The things I've learned

Things I’m learning while dealing with my shoulder:

1. Health insurance sucks. (I’ve known this for a long time though never quite to the extent I do now. Really in the past I haven’t done anything that a bag of ice and a little rest wouldn’t take care of so I never really dealt with these things much.) Basically though, I’ve gotten some recommendations of doctor’s to go see from some knowledgeable folks (they’re bike racers, they must know about injuries) and it turns out so far that my insurance does not allow me to go to them. They accept the PPO version but my HMO is basically useless there. I think I’ll be switching over on that one assuming the monthly rates don’t sky rocket.

2. Doctor’s (at least those dealing with the HMO world) suck. The way I’ve been treated seems a bit strange so far by the various doctor’s offices I’ve called. It feels like there is a lot of “money grubbing” involved (for a lack of a better description). When trying to set up an appointment I was told two weeks until I mentioned possible surgery and magically there was space the next day. That doesn’t really leave me with any warm and fuzzy feelings. Plus the general attitude received from my doctor’s office when attempting to get their help, even while trying to be as polite and courteous as possible since I know they can make this really rough on me if they wanted to. On Friday I’m going in for a consultation with a doctor who strikes me a bit sketchy though he doesn’t do surgery so we’ll see.

3. I’m extremely lucky. As much as the injury sucks, I’m lucky even within the fractured clavicle world that it didn’t fracture in multiple places or get shoved way out of line like a lot of the bones I’ve seen while researching the injury. I’m guessing that has led to a much less painful experience for me and who knows, maybe even the possibility of no further action besides immobilizing the shoulder/arm.

4. There are many different possibilities still out there. One guy said after looking at my x-rays that due to the space between my fracture I’ll likely need surgery and a possible plate screwed onto the bone to hold it together. Still yet others suggest that I may be able to just let it heal up the way it is since nothing is totally out of whack it seems assuming the space is not to wide between the two parts of the bone.

Alright, I think that’s going to be it for a little while on the shoulder topic. I’ll continue to post updates on the situation and write a little bit about it, but I need to focus on other stuff mostly for my own good. Tonight Roy and I are racing Greenbelt so hopefully that goes well. No word on the new bike either, so it looks like I’ll be risking the DT’s for one more race. Luckily this is the last race of my 4 pack that I bought so I won’t be losing a bunch of money on missed races.