C-Bone Update and Some Early Season Action.

Thursday afternoon was yet another appointment with Dr. Sisk for him to look at my collarbone. I was insanely nervous going into it because it was the day I would find out if I needed surgery on it or not. I was most nervous because I knew it wasn't 100% healed but I was hoping it healed enough on its own to not need surgery. Here's how it went down:

My friend Corey gave me a ride to the hospital with my friends Tyler and Chelsea who came along for moral support (and because they needed to go to Wal-Mart). They dropped me off and I headed up to Dr. Sisk's office which I'm very familiar with by now. After I checked in, I sat in the waiting room, knee bouncing in nervous anticipation for when they call my name. Finally a nurse came out, called me back, and showed me to a room where I had to wait for the x-ray. After only about a minute of waiting, another nurse called me back for the x-ray and I only got more nervous.

"How are you today?" she asked. "I'll be honest I'm pretty nervous right now", I replied. "Why's that?" she asked. "I find out if I need surgery or not today." She simply responded with, "Oh"

After the x-ray, I was brought back to the room for the worst part; waiting for the doctor with the results. After only about 5 minutes or so, Dr. Sisk opened the door with a huge smile on his face. "You see this smile?" he asked me. I could only reply with a relieved laugh. He explained that even though it's taking awhile, my collarbone is healing on it's own and wouldn't require surgery. Almost immedietly I asked, "Can I snowboard?" and he replied with a "Yep... Don't fall on it! But you can go riding." That was all I needed to hear because surgery or not I had a trip to Breckenridge planned with the Freeriders Club here at Alpine Campus. After that, I shook his hand, said thank you, and he left me with "See ya in the lift line."

Unfortunetly, he did tell me that it wouldn't be fully healed for another 2 weeks but I am out of the sling, taking new bone healing calcium pills, and hoping for the best. This does; however, bring me to the next topic of this blog, which is, considering I'm out of the sling and feeling better, my trip to Breck on the Friday after my appointment and then to Copper on Saturday.


Bottom line: the trip to Breck was awesome. There may have only been one run, no features, and it was crazy windy, but it felt great to be snowboarding again. I hung with my buddy Nate and we buttered our way down and around that run. I'd say one of the funnest parts was the makeshift pole jam made out of one of the bamboo poles used to mark the trails. It was bonked and ollied many a time by Nate and I.

Unfortunetly, despite my doctors words of wisdom, I did fall a couple times. Never directly on my shoulder which is good, but it hurt nontheless and I'm almost positive the healing process was regressed a bit but my collarbone still isn't too bad.

The soreness the next day did however affect my riding the next day at Copper. Copper's one run was not very good for buttering on, which I decided not to do anyway on account of my shoulder, but what the worst for me was the fact that they had an AWESOME park set up that I knew I shouldn't hit. They had about a dozen smaller jib features that I would've had the most fun ever on if it weren't for my broken collarbone. I will admit now; however, that my decision to not hit the park was probably a very good one considering I definitely could have re-broken my collarbone, especially since Corey pretty much got a minor concussion off one of the boxes.

But besides my longing to hit the park that I couldn't, it was a fun weekend spent learning I didn't need surgery, riding the snow once again, and hanging out with some good people in an awesome condo in Frisco. I still can't wait til my shoulder is fully healed but until then I'll just have to be patient and think of how much better future riding will be when it is healed.