Chapter Eight- Please Don't Blame Tim

No one should ever dare to embark on a journey to Africa with the expectation of having any expectations. Things always have a way of surprising you, often times at your expense but at the benefit of a great story. This Tuesday I had my own little adventure which has definitely spiced up my trip. For those who haven't heard, on my first trip overseas I managed to get my first broken bone. To protect the dignity of all those involved I will leave it to your imagination to come up with any number of heroic scenarios you desire to explain the following outcome. At first I thought everything was fine because I had heard collar bone fractures were extremely painful and I was not in that much pain. I don't consider myself as someone with an astounding pain tolerance so things were looking good. However, I then felt something just south of my neck moving around and noticed there was an unnatural lump. Still convinced it wasn't painful enough to be significant, I had now decided that it was dislocated. With the gracious help of Timothy O'Tool- who is in no way responsible, at fault, or liable for this tragedy- I made it back inside and attempted to finish our game of Ticket to Ride. The group was apparently concerned about me so Brian drove me into Medi-clinic, the private hospital im Welkom, for x-rays. Once they had finished taking them I sat in the waiting area and my jaw dropped when I spotted this hanging up in the radiologist's office:

In an ironic turn of events Dr. van Sittert, the orthopedic surgeon who Matt and I observed for a day, was the one we called to come and consult on it. He said that I could either choose to have surgery and end up with a scar or just use a sling for 4-6 weeks and have a permanent bump and a bit more pain. Never one to back down from a chance to prove my manliness (or to avoid getting surgery in Africa) I chose the second option. The only reason I regret this decision is that if they would gave operated I could have had Matt attend and record the surgery which would have been beyond sweet. Due to the nature of this trip I never pass on a chance to investigate the medical side of things, so here is the radiologist's report on my x-ray:

"Comminuted fracture with overriding at the fracture site was noted in relation to the junction between the middle and distal third of the clavicle with suboptimal alignment. Associated soft tissue injury not excluded"

For those of you unfamiliar with medical terminology, thats a pretty intense fracture. There was complete separation of the bone between half and two-thirds of the way down my clavicle with a few smaller shards as well. This is right on the border of where they typically decide to operate or not. There is a lot of soft tissue and blood vessels in that area so surgery can be delicate and tricky with a high risk of sepsis (blood infection). In addition, its possible that the tissue can get between the bone fragments, impairing them from healing properly at which point surgery would be necessary. After about three weeks it should be obvious whether they are coming together properly.

It is a little disappointing that I can't help as much with work but ever since the incident I have been at the heels of everyone in probably annoying fashion, trying to make up for my lack of ability with effort. I have been glad at the chance to scrub floors or just hand people tools because I want to know I'm of use. So things are going well and I'm taking it in stride. I just wanted to share my little adventure with all my faithful readers.