photo
30
Sep 22
This is a recovery week – Friday
I read broadly. I’m well educated. I travel well. I watch the occasional documentary. I feel like I have a decent vocabulary. So it doesn’t happen every day anymore, but yesterday I learned a new word. The doctor taught it to me.
I asked about the rest. Do you take those fragments out?
No, he said. The bits are so small there’s nothing left.
The impact of her crash ground the bone into something little more than dust particles.
In addition to that, and the two broken ribs, we also learned she fractured her shoulder blade.
Be kind to cyclists. And wear a helmet.
29
Sep 22
This is a recovery week – Thursday
She did great, but today got out of control in a hurry.
Much like when the driver of the red pickup truck cut off my wife and caused her to crash her bike at about 25 miles per hour.
This morning, one doctor’s office visit and an X-ray turned into a surgical consult. We’d been hoping that the collarbone would settle itself down, but the past week, the relaxation of the muscles and all of that, have actually shown the true extent of the problem. The first doctor was — what was that reaction? Appalled, Stunned? Crestfallen? — a bit shaken by today’s X-ray. What the pictures said was that surgery is the right answer. Avoiding surgery, at this point, is a game of chance, but, really, delaying the inevitable.
The doctor says, “I’ll let you think about it.”
Not that there’s much to think about, really. Young and active and planning on staying that way, the best outcome is the one you want. That’s definitely surgery. The surgical outcome is far more controlled. But, for a week, she’d been hoping to avoid that.
It’s funny, you spend a week trying to will something to happen, gritting through terrible pain, and then one photo that makes the point, clear as day. The space between the bone fragments was large enough to write “surgery” in a substantial font.
I’m not sure how many sentences we’d gotten into the subsequent “think about it” conversation when he came back into the exam room.
“Have you eaten anything today?”
And that was when the day turned into a sprint. If there’s a surgery, someone should come into town to help out. Her mom will be on the next plane. We need to get her from the airport. Arrangements made. Arrangements changed.
There needs to be some straightening up around the house, then. New sheets on the guest bed. Floors vacuumed. Room made in the closet. Extra bathroom opened. Coffee purchased. And and and. I’m also still in a quixotic campaign to get her painkiller prescription refilled.
The surgical center called. There had been a cancellation, can we come even earlier? We could and we did. There was scarcely time to think or react. We just did, all day. Maybe it is better that way. Less thinking and worrying and fretting.
Because there hasn’t been enough of that in the last week.
But don’t forget: Catober begins this weekend.
28
Sep 22
This is a recovery week – Wednesday
A bit better than yesterday, I think. We’re six days into a weeks-long recovery process. And hopefully it’ll stay progressive throughout. Slow and steady wins the race and avoids unnecessary setbacks.
There’s not much else going on right now, other than careful resting and healing.
But the weather is lovely. Enjoy this photo of a maple leaf floating through the back yard. Got lucky catching it in mid-flight, right?
So the light week continues, but we’ll have something here tomorrow, I’m sure.
And don’t forget: Catober begins this weekend.
27
Sep 22
This is a recovery week – Tuesday
The Yankee is slowly on the mend. We’ve developed a fairly decent routine for each day, part of the short-term education process when you can’t use one arm or bear any weight in your good hand. But we’re making do. I’m fretting over her and have managed to avoid bumping her arm or otherwise giving her any extra pain. Ribs and a collarbone are bad enough without the help.
But there’s not much else going on right now.
The weather this week remains in the chamber of commerce category. (Maybe it’ll stay like this until next March!) Late in the afternoon we sat on the deck for a bit. Getting outside is a part of the recovery process.
So it is a light week, content-wise, as you can tell.
But don’t forget: Catober begins this weekend.
