The Broken Clavicle Post. Let me explain....no, there is too much. Let me sum up.

About 10 days ago, Tina and I decided we needed a break from our training, so we went to the Valmont Bike Park for a fun hour on our mountain bikes. Towards the end of our visit, I decided to try a jump that we had been eyeing since our first visit. In short, I fucked it up: lost my speed, front wheel went steeply down, fork compressed, and my head and right shoulder were piledriven into the ground.

My helmet saved me from any serious head or spinal issues, but when I arose my clavicle was in a bad state. There was movement of the bone, serious crepitus, and my body broke out into a cold sweat. Being two miles from home, we ordered me a Lyft to the nearby ER.

The ER was a ghost town. They got me in immediately and within 10 minutes I had an X-ray showing a lovely broken clavicle with the two ends nicely displaced and one of the ends tenting. They sent me home in a sling with a lovely narcotic+acetaminophen combo.

The next day, being Friday, I worked hard to find an orthopedic surgeon who could see me immediately. After calling around for 45 minutes, I found an appointment for 2pm. Their PA got a couple more x-rays, examined the injury, and then consulted with the surgeon. Surgery was deemed necessary and within two hours it was scheduled for the following Tuesday. They would have performed the surgery sooner, but with COVID-19 they wished to use their surgical center and avoid the hospital.

The four day wait was miserable. I was unable to use my right arm and the clavicle was painful the entire time. Further, the drugs made it almost impossible to focus, so all I did was sit around, rest, and watch videos.

The surgery happened as planned. They installed a long plate and eight screws to hold my clavicle together. Obviously, with that much hardware, it took them a decent amount of work to fix the bone and my body felt properly abused. I do have use of my right arm again with limited movement and zero weight allowed. The prognosis is good. Let it heal, improve range of motion (ROM), and start rebuilding my strength. 2-3 months until I am back to my normal activity level.