OneTriGuy

Posts Tagged‘Surgery’

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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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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