Surgery

Some of you were concerned so I'm making this thread. I had surgery on my collar bone last Wednesday. It now has a metal plate over it and nine pins holding it into place.

Interesting factoid: in addition to giving me general anesthesia, they did a 'block' on two nerves in my neck. This means they stuck a needle next to each of the nerves and injected more anesthesia so the nerves were completely numb for hours, meaning I couldn't feel my arm and half my torso til hours later.

They also told me the two pieces of fractured bone clicked into place like lego pieces.

So now I'm fucked on percoset and can't shower til next Thursday when they take the sutures out

so you're still alive?

I hope you will stop making stunts, considering how much this surgery cost you. I also hope you will recover smoothly and you will keep posting with one arm.

The accident wasn't my fault, though. Another cyclist got in front of me and stopped. At night. With no helmet or light.

It should recover fine, though. I have to wear the sling for another 4 weeks. Le sigh.

  On 10/18/2009 at 12:12 AM, essines said:

so you're still alive?

*checks wang*

Yes.

shit man. glad you're doing well enough. sounds like nice clean breaks though which is as good as it gets!

ooh nice, my brother had the same. he got accosted by the skinhead kebab shop chav nutters in our hometown - they punched him to the floor and landed on the curb, snapping it in half. apparently it's one of the most painful bones to break? hence why they injected your nerves, no?

make sure not to chew on the stiches, or you'll get the cone!

<3

  On 10/18/2009 at 12:04 AM, Braintree said:

It now has a metal plate over it

glass plate?

shitty interperiod(5 minute) sketch

Good to know you were able to get it taken care of.

  On 10/18/2009 at 12:40 AM, idrn said:

ooh nice, my brother had the same. he got accosted by the skinhead kebab shop chav nutters in our hometown - they punched him to the floor and landed on the curb, snapping it in half. apparently it's one of the most painful bones to break? hence why they injected your nerves, no?

Yeah it was quite painful. The morning after the incident, one of my friends picked me up from the emergency room, and I could feel every slight bump in the road [even after they gave me some morphine]. It's actually one of the most common broken bones.

  On 10/18/2009 at 5:00 AM, essines said:

 

shitty interperiod(5 minute) sketch

That's like the venus de milo of ms pain penis drawings.

  On 10/18/2009 at 12:04 AM, Braintree said:

Interesting factoid: in addition to giving me general anesthesia, they did a 'block' on two nerves in my neck. This means they stuck a needle next to each of the nerves and injected more anesthesia so the nerves were completely numb for hours, meaning I couldn't feel my arm and half my torso til hours later.

OMG no no no. That brought back horrible memories of when they did my arm. They did the nerve block for me as well, but they chose to go in through the armpit and it was seriously the biggest needle I have ever seen. When my mother was young she had to get the dreaded rabies shots and even she was wincing and I was like what? She said whatever you do, do not look at what the doctor is grabbing. I looked and the needle was 6 inches long...maybe bigger.

Actually the needle probably wasn't as bad as when they removed the bolt from my bone with only Novocaine for pain relief, but that's another story for another time.

Did they use the machine that goes inside where the needle is and fires your nerves one by one? That was really odd having my arm move when I wasn't telling it to.

I'm not really sure. That's when they started pumping me full of drugs, so it gets hazy after that. I wasn't looking at my arm at that point anyway. I was checking out the anesthesiologist's fro.

That big needle you were talking about got me a bit nauseous. What pain meds did they put you on?

For the big needle they had started the anesthesia process so they had given me a propofol injection. When they removed the bolt they gave me nothing other than Novocaine/Lidocaine. That was seriously one of the worst experiences of my life. I was awake with no form of pain killer other than Novocaine. I could feel them cutting my skin, but it didn't hurt thanks to the Novocaine which was just weird. Once the got to the bone the Novocaine did nothing because it is local only and my god. I could feel them unscrewing the bolt by hand and it would creek every time he gave the bolt a turn. I got hot flashes and nausea from the pain.

get the bill yet?

Not yet. Could take up to 8 weeks.

I got it done in Columbus [at the hospital my dad works at] instead of SF, so I might be fully covered. If not, it will still be drastically reduced from the $17k UCSF wanted me to pay.

oh jesus. I can't believe there are americans who are fighting to keep the medical system you have in place. 17 grand fuck me.

I'm glad it was successsful mate, thanks for letting us know.

17 grand, fuck.

get well soon.

you get compensation, shirley?

  On 10/19/2009 at 2:33 AM, Franklin said:

oh jesus. I can't believe there are americans who are fighting to keep the medical system you have in place. 17 grand fuck me.

Americans want to keep private health insurance, not pay $30,000 to treat a cold. As we can see, Braintree is not covered in any way. I don't think we should be proud of public health insurance in Canada, it is obviously crap.

  On 10/19/2009 at 6:25 PM, keltoi said:

get well soon.

 

you get compensation, shirley?

No, the other guy took off, and it was not work related, so I don't get shit.

Discovered I have numbness in part of my chest and arm. It's supposed to come back, but might not.

Ouch man! Good pics though, thanks.