Throw Me Bone

My latest Facebook status update reads, "C.S. would appreciate it if life would throw her a god damn bone! 'Just returned from Mass General. Next stop? A metal plate for my non-healing collarbone."

After becoming frustrated with my orthopedist who, every time I went to see him would look at my unchanging x-ray and say, "Well, you seem to be healing slowly. Come back in a month and we'll see if there is any improvement", I decided to get a second opinion from the man who put my Mom back together again a few times over the years. Broken arm, back problem, etc.

Dr. R Malcolm Smith took a look at my X-rays and my lack of range of motion, three and a half months after I broke my collar bone, and sent me straight to get an MRI and CT scan. He told me he was sure I wouldn't need surgery, but unfortunately, when I returned to him a week later, this past Thursday, he stood corrected. I needed surgery.

So, it would appear that I have a collar bone which never completely reconnected. I was scheduled for surgery on June 5th, then looked at my calender and saw that having the surgery then would mean I would have just hit my six week mark one day before shooting my first wedding of the summer. I called the scheduling department back and asked them if they could help. I'm just dying to essentially break my collarbone again and have a plate put in. Can I possibly be put in extreme discomfort sooner than June fifth? She told me the doctor was performing a surgery on the first of the month, but he only wanted to come in in the afternoon for that one surgery. But she called me back shortly after, telling me he would come in early on the first to do my surgery. Sweet man.

Now comes the challenge of figuring out back-up for the wedding I will be shooting. Fortunately, the bride and groom of this wedding are very laid back and seem more concerned about my discomfort than they do their photos. I do not share the same sentiment, so I am on a mission to find another shooter to join me. I put an email into a Florida friend of mine and am hoping she might be able to help me out if I offer to pay to get her up here and wave a few Benjamins in front of her.

Even if I can hold a camera with no problem in time for their wedding, I doubt I will have the stamina for eight hours of shooting.

Today I was leaving the post office when I heard someone fall just behind me. I turned quickly just in time to see a fairly short guy, in his early forties, rolling out fo his fall and back into standing position. I was pretty impressed actually. "Are you OK?" I asked him.

"Yeah" he answered, sheepishly, "Man, I must be drunk or something"

"Impressive dismount!" I told him.

"So embarrassing" he said.

"Oh, I can top that," I told him, "I fell when I was skiing only I wasn't skiing, I just fell over. Then, I broke my collarbone..." (oh, crap here comes the diarrhea of the mouth. Stop. Stop! STOP!), "and we thought it was fine only I just found out that the bones never actually came together even though I broke it four months ago and now I have to have surgery to have a metal plate put in! So, really, that's much more embarrassing"

He blinked at me, "You win."