David Mann wrote: > This time around I've done it properly. Fell hard while riding home > from the trails and broke my left collarbone. I tried riding/walking > it off while muttering a mixture of encouragement and obscenity to > myself (didn't know it was actually broken at the time) but had to > abandon that plan about halfway home as the discomfort wore me down. > > Despite having landed on my cellphone hard enough to crack the > plastic over the screen, I was able to call the Mrs for a lift to the > after-hours medical centre. They pushed me straight to the front of > the queue, taking me through before we'd even started filling in the > paperwork! They took care of me amazingly well and eventually sent > me home with a sling and a stack of good painkillers. We then headed > straight to the supermarket for a good dose of sympathy chocolate. > > So right at the start of the f--king season I have 3 months off the > bikes. Serves me right for being silly I suppose (launching a little > too hard off a speed hump), but I haven't even had a chance to ride > in my new full-face helmet yet :( > > For a few dollars I obtained a copy of my X-Rays so I might throw > some coal into my old 8x10 transparency scanner and post some > gruesome pics later. > > So far I've learned that sitting in a sunbeam reading on the couch is > really nice, and showering is really not nice. Not sure how I'm > going to sleep - probably badly as I always sleep on my side. The > cellphone-shaped bruise on my leg is also annoying me a bit whenever > I try to crouch down. Oh and there's also the one-handed typing thing. > > It could have turned out worse as I very nearly crashed straight into > a van coming in the opposite direction. The driver stopped and made > sure I was OK before carrying on. I haven't taken a close look at > the bike but I know the front wheel has a slight (fixable) kink. > > Looking at the bright side, I now have 3 months of Saturday mornings > to devote to all those projects I had no time for! > > - Dave > > Ouch! Having dislocated a shoulder, I'd rather break a collarbone...
Some collarbone breaks can be plated/pinned, which makes for quicker recovery times (seen LOTS of BMX racers and other cyclists do this). However, IMHO letting nature take its course is better if you've got the time. Beware nurofen (or ibruprofen in general) - it's been shown to slow bone healing. I've got statistics somewhere, but can't find them off-hand... The surgeon who screwed my elbow back together (plate and 9 screws after smashing it into 5 pieces during a BMX race) also advised against its use if I could tolerate the pain. I notice nobody has asked the obvious question, though: how's the bike? ;-) Ciao, Peter in western Sydney - who sympathises alot, as he has dislocated shoulders and broken hands on velodromes, and smashed elbows and ribs on BMX tracks. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
