Hero to zero, my three day journey…

My injury from the cycling accident with the car was called an AC-Separation. From Wikipedia, it is defined as a Type III AC-Separation which means multiple ligaments are torn that connects the clavicle (collar bone) to the top of the shoulder. A significant bump is formed by the lateral end of the clavicle being detached and pushing up against the shoulder muscles and skin. Without surgery this protrusion is permanent along with the potential for loss of motion in the shoulder however the ligaments do eventially reattach.

Here is an x-ray of my left shoulder showing the injury 45 minutes after the accident. Leading up to the surgery, which was 3 weeks after the accident, I actually recovered significantly. 2 weeks afterward, I was back to commuting to work and some running. My weekend before the surgery on Monday went like this:

Day 1 (hero): Saturday Oct 6th, 2007 – 35 mile bike ride with my early morning cycling group. Here is a video from my helmet cam of that ride.

Day 2 (hero): Sunday Oct 7th, 2007 – 16 mile run on the hills of Woodbine, MD with group from Montgomery County Road Runners including my good buddy Paz and Denis.

Both workouts where my last hurrah and I had planned this weekend knowing that for the next 6-8 weeks I would see almost zero workouts.

Day 3 (zero): Monday Oct 8th – Arrive at George Washington University hospital Outpatient Surgery Center with my mom at 6am in the morning for the 7:30am surgery. They escorted me into the pre-surgery area where I slipped into something more comfortable, a nice full length fashionable gown!

After 2 failed attempts, they got the third IV inserted correctly (BTW, have you seen my veins, got to be blind to miss). The doctors all gave me pieces of information and instructions for what would happen throughout the surgery. They would put me under using the IV and then they would insert a breathing tube into my mouth and down throat. Then they would perform the 1+ hour surgery. Remove the breathing tube and take me to the recovery room. The last thing I remember is being rolled in and transferred to the operating table and seeing multiple humongous spot lights over head before going to sleep.

While in the recovery room a few hours later, I became lucid. My arm was in an extremely tight sling and completely immobilize. I was told this sling should not be removed for 6 weeks. And no showers! I was also told that during surgery, they had to cut a 4 inch incision over my shoulder, shave down my collar bone to put it back into position, re-attach a muscle and lastly, they had to insert a pin through collar bone and shoulder to hold everything in place during healing. This pin which looked like a coat hanger was sticking out the side of my shoulder in clear site. (But covered with a bandage). The sling could not be removed because movement of my arm would risk breaking that pin. Plus, I noticed I was wearing a different color gown then before the surgery, hmmmmmmm! I hope it was good for them.

Shoulder after surgery. Obviously, they installed a convenient coat hook. By 4:30pm I was heading home. I was barely able to get out of the hospital without becoming nauseous. Half way home my mother had to pull the car over to the side of the road for 10 minutes and crank the air conditioning until the nausea subsided. But we finally made it home. What a fun day!

I slept for almost 2 days straight in a fog of Narcotic pain relief.