That’s right folks, that plate is outta there. as i type one-handed, it sits here in a little hospital bag, looking unassuming and surprisingly small. Hard to image such a small thing caused so much pain and managed to help me heal.
Here’s an in-hand picture of it for you, to give you a little sense of size and scale.
So the surgery went well, and after getting a good look with is own eyes the doc says my bone is healed quite significantly. He did a small excision of my clavicle, to remove some “spiked” that had developed from the break/non-union. He also removed some arthritic tissue that was developing near my a/c joint, and he speculates that when i originally broke it, the fracture actually went INTO the a/c joint, hence my miss-mash of conflicting pain and symptoms.
So it’s 3 weeks in a sling “for comfort” and small range of motion “pendulum” exercises to keep it from getting stiff. After that it’s on to rehab and hopefully I’ll be back to jamming on drums in a few months or so.
The picture below is from the doctor removing my “pain pump” and redressing the wound. Appetizing, ain’t it?
Well what a weekend it’s been. I’m now having surgery this Wednesday September 15th at 7:30am.
I arrived at work Friday morning to find a plain white envelope on my desk, informing me that I was no longer needed “due to a reduction in force.” This from a company that just donated $5000 to The Howard Stern Show and spent upwards of $200,000 on full-page ads in the Dallas Morning News, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
$200,000 per paper!
So with my employment status fucked, my insurance in LIMBO … guess who calls! That’s right, My Doctor. Seems they have an opening next week on Wednesday. “Surely you’d like this done as soon as possible?”
Surely.
So i filed for unemployment, requested my COBRA beneifits, and am currently haggling over my severance and (lack of) disability coverage. Needless to say Friday night was a fucking blast.
I haven’t been that drunk in at least a year.
So here I sit, after partying way too much this weekend, drinking WAY too much Friday night, packing up my bags to go stay a few days at the rents’ while I recover. Surgery is tomorrow morning at 7:30, which means I’ll be up at 4am, to leave by 5am, to get there at 6am (when they told me to arrive), only to have to wait until 8:30 because the doc will be late as alwasy.
Ah joy.
At least I’ll be Sans Titanium by this time tomorrow … I can hear thunder outside. How ominous. It should be a lovely morning for surgery.
More to come…
That’s right it’s official. September 22nd will be the big day.
This titanium plate will finally come out and maybe i can get back to some semblance of a normal life. It just so happens that the 22nd is also the fall equinox and the first day of Autumn. I feel that’s a good sign, and I’ve always believed that healing and health are 90% in your mind. Here’s to positivity.
So in my last post i was very excited that i seem to have finally achieved union, meaning that my bone is in one piece and can hold itself together, but now h’m not so sure.
I’m cursed with a curiosity to rival almost anyone’s, and so i like to be as prepared as i can be. So after carefully comparing x-rays from right after the surgery to the one taken in August I’ve come to the conclusion that my signs of union are flimsy at best.
The x-ray was taken at a lighter exposure to show bone of lesser densities, so it’s may be deceiving in that end as well. To my untrained eye it simply appears that my scapula and collarbone are overlapping, and the high exposure gives the illusion of bone growth.
Hopefully I’m wrong though. Check it out for yourself.
Regardless of union or not the plate is coming out, so now i just have to be prepared for whatever complications may arise. Hopefully there IS a small section of bone connecting, which is all i would need to begin recovering, over time stress and weight will force the connection to get thicker and stronger.
So needless to say i’m a bit nervous, but excited to, maybe removing the plate will at least relieve some of my T.O.S. symptoms. The countdown is on. 13 days to go. More to come…
