Clavicle Fracture: An Exclusive Club

The morning started off with some amazing weather... as well as some amazing company; Carey, Kurt, John, Jay, Dan. We planned on an easy 50-60 miles with a few hill climbs tossed in the mix for those of us who felt like pushing the pace. I had my phone with me and was in a photo-taking-mood.

So here's the skinny: John, Carey, and I were pushing along at a good 20+mph pace and decided to break off the main road and climb up Turner Hill. Carey, being the monster that he is, smashed the climb and totally embarrassed me. We made a quick u-turn and proceeded to descend.

The mishap started when John turned left. I first decided to carve left after him... but realized left went nowhere. I adjusted my weight to the right and, according to my Garmin, I was going 35+mph. I began to lose grip on the rear tire... I locked the brakes like a jackass... and then lost control of the front.

By the time I regained control I was going straight towards the curb... at 31mph. I jumped the curb... but this did me no good as there was a large rock right after... smashing my front wheel into pieces, I flew over the bars and landed shoulder first on the ground. Shattered my clavicle into 4 large and 2 small pieces as well as caused some ligament damage, and opened two areas of skin on my leg, the worst of which was over my kneecap.

I stood up, checked out my now bleeding leg, and motioned to Carey to call 911. I prob would have freaked out, but Carey and John were f'n awesome. They kept me so calm and in control. I asked them if they could reach my phone for me... which they thought would be used to call my parents. In reality it was so I could take pics of my bloodied leg (again, I'm a jackass).

While in the ambulance I began to realize that the driver had NO IDEA where he was going and that his GPS was taking us the long way. I handed over my now shattered iPhone and asked Siri to navigate... but not before taking some in-ambulance selfies.

In the hospital the shock started to wear off and I began to feel the severity of my injury. I was trying real hard to suck it up, but that shit wan't fun. About an hour later, without request nor obligation, Chris McKernan skipped out on a day with his wife and child and just appeared in my ER room. I'm literally just sitting there, writhing in pain, and he pops his skinny head in the door and tells the Dr, who's about to stitch my knee flesh back together, that he'll "handle it from here". He most likely made my pain worse due to all the laughing that occurred, but his presence was a welcomed one.

The guy is amazing. He waited with me, for nearly half the afternoon, and then drove me home so I could change out of my bloodied and dirty kit. The guy even checked in on me via the phone more than anyone else over the following week. I can't say enough nice things about this dude.

A few days later I met up with a surgeon... his office was lovely and his physicians assistants were total hotties. So far so good with recovery... I'm in pain most days, but it's manageable. Luckily I have a great group of coworkers and a wonderful boss that are helping me out during this period of time. 

Surgery is tomorrow morning... fingers crossed that the plethora of titanium that will be installed will fix me. I've been told, by Paul, this is a right of passage and that I am now part of an exclusive club... so I'm cool with it.