After five and a half weeks, I finally got back on my bicycle. I had left my sling behind the week before and my shoulder was feeling pretty good. The weather was Indian summer perfect with bright sun and temperatures in the low 70s. So I went. It felt good to be back on the bike. The drive chain hummed, the pavement sushed by, the gears clicked, and I reveled in the pleasure of exertion. As I passed the spot where I had crashed, I spit on the pavement as a gesture of defiance. A little childish maybe, but if we don’t defy our ghosts, maybe they chase us back inside to the recliner, or to the grave.

Tags: injuries

Well, for those who want the full picture, so to speak, here it is, a fracture of the right clavicle. My right clavicle, that is, the injury I described in the last blog post. Now this particular image accentuates the appearance of the break in the bone because my arm has been externally rotated, that is, my elbow is touching my torso and my right hand has its palm facing forward with the forearm at a ninety degree angle to the rest of the body. Not too surprisingly, that was the position where it hurt the most.

Now compare this image on the left, with my right arm across my chest, palm facing my body. One can just appreciate the break in the upper border of the bone. Looks better, doesn’t it? Looks like it might even heal decently, if I can just keep it in that position. And that’s the problem, since a right-handed person such as myself can’t do much productive work with his dominant hand continuously folded across his chest. Even the simplest of tasks can be a challenge. Have you ever tried to put on a sock with one hand? Even typing this short post causes my shoulder to ache a little. It’s also hard to write notes, sign prescriptions, or mark worksheets without the hand coming off the chest at least a little. Implanting a pacemaker is well beyond the possible.

But at least my fracture is non-displaced. It can heal if I can keep it immobilized (relatively). Uh, I think that means I can’t ride a bicycle for a while. So I’m going to do a lot of hiking in Vermont, it seems . . .

For those who want more details of collarbone fractures, see this article.

Tags: injuries, fractures

Well, it finally happened. Here I am at age 49 and I’ve never broken a bone in my body-until today. I still don’t know how it happened. My wife and I decided to go out for a bike ride together. We were pedaling along at an easy pace when I suddenly found myself pitched sideways in an instant, on the ground, my left foot still clipped in to the pedal. I remember hitting my right shoulder on the pavement. A woman in a car stopped next to us on the shoulder as I sat upright and assessed my injury. I was briefly nauseated but it passed quickly. I had some ugly “road rash” on my arm and leg. I could move my arm but the shoulder didn’t feel too good. The good samaritan in the car (thank you, Julie S.) piled our bikes and us into her vehicle and took us home. Vikki found me a large bag of cold ice and I drank a beer and went to bed. There was a pretty good lump at the top of my right shoulder but I thought it might just be a hematoma. Nonetheless I went for an Xray and sure enough I had fractured my collarbone distally just before the joint at the shoulder. Luckily I got ahold of one of the local orthopedic surgeons who was on his way home but graciously agreed to come review the film, then went back to his office and rummaged around for a shoulder sling.

Fortunately I don’t need any surgery. Unfortunately, Vikki and I are scheduled for a husband-and-wife getaway trip to Vermont in a couple of weeks in order to-you guessed it-go biking. Oh, well, I may have to pull a “Tyler” a la’ Tyler Hamilton who in 2003 won a stage of the Tour de France about two weeks after breaking his clavicle in a bike crash. It’s too late to get a refund of the payment for the trip and I didn’t take out travel insurance so it’s grin and bear it or lose the money.

Tags: injuries

Well I tried it again. This time I located a shower I could use in my office building, so when I got to work I showered off which felt much better. Unfortunately somewhere along the way to work I lost my air pump which must have worked itself loose and fallen off. There were no major car-cyclist mishaps but the traffic was heavy. Anyway I still feel good about getting some exercise while traveling back and forth to work. Here’s my route, about six miles one way:

Tags: commuting

I finally did it. For weeks I had been meaning to get up some weekend morning and go for a longer ride on my bike. But laziness intruded, other pleasures beckoned, and I procrastinated. This past Saturday I made myself get up and get out on the road before 7 am to beat the Tennessee heat. My plan was to start slowly in pace and then build up. After an hour on a course of gently rolling hills, my average was about 16.3 mph-faster than I had intended. So I slowed down and took a break, stopping by a babbling stream in the shade, where I got off the bike, stretched, and re-hydrated. Then I got back on the bike and felt much better. The remainder of the ride was pleasant (after one short but gut-wrenching steep hill) and I returned home a bout 9 am after 28+ miles. I savored my sense of accomplishment. My ride didn’t interfere with the rest of the family’s activities because save one they were all still asleep when I returned. So the lesson (learned again and again): start your day with something you want to accomplish, get it done, move on with your day. The key is to start early. Getting the lazy butt out of bed is the biggest hurdle, but it’s worth it.

July 31

Some recent observations and sights while cyling:

* A flock of at least 25 turkey chicks scrambling behind Mom Turkey around a pond near Hendersonville
* A woman at 6 am walking one small dog and pushing a 1950s style baby carriage with her other small dog in the carriage!
* A beautiful sequence of irrigation sprinklers spewing misty spray by the side of the road
* A quick red brown fox carrying breakfast back to her kits in the den
* Large man in large truck pulls up next to me at a traffic light, leans out the window while we’re waiting and says “Yeah, you might as well bring your shavin’ kit to this light cuz’ it takes so long . . .”

July 21
Today I commuted on my bicycle to work for the first time. I had been meaning to try it for some time, but just finally got motivated enough to begin. The process required me to leave a change of clothes beforehand at my local office, the only one close enough to home (six miles) to make this commuting idea practical. Then I had to remember to take all of my little tools to work with me on the bike: beeper, cell phone, ink pens, patient census cards, eyeglasses, and hospital ID. I wondered how I would get all of them into my jersey pockets until I remembered my Camelbak hydration pack hanging up in the closet. After taking out the bladder, I had plenty of room for these items in a convenient on-my-back solution.

So I was ready. I figured it would take between 20 and 30 minutes to get to work, but I was worried about the traffic, since for most of my other bike rides I am going at non-peak hours, either earlier in the day before driving to work or on the weekend.


Thus I started. Traffic was manageable and I had a pretty good shoulder to ride on for most of the commute until I got to the last mile or so when the road narrowed. There weren't any problems, though, and I pulled up at my office building ready for the transition to the work day.

Unfortunately I had picked one of the hottest most humid Tennessee summer days to begin this venture. After I wheeled my bike into the office and parked it in the server closet, I went into the bathroom to change clothes. There the sweating began. When you're on the bike you don't notice sweat too much because the wind is flowing past. Once you stop, however, perspiration pours out. Did I mention that there wasn't any shower at the office? I thought I could just wash off with a wet cloth. I didn't smell too bad, but even after 20 minutes I was still soaked. The day was getting on, though, and I had to go to work. So I disgustingly pulled on my pants, shirt, socks and proceeded to work. At the very first nurses station, someone asked me what happened--that's when I realized the back of my shirt was soaked through with sweat. On I went, and it was an hour at least before my perspiration output returned to normal levels. I just had to keep the shirt on until it dried. The trip home in the afternoon was fine, but when I got home and just pulled off my jersey, socks and shoes before jumping into the pool with the kids.

Two days later I did it again, only it was cooler and I didn't sweat quite as much.

I felt great not driving for two work days out of the week. Now I just need to figure out a better system of hygiene!