Yesterday morning included the first post-op visit after my unfortunate winter encounter with a slick railroad track and lovely New Year’s Eve surgery.
The fun pictures included with this post show what my clavicle looked like about 8 days after the crash and what it looks like now after my surgeon’s very nice craftsmanship.
So, I’m on the mend, with strict instructions to take it easy and do some very specific early flexibility exercises 3-4 times a day. It’ll be another month yet before I’m released to do any kind of real exercise or therapy to strengthen everything back up again. Probably the best thing is that I can now take a shower without covering the incision to keep the water out. All the stitches are of the internal dissolving type. Nothing really left to do except continue to remind myself on about an hourly basis that I’m still healing and not to push it. Not something all that easy for me, unfortunately. I’m not very good at sitting still and taking things easy. But I have very good incentive for this one and the next month will be a good exercise in self discipline – yeah, that’s it, that’s what I’ll call it.
And because I’ll likely be flying in June, one of the first things I searched on the ‘net last night when I got home was “TSA and medical implants.” Since the hardware remains in there for good, it’s something I need to deal with now forever more.
Oh yeah, and in the orange oval, you’re looking there at my posterior #5 & #6 ribs (the fuzzy stuff indicates various lung contusions). They’re healing too, though it’s going to be a long while before I can be truly comfortable lying on my back.
Thus ends chapter one of my latest bodily impact with pavement. In all fairness to myself, this is only the second time in my life that I’ve had an injury involving broken bones.