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