It has been 2 years since the surgery that placed a plate with 6 screws into my collar bone to hold it together. My doctor told me at the time that if I was planning to keep riding I should probably have the plate removed in the future. I had the hardware removed just short of one month ago, and I have been recuperating at home. I resisted removing the plate for as long as I could. It took me so long to get back to the place in my riding where I had been before the accident…I’m not sure I ever really did. I was unwilling to lose anymore time in the saddle, and if I am going to be completely truthful I was terrified of the surgery and the recuperation. As I started doing more and more canter work I realized that it was time to stop taking chances. A fall on the shoulder with the hardware in place could have serious consequences.
It took me until last spring to start cantering again. Even thinking about it made my blood run cold…but I decided to make myself a promise at the beginning of 2008. I decided I would canter again before the year was done. I started out doing just a few strides of canter at a time. Poor Pugsley! I was so stiff with fear. It must have been quite painful for him. He would throw his head and try to pull the reins from my hands. My fanny must have popped a foot out of the saddle with each stride. If you were a stranger watching me, you would have thought I’d never cantered before. Still, I persevered and began to feel more and more comfortable.
Happily, this surgery’s aftermath has not been nearly what it was the first time around. Of course the bone is no longer broken, so I am mostly contending with the incision site. I do have 6 holes in my clavicle that have to fill in with synthetic bone marrow. That’s why I won’t be riding for at least another month…but the end is in sight. All of this will soon be behind me.
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