It has been ten days since a huge longitudinal rut caught Hyro’s front wheel and spat me onto Daang Hari’s unforgiving cement, right shoulder first. At this point, my broken clavicle is still clearly not healed, but my body has done enough to lay a groundwork for new bone to grow and fuse its fragments together. As this is the very first time I’ve broken any bone, I feel like writing about it.
Pain-wise, the worst seems to have passed. I had two episodes of swelling, which was expected, but no less painful – the sensation just radiated into my whole upper arm and generally made things crappy. That whole mess also resulted in me cramping my right bicep every time I tried to bend my elbow in an effort to avoid stiffening of the joint, as my right arm has been in a sling almost the whole time. These days I can cut back on the tramadol use, gulping another pill only when things feel really unbearable.
I am typing this on my laptop, which isn’t the most comfortable thing to do for prolonged periods currently, but this represents definite progress. In previous days I could barely even do anything productive, as I had sacrificed my dominant hand and arm in the fall. As much as I didn’t want to leave things behind at work, the injury proved a little too much. It was certainly easier to use my smartphone than type and mouse on my laptop.
As it stands, I’m writing the rest of this week off. I have another visit to the orthopedic surgeon lined up before I can figure out the real score with my healing, and I figure it best to get that done before I attempt to resume work on Monday.
What does this mean for my riding? Well…it’ll be at least three months until I can get back out on the road and ride, although the doctor cleared me to continue my indoor trainer workouts almost immediately after the crash. While I am gutted that many of my last-quarter riding plans are effectively out the window, and that content on this site will be rather thin, I’m also aware that rushing it will ultimately be bad for me.
the accidental randonneur 