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collarbone / cycling / Friday / iPhone / photo — Comments Off
20
Jul 12

Just lying around

Went out for our weekly breakfast today to Price’s Barbecue House. The Yankee I ordered, I grabbed a table so I could find a seat safely. I’ve become very protective of my self since the injury.

I have the BLT with egg and cheese. She has a biscuit. We split an order of hashbrowns. We glance at the news, watch the people, and try to guess at the athletes that sometimes come and go.

My favorite time is after we eat. When we’re just sitting there in the quiet and slow late morning. That little part of the week is one of my favorite, and should last much longer.

After that we went to James Brothers Bikes, the local bike shop we chose to frequent because most of the people that work there are great, and none of them identify with flower power. They are great for advice and for all of the smaller things I might need to buy.

I prefer a bike shop in Homewood for maintenance, I think, because when I ask them about things, or to do things, they jump right on it.

But James Brothers is great. The Yankee bought me a trainer the other day and had to stop back by to pick up the front wheel mount. They’d been out of stock because no one buys trainers in the summer. That’s a winter activity. Or an injured activity. And since I can’t ride on the road for five or six weeks I need a new activity. Anyway, when they found out I was hurt (“He was just in here!” and I had been. I bought some chain lubricant just four days before I hurt myself.) they gave me a nice store-branded glass as a consolation prize.

(I can’t ride the trainer for several more weeks. I can rest my hand on the handlebars right now, but I can’t put any weight on it.)

So we picked up the front wheel mount and said hello. They asked about my recovery and I demonstrated my toughness by taking off the brace, which I don’t even wear anymore anyway. And then we promptly returned home, where I could sit in my chair and rest my aching shoulder for the rest of the day.

She’s keeping me company:

More of the same all weekend, too!

collarbone / cycling / friends / iPhone / photo / Wednesday — 1 Comment
18
Jul 12

Taking it easy

Those are my orders. Saw the orthopedist today, who told me to my incision looks good. We saw that for the first time today, it is much larger than we’d anticipated.

I am to lift nothing heavier than a glass of water. And I have been given gravity/pendulum therapy.

Bend over at the waist, let your arm dang freely. Move your hand back and forth, left and right, front and back and in circles. Do this daily. That’s my therapy for the first week. He did not tell me how many times a day to do this, or how many reps of each. I’d like a little more precision …

I can ride my bike in five or six weeks he said and a trainer in two. My complete recovery time, he said, was 12 weeks, making this the longest personal recovery of anything I can recall.

Anyway, since I’m sitting comfortably and resting, here is a picture. This is the tangerine bonsai tree that Kelly sent us:

She’s so very wonderfully giving and thoughtful. Kelly says it will eventually yield us dainty fruits to enjoy. Also, I must take care of it daily:

Water daily through hot spells and every other day in the spring and fall. As needed in the winter. A well balanced liquid fertilizer should be used with every 2nd or 3rd watering. Citrus in general are heavy feeders, especially iron, manganese and zinc. The local nursery should have an adequate liquid feed available.

[…]

Prune to shape as you desire, keeping in mind the small- scale size of the plant and its container. Flowers will appear from small shoots that originate where the leaves meet the stem. Flowers sporadically throughout the year, heaviest in the spring. Remove the tree from its pot every 2-3 years and remove about 1/3 of the roots. Re-pot with a blended potting soil. This will encourage new roots and keep it growing happily.

Maybe I can trim a leaf with each week of recovery. Or is that too impatient for bonsai?

collarbone / cycling / iPhone / photo / Tuesday / Tumblr / Twitter — Comments Off
17
Jul 12

Fall risk: a warning, a memento

I woke up at 6:26 this morning. I know this because at 6:30 it was time for another dose of Lortab. My lovely bride had woken up punctually every four hours to give me the good stuff. We ignored the Ibuprofen dosages during the overnight, because that would have meant waking up every two hours. And one of us, we figured, should get some sleep.

Clearly my collarbone and greater shoulder area were ready for their next painkiller before the clock said I should be. But that’s OK. I had the chance to open the blinds and watch the sun play on the tangerine bonsai tree that Kelly sent us.

I considered the fate of my medical bracelets.

The white one, with the names and hospital UPC codes, is coming off. So is the red one, which warns the medical staff of allergies. The yellow one though … considering how I got here … well it seems appropriate.

The nurse told me yesterday that everyone that gets sedation gets the yellow bracelet. I think I’ll put it on my bike when I can finally hit the road again and wear it with pride.

The surgeon was right: I’m hurting today, but I feel a bit better today than I have since I broke my collarbone. I’m taking painkillers precisely on schedule, don’t get me wrong, but the post-operation pain is less and different than the post-accident pain.

The downside to this injury, I’m guessing, is that it becomes a very boring recovery. You sit and don’t overtax yourself. You rest a lot. You don’t hold things in your hand before rehab. You try not to wear on the nerves of the people around you. So I’m resolved to celebrate every highlight.

We got a Harry & David box, a thoughtful gift from dear friends. (A night we don’t have to cook!)

I received the kindest Get Well email from someone I don’t even know:

Regardless of your topic you are a joy to read. Thus, having learned of your recent accident, I want you to know that I’m thinking of you.

Please feel better soon . . . very, very soon . . .

Wasn’t that thoughtful?

I moved from the arm chair … to the sofa! I’ve been in the chair, even sleeping in it, for a week. (A great half hour of variety!)

I stood up for about 20 minutes. And then my arm insisted I sit down. (More variety!)

The Yankee got me an awesome Get Well gift, a CycleOps indoor trainer. (I can ride while hurt!)

She wouldn’t let me use it today, though.

The final highlight, just like at 6:26 this morning: more Lortab.

Back on Twitter today. Returning to Tumblr tomorrow.

adventures / cycling / history / iPhone / music / photo / weekend — Comments Off
15
Jul 12

Catching up

The regular Sunday post that slaps together a bunch of pictures among my many other featured treasures of the Internet. Showing them off with trite commentary constitutes cheap content. Off we go …

Did you know there’s a Hank Williams museum in downtown Montgomery, Ala? He’s buried not far from there, so it makes sense. I just found this museum on the Fourth of July, though. It was closed, but you could see this hand-carved Kaw-Liga piece from the door.

Kaw-Liga, you see, was a wooden Indian who fell in love with an Indian maid at a nearby antique store. He does not, as the song explain, share his feeling, because he’s from a pine tree. Classic tune, and this piece took 530 collective hours to carve:

On the way to the beach last weekend we saw signs for another Hank Williams museum. I can’t comment on the quality of either, unfortunately, but I want to visit them both.

Parasailing tourists on the Gulf of Mexico, off Orange Beach, Ala.:

Mr. Brown, our weekend host, is catching fish on his condo’s private pier on Orange Beach, Ala.:

Brian photographs the pelicans on the state pier in Orange Beach, Ala.:

Allie, playing in her tunnel this weekend:

The Yankee celebrating her first state line in cycling:

collarbone / cycling / Wednesday — 1 Comment
11
Jul 12

The orthopedist says

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.