Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Well, since we were enlightened by a "professional" as to what was really wrong with Pat, next came probably the worst part for him. How they deal with a broken collarbone while the doctor is explaining that this is probably the most painful break the human body could have. I do think that in our two hours waiting for this diagnosis that Pat and I had already determined this realization in our broken conversation. I will mention though that when we saw the x-ray, the outer half of his collarbone was pointing straight down towards the floor while the rest remained in place. It was a bad break.
The doc left and returned with this sling thing. It slips onto both arms up around the shoulders like the straps of a backpack and has velcro on those straps. It looked like a cloth figure 8 that is askew.
So, he began the task of putting this contraption on Pat who is wincing with every movement and has described how he could feel his bones scraping eachother with every movement....ooooh, ooooogly. The doc got these straps in place on Pat's shoulder and then told him to reach behind his back and grasp his hands together behind his back.
Oh, did I feel for the guy. He could barely hang is left arm at his side let alone get it behind his back. As I watched this process all I could do was think about how I wished they would knock Pat out or something because I was wincing right along with him. I hurt just from watching. The act of him struggling simply to touch his fingertips...
He stood there slightly tilted to the left and put his right hand behind his back which of course couldn't reach the left hand. He was really stretching that right arm but finally had to give in and move that left hand around his hip. The agony on his face was heartwrenching. The farthest he could get the left hand was just behind his hip, the rest was accomplished by a desparate desire to get that right arm stretched further than it was meant to and FINALLY he touched his fingertips together.
But he still needed to grab on to that left hand. Again his body tilted more left, he was nearly parallel to the floor by this time and he was barely able to catch those fingers but finally he did it.
Then, the doctor told him to stand up and upon his request take a deeeeeep breath and said that it was going to hurt. Pat just groaned. On the count of three, Pat took a deep breath while the doc was behind him hanging on to that brace and "WRENCH!" yanked Pat's shoulders back and quikly sinched up the velcro...as in he had really good posture for the first time ever. Pat let out a yell and had to sit down rather quickly. (I think he was hearing trains.....) This was all they could do...for at least 5 minutes.
The doc was going to come back in 5 and repeat this process. No way was Pat up for this and made it clear when the doctor returned that everything was good, he felt better, it still hurt but was a lot better. Apparently this satisfied the doctor who then wrote out prescriptions for Codeine/Tylenol 3, a muscle relaxer and something else. Pat was in La-La land for a couple of weeks.
After we left the hospital we discussed this whole dilemma with the band. How was he going to hoist a guitar on his shoulder when he could barely move his arms? How were we going to break the news to the band? Of course I laid into him a little about how dumb he was for not listening.
What had happened was he was trying to catch up to his buddy who was flying on the four-wheeler. Pat didn't see it until the last minute but there was a puddle of water. He started to hydroplane and the motorcycle started to fall to the left. He turned the wheel to the left to compensate but he never gained control after that. The front wheel hit dry ground sideways and he went soaring over the handlebars. When he landed he said he landed on a big stick and broke it. Turned out that stick was his collarbone.
Let's not forget though, the motorcycle ride in L.A. occured after this accident so he just graduated to a more dangerous sport........**sigh**
Well, with all the worry about the band and the stress of trying to figure out what we were going to do it turned out that the God's were with us. Apparently the manager of the band had taken off with all of their schedules and was nowhere to be found. He took the masters which were needed to make the CD's for the tour and 'poof', vanished so the date of departure was delayed by about 4-6 weeks. Just enough time for Pat to heal. Boy did he get lucky or what.
We relaxed a bit after we had that all worked out with the band but if I recall the band was pretty concerned about Pat's ability to play. I don't think they were any more pleased with his stunt than I was. But it was all good except....the recovery.
To Be Continued......
Written by louie0768 .
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