So... let's see recounting what exactly happened on this fateful fall & first broken bone in my life.
It was a gorgeous warm spring day on the Southside of the HB pier. I was not actually going to go out but my Dad told me at lunch that the water & waves looked fun. So I decided to get a nice head dip in before my 3PM dental cleaning appointment.
When I pulled up to the parking lot it looked like a clean day with a ton of people out. It was actually quite small 1-2.5" and sets were inconsistent. I was having a lackluster wave catching session with everyone and their mother grabbing every single wave. I tried sitting on the outside and the inside as the waves were weak.
After about an hour and a half I decided enough was enough and maybe I should go home and shower up before heading to the dentist. Well... on my way in I saw this small wave hugging the pier and thought I'd catch it in. As I paddled into it I knew I wasn't going to be able to scratch into it so I pulled back but felt the force of the back of wave suck me over the falls. I thought oh well this should tickle and didn't fight it. As soon I was sucked over I felt the immediate deceptive power of the wave and before I could do anything I felt my shoulder crack/smash against the bottom and heard a clean crack. From the force of the impact I knew this was really bad and as soon as I stood up in the shallow waist deep water I knew something was terribly wrong.
I tried moving my arm but almost unbearable pain had overwhelmed my entire shoulder and body. I kept trying to move my arm so I could paddle in but each motion was met with excruciating pain. I actually drifted through the pier holding onto my board with my right arm. Once on the northside I was pushed to the shore by a few waves on the head. While struggling in the shorebreak I thought for sure the lifeguards would come out to get me. But thankfully no one caused a commotion and I was able to make it onto the dry sand and slowly walked my way to my car clutching my left shoulder. The whole time I was thinking maybe my shoulder was dislocated and just needed to be pushed back in or reset. All the way I felt people were staring at me probably wondering why I was grimacing and cringing.
Once I made it to my car I looked at my reflection in the windows and saw this protrusion or lump coming from my suit. At that point I knew I was screwed thinking that something must be broken or misaligned. In either case I realized that the hospital was my next stop. I then tried to remove my wetsuit and for about 5-10 minutes wondered if I would be able to remove it myself there in the parking lot or if I should try to get to the hospital where I thought they would just cut it off. Amazingly and through an indescribable amount of pain I got it off.
Once in the car I called my Dad and told him that I was headed to the hospital. The entire left side of my body in pain made each second feel like an eternity. I thought about going to Hoag in Newport rather than HB Hospital because of the quality of service but decided on HB just in case anyone needed to visit or pick me up. At the hospital I was admitted really quickly. Once there I was given pain injection and that felt like they just lit my right calf on fire. Within 5 minutes of being injected my pain magically simmered down and never returned to the "unbearable" level again. The X-ray technician hinted that things were broken and were way beyond dislocation.
The ER doctor broke me the bad news and told me that almost all broken clavicle just go untreated and heal naturally. He told me that there was nothing that could be done about the broken collarbone. He prescribed me 2 pain medications (1 for sleeping & 1 for daily). I was given a follow-up to see Dr. Emile Wakim at Pacifica Orthopedics. I left with my arm in a sling. Luckily I'm right-handed so driving wasn't a problem.
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