Saw the local expert. He comes well recommended. We know people that he’s treated.
Everyone in his office was very nice and patient. (The nurse there was impressed by my road rash. I figure if you have to seek out medical help, give them something to admire. He gave me some debridement bandages, which is more attention than they received in the emergency room. He told me to leave them on until Thursday. “You’ll be amazed, bro.”)
The doctor himself did not rush us at all and waited for all of our questions. Told us the options and let us decide everything. He let me ask him the same question different ways, which is my habit when I’m trying to get more information.
The options are basically these: you can let a collar bone grow back together or you can surgically repair it. Letting nature take its course is a slower answer and there are risks of physical deformity and a concern about a loss of functionality. Surgically is faster and you are supposed to bounce back to your normal self.
I’m young, I’m active. I don’t want to be limited. My break, he said, was so far apart that naturally healing was something of a crapshoot. So we’re doing surgery.
This changes a lot of schedules, and will lay me up for a while, but it is better in the long run.
He told me which day his best people are working with him, so we know which day to have the procedure. It takes about 45 minutes, he said.
Until then, ice, rest and keep it still.
Being still isn’t hard. I’ve figured out, for the most part, how to get comfortable so that I can almost forget I’m hurt. Changing shirts is the worst. Getting in and out of bed is slow. Sleeping is a challenge. There are no real big problems, though. I’m just learning to do things slowly, one-handed and kicking myself for getting hurt.
Site note: I will not talk about this for days on end, I promise.
