OneTriGuy

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Finally Had My Plate Removed

The plate that was installed to help fix my clavicle fracture was a mixed blessing. On one hand, the plate served an important purpose—to fix my broken clavicle in the correct position for proper healing. This, it did quite perfectly. I can happily say that my shoulder is back to its pre-crash state, minus a little muscle toning, which will come in time. On the other hand, the plate was in such a position that any pressure on top of it caused a fair amount of pain. It got in the way (read: hurt) when wearing a seatbelt, hoisting a backpack, and worst of all, playing rough with my two young sons. Clearly, it had to go. Thankfully, our bodies heal quickly, and once the bone was mended, the plate served little purpose. It didn’t take long for me to ask my doctor if he  could take it out, which he…

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I’m back at it.

The sling officially came off this past Thursday! I celebrated with a slow 5k around the neighborhood in the rain. On the bright side, the run was not as bad on my legs as I had expected. On the less than bright side, my abs were screaming. Something about avoiding using my abs for 6 weeks while my broken ribs healed. The next day I pushed it a bit harder and did 5 miles in the heat and humidity. Barring the annoyance of the heat/humidity, my body was feeling good all around. Though Sunday felt like a post-marathon day, with each stair an exercise in pain tolerance. Good pain tolerance. I missed that pain. My shoulder is feeing significantly better. Basic movement is of no annoyance. Only lifting up as if signaling a touchdown and to the side as if signaling to turn left are issues. Thankfully, this is just the…

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And the x-rays are in

I must admit, I am very pleased with the work done by my surgeon, Dr. Stephen Chudik. My clavicle went from a 120° angle to arrow straight. Through an open reduction, internal fixation procedure (ORIF), Dr. Chudik was also able to stitch the bone back together perfectly, giving it the best possible chance to heal correctly.     The before and after surgery x-rays are even more impressive. It’s clear that this “elective” surgery was only barely elective. (Give them a click below to see them larger.) Had I chosen to let the bone heal naturally I can’t imagine that I would have regained full function of my shoulder joint. This break would have, at minimum, severely impacted my swimming, if not everything else in my life.     My new jewelry is just over 2.5″ long and the long screw is ¾” long. It’s quite obvious that something is there under my skin,…

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I’m officially bionic

I may not be the Six Million Dollar Man, but I am now artificially enhanced with the addition of a plate and five screws in my clavicle. After walking up “triathlon early” to make my 5:45 am appointment I had my clavicle transformed from a “worse than expected” (according to the doc) break angle to nice and straight once again. The entire process went pretty smoothly. It helped that I was the first surgery of the day. After stripping down and changing into the bare-assed hospital gown, I was given a nerve blocker to stop all nerve messages from my arm/shoulder making it to my brain. The nerve block process was pretty interesting. An anesthesiologist used an ultrasound machine to find a vessel upon which the nerve sat. I was able to watch the ultrasound screen as the device was guided under my skin through my shoulder/neck area. Once the…

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