Dad Falls off Bike - Breaks collarbone and rib

It was official - I will not get through life without breaking a bone. Broke two in one day (8/5/2011) after a spill on the old schwinn varsity deluxe. Two blocks to the Walgreens on sandbloom should have been benign enough but not this day. On my way back from the Walgreens with a soda in my hand I looked over my shoulder to see if any traffic was coming as I crossed algonquin road and at the very moment I look over my shoulder, my chain came off. Looking one way and foot going the other, I hit the deck and landed on the bike. Of course in a very guy like fashion I pop right up and pretend nothing is wrong, even though I know something is wrong. So I pick my bike up and pretend to put the chain on and straighten my glasses as I let the cobwebs clear... I actually get the chain on and ride back home, it was quicker and easier than walking with the bike and soda (I wasn't giving up my soda to the street!). So I get home and even though it is not hot out I am sweating like a pig, feeling nauseous, and a little light headed. I decide to lay down on the sofa for a few minutes, get up to get a drink and then get light headed again and end up on the floor for a bit, after 5-10 minutes of that I feel a little better and sit up on the leather sofa. I know my ribs hurt but not that bad. My shoulder definitely hurts and I start to move it around and I hear it clicking! I take my hand and feel my shoulder as I move it and I can feel the bone out of place. I can actually move the bone around a little. I can't tell you what a weird feeling that was, moving a bone in a place it was clearly not suppose to be. I was surreal, almost felt like an out of body experience, like I was the doctor looking down at my shoulder seeing the bone move, very weird. But at this point the pain is not that horrible, it's not good, but it's like a 5 out of 10.

So at this point I know I have to go to the ER, but how am I going to get there? Call an ambulance and get charged $1500 bucks... I'm probably going to die before that happens! I think to call Matt and Rachel next door but they are not home! I think about some other neighbors who are most likely home but from what I know of them, they don't drive much, they have a 8 year old car with like 10K miles on it. At this point I feel safer just driving myself. Oh, yes where is my wife of 11 years at this point? at the zoo with friends not answering the phone. I think she sent me to VM like 3 times... So I get in the car and drive to Good Shepherd Hospital. I am actually feeling okay, but the car ride over there mellows me out and when I park and try to get out of the car the pain factor just went to like 7, I was very certain something was really wrong in my ribs too. So I go into the ER and thank goodness there is not a big line. I am second in line and I have only wait a couple minutes. I get checked in but I can't get my personal information out to clearly, and the nurse asks if I hit my head, I tell I don't remember. That was not a good way to state it, her concern just tripled. I quickly clarified that I am quite certain that I did not in fact hit my head (I may have left out the words "hard" or "very hard") and I did get my phone number out correctly after a couple tries.

So I got into the wait room and they take vitals and they do a EKG on my heart, not sure why? And the nurse has the gall to tell me that it is going to hurt. She says, get ready to squeeze the arm of the chair a little cause the EKG is going to shock me a little in the ribs. She says "get ready, are you ready?" opps were done... ha ha ha!! It actually cracked me up but it hurt too much to laugh. She/we had no idea I had a broken rib at this point. Then she escorts me to the next room and says I need to take off my shirt and put the gown on, as she leaves. So I start to take my shirt off over my head and WOW!! the pain just went to like 8.5, in fact once I got my shirt off, I got light headed again and could not even get the gown on. The next nurse comes in and says, "whoa... you don't look so good, I'll be right back..." in about 2 seconds she is back with a big needle filled with morphine and sticks it right in my good shoulder. And man did that ever work magic. I could actually, nearly instantly, feel it starting to work. It cleared my head right up and it made me feel completely normal, other than some pain in my ribs and shoulder which was now back down to a 4 out of 10. But the dizziness and light headedness and nausea was gone. I really couldn't believe it, amazing stuff.

Then I get taken to x-ray and that wasn't quite so fun and they move you around and make you lie down. The doctor comes in and tells me that the end of my clavicle is broken and that I have to wear this brace/immoblizer thing for 4 to 6 weeks. If the pain doesn't get better in a week I might need to have a pin put in. Doesn't say anything about my ribs, which makes me feel like a wuz. Shoji does call me back and is of course very concerned and she comes with a friend to pick me up and we stop at MacDonald's as we head home. Just like other big events in our life! Then the next morning the doctor calls my cell phone and says, "oh forgot to mention that you also broke your 9th rib too... C'est la vie"

I really thought that once I hit 40 I was going to make it through life without breaking a bone but it was not to be.