E as in Apple

The procedure cost $980.00 out of pocket. To be clear, we payed 10% & insurance covered the other 90%. I can't imagine how others with shit or no insurance would deal with paying for a clavicle surgery. Both the emergency MD and clavicle surgeon extraordinnaire emphasized that one doesn't have to have surgery to repair (a multiple & rather bad) break as the bones would (poorly) heal on their own. I believe the surgeon used the word 'deformed' to describe the end result of no surgery. Lucky poor and under-insured people?

My husband is a long-distance cyclist, a peloton of one, who has been in the middle of training for a bike race later this year. He was sprinting the last mile to work when his chain snapped sending him hard onto the asphalt. He predicts he was traveling roughly upwards of 30 miles per hour. (His bike is still at work, so he has yet to check his wee bike computer for confirmation.)

Fortunately, if I may use that word, my husband's bike crash occured very near work. He was able to limp into his building and ask that an ambulance be called. Paramedics arrived promptly, cut him out of his clothes, loaded him up into the vehicle & drove him to Stanford's emergency room.

I was to pick him up later that day & drive him home. He was confused at not having had the surgery straight away. I guess the surgeons are all fairly well booked out? A prescription for pain meds, an arm sling, some really groovy sweat pants, socks & a top with the arms cut out were what he was sent home with that first day. I drove him back to Stanford hospital three days later for the clavicle surgery. The title of this piece is in reference to what the woman giving me directions over the phone said. 'Your appointment is in E Pavillion. That's e as in apple.' Um, say what now? Anyway, we found where we needed to go without a hitch. :D

He's had his first sleep, not a bad one, since the surgery. The incision seems to be healing well, knock wood. His hand, also fairly banged up, looks slightly less swollen as well. We were told that the recuperation period from the surgery should last about 6 weeks.

Clavicle breaks are extremely painful, I've both been told and am now witnessing. The clavicle doc made mention of the fact that around here clavicle breaks are fairly common what with all the cyclists around. This sort of break is a right of passage, in a way. The bone broke in two separate spots, so not an easy healer, and the doc reattached the bone with a metal plate and screws. He'll set off the metal dectector at airports, but he'll be able, with physical therapy, to have just about full range of motion again. -something that he'll need when he hops back into the saddle.