Three weeks after breaking my clavicle
The things one does for the fandom....
Three weeks ago - 28.8.2008 (note the eights, always a bad sign), we were filming a sequel of our RocCon Xena Fight on a hill near Prague. Everything started innocently enough - Blanch and me in our casual clothes, arguing over Ares action figure, then changing into the costumes and doing several action scenes. I managed to accidentally kick her at least twice and hit her Adam's apple that it hurts till today.
But the last fight sequence ended badly for me. She was kneeling on the ground, I was strangling her with the whip and then with my hands from behind. I was supposed to fall down over her shoulder after a short struggle, then roll on the ground towards the camera and CUT. And it worked for the first time, but not for the second one.
Somehow I managed to fall directly on my right shoulder in a bad angle and suddenly I heard and felt a loud snap. I stayed on the ground, wincing in pain. When I tried to stand up, the whole world started to spin and blacken and I almost fainted. Of course I managed to break something.
So my friends helped me to change from the costume to my normal clothes, then to descend a long way down the slope through the forest to the car. It was Trabant, very old, unreliable and legendary German vehicle. I have never realized before how uneven the surface of the roads is. Half an hour later we arrived to the Emergency of the hospital near my flat and waited for the doctor.
It took him one look to diagnose a fractured clavicle near the shoulder joint and he told me that surgery will be necessary. Oh joy. The procedure is to cut the shoulder and put the wires around the clavicle, so it would heal properly. This means at least three days at the hospital, six weeks of healing, physiotherapy and removal of the wires after six months. And I was supposed to be at work that night and during the whole next weekend. So on my way to the X-Ray examination I frantically called my boss to find someone to replace me on such a short notice.
X-Rays confirmed the diagnosis and I was admitted to the surgical department. At 6pm the anaesthesiologist arrived and I was ushered to the operating room. Then the darkness came and I woke up two hours later, hurting all over and with a lip bitten by my own teeth.
First few nights were the worst, they wouldn't end and I could lie only in the one twisted position. Funny thing about the painkilling shot: the injection hurt so much that I forgot about shoulder pain for the next five minutes. But I cannot complain about the medical care, the nurses were awesome and I gained a new respect for their hard profession. I'm used to visit a hospital often, both my parents work at the University Hospital Hradec Králové, but almost never as a patient. So this was an interesting experience. I considered studying medicine once, because my father, grandfather and great-grandfather were doctors, and I even attended the preparatory course, but I'm too lazy for such a difficult subject field.
But back to my story. I was supposed to be discharged home at Saturday, yet I stayed there until Monday because of heightened temperature. My friends came to visit every day to distract me from boredom - it was fun to watch House episodes on laptop in the middle of the hospital park. I also had the time to read several books, one of them was Shatner's "Up Till Now". It's even better than I expected.
My parents arrived too and for the first three days at home my mother stayed with me and helped with basic things. I found out I'm not like House - I used the painkillers sparingly :) Fevers remained for the whole week, so the doctor had to prescribe antibiotics. He removed the stitches (about 15 of them) after two weeks and now I have a wonderful scar.
I have limited mobility of my right arm, but it's getting better. Today I was actually able to lift my hand above the head to fasten some laundry with a peg, that's a progress. Aside from the mobility, the main unpleasant thing is that I feel the wire under my skin and that's a really disgusting sensation.
So, this was a TLDR story about my first fracture, probably the longest text I produced in English. Ever. Back to the regular schedule, like watching the new episodes of House and attending CzechTrek convention in my Galaxy Quest uniform on Saturday :)
Three weeks ago - 28.8.2008 (note the eights, always a bad sign), we were filming a sequel of our RocCon Xena Fight on a hill near Prague. Everything started innocently enough - Blanch and me in our casual clothes, arguing over Ares action figure, then changing into the costumes and doing several action scenes. I managed to accidentally kick her at least twice and hit her Adam's apple that it hurts till today.
But the last fight sequence ended badly for me. She was kneeling on the ground, I was strangling her with the whip and then with my hands from behind. I was supposed to fall down over her shoulder after a short struggle, then roll on the ground towards the camera and CUT. And it worked for the first time, but not for the second one.
Somehow I managed to fall directly on my right shoulder in a bad angle and suddenly I heard and felt a loud snap. I stayed on the ground, wincing in pain. When I tried to stand up, the whole world started to spin and blacken and I almost fainted. Of course I managed to break something.
So my friends helped me to change from the costume to my normal clothes, then to descend a long way down the slope through the forest to the car. It was Trabant, very old, unreliable and legendary German vehicle. I have never realized before how uneven the surface of the roads is. Half an hour later we arrived to the Emergency of the hospital near my flat and waited for the doctor.
It took him one look to diagnose a fractured clavicle near the shoulder joint and he told me that surgery will be necessary. Oh joy. The procedure is to cut the shoulder and put the wires around the clavicle, so it would heal properly. This means at least three days at the hospital, six weeks of healing, physiotherapy and removal of the wires after six months. And I was supposed to be at work that night and during the whole next weekend. So on my way to the X-Ray examination I frantically called my boss to find someone to replace me on such a short notice.
X-Rays confirmed the diagnosis and I was admitted to the surgical department. At 6pm the anaesthesiologist arrived and I was ushered to the operating room. Then the darkness came and I woke up two hours later, hurting all over and with a lip bitten by my own teeth.
First few nights were the worst, they wouldn't end and I could lie only in the one twisted position. Funny thing about the painkilling shot: the injection hurt so much that I forgot about shoulder pain for the next five minutes. But I cannot complain about the medical care, the nurses were awesome and I gained a new respect for their hard profession. I'm used to visit a hospital often, both my parents work at the University Hospital Hradec Králové, but almost never as a patient. So this was an interesting experience. I considered studying medicine once, because my father, grandfather and great-grandfather were doctors, and I even attended the preparatory course, but I'm too lazy for such a difficult subject field.
But back to my story. I was supposed to be discharged home at Saturday, yet I stayed there until Monday because of heightened temperature. My friends came to visit every day to distract me from boredom - it was fun to watch House episodes on laptop in the middle of the hospital park. I also had the time to read several books, one of them was Shatner's "Up Till Now". It's even better than I expected.
My parents arrived too and for the first three days at home my mother stayed with me and helped with basic things. I found out I'm not like House - I used the painkillers sparingly :) Fevers remained for the whole week, so the doctor had to prescribe antibiotics. He removed the stitches (about 15 of them) after two weeks and now I have a wonderful scar.
I have limited mobility of my right arm, but it's getting better. Today I was actually able to lift my hand above the head to fasten some laundry with a peg, that's a progress. Aside from the mobility, the main unpleasant thing is that I feel the wire under my skin and that's a really disgusting sensation.
So, this was a TLDR story about my first fracture, probably the longest text I produced in English. Ever. Back to the regular schedule, like watching the new episodes of House and attending CzechTrek convention in my Galaxy Quest uniform on Saturday :)