The Big Break

Well, I haven't been very good at keeping up here.  No good reasons.  But in a few short days I have an appointment.  It's a big one as it is the final checkup post op for my broken collarbone.  For those who haven't heard the whole story, yes- I got bucked off a horse.  This is the same horse that a month later and not that much more practice, safely carried Libby at a huge horse show with never stepping a foot wrong.  So many people kept asking if this was the same horse that bucked, in disbelief that I finally started responding, "yeah, I just can't ride."  We will probably never figure out what caused her to start bucking that day, as she was fine minutes later when Libby rode her, but I'm just glad it seems to be behind her.

The ER Dr seemed to think I could get by with just wearing a figure 8 harness.  My own doctor took one look at my xray and knew I needed to see a surgeon.  

The surgeon gave me my "options".  I could leave it and see if some cells might drop down and connect the two pieces or I could have surgery and be better in 6 weeks.  I opted for the surgery.  I wasted a week just waiting to get to that point and I wanted to start getting better.  Before surgery, this was what it looked like:

That lump is the bone almost protruding through the skin.  In fact the surgeon said that when he went to open the incision there were only a few layers of skin keeping it from breaking through.  Sure glad I got it fixed.  The day after surgery it was already looking better:

I had to spend way too much time doing nothing or not enough of anything but it is finally getting back to almost normal.

Here's hoping the xray tomorrow shows a healed bone and I get back strength and range of motion before too much longer.  Long term is that I should probably not fall off a horse and land on it again, and the cold is more of a pain in my shoulder than a pain in my ass.  But all in all I feel a lot better than I thought I would at this stage of the healing game!