Endurance Race Report II

Finally getting around to reporting on the new stuff. I went in last Thursday to get the bandage off, take x-rays to make sure everything went well, and I thought I was going to get my stitches out. Turned out I had 17 staples holding me together. That was cool. I went around for ten days having no idea because I wasn't aloud to take off the bandage. It did explain the weird feeling I had when I put pressure on it. So they took those out, and put sterry strips on, just to make sure I wouldn't rip myself open.

The x-rays looked good except one chunk of the bone that was misplaced is still misplaced. Doc said when they tried to move it back to place, it had fused to the artery that supplies my left arm. It ripped open, so they had to get a vein guy to repair it. Ended up just leaving it where it was. But the rest of is is lined up, touching each other, so it should be good when it heals. I got out of the sling, and have some exercises to do 3 times a day.

I also went from Percocet to IBprophen, and now only take it when it starts getting sore and achy. The sterry strips came off, and looks like it is healing up pretty nice:


The only thing that's weird, is I've got an area of numb skin. Feeling it out, and putting some dots, I connected them to trace out where I can only feel pressure. No touch, no cold, no hot.


Probably not a big deal, even if it never does fix itself. I don't know if they even could fix something like that. But I figure if it never does get better, maybe that will be a free spot for a new tattoo.

Well take it easy, and enjoy this awesome weather we're having.

Endurance Race Report

The race has begun, and it's a long one. I'm one week in, and it will be a good number of weeks to go. The race to getting my life back to what it was.


Tuesday 9-30 5:30am:

I woke up to go into surgery, wearing the required "loose fitting and comfortable clothes." Style!



Surgery was running late from "equipment malfunctions," and I didn't get into surgery until noon. So Melissae and I spent the morning watching King Pin and reality shows on hospital cable. (as I got overly hydrated with my IV drip) Finally go into the surgery room, and I remember seeing the bright lights and the doctors going over their cutting equipment one more time. My wheeled bed didn't even come to a stop, and then I'm waking up in a different room with bandages and an icepack. Guess things went well.

I ended up having a bad reaction to the anesthesia, so the rest of the day was spent making sure I was ok to go home. I won't go into details, but nausea and a catheter aren't fun even when you're on Percocet. Speaking of which, that stuff is pretty fun. Here's me having a wild ride:


The next couple days were 4 hour intervals between pills and naps. But after that, I feel a little less pain, and a little more mobility every day. They had to cut away the stuff that had started to attempt to heal the two bones together, in order to re-position them for the plate and screws. So I'm pretty much starting over with the bone healing part. But I already feel 10 times better than before. I don't have that floating disconnected shoulder feeling anymore. My bandage comes off this Thursday, and I'll know more after that.

Take care, and if you're going to Burnin' At the Bluff, do an extra lap for me. I want to hear all about it.

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.