Shane's mountain biking accident

This is a story probably best told by Shane, but since he is busy with schoolwork and not really into blogging, I figured I would tell the story for him. As many of you know, Shane had surgery in December. It was an elective procedure, but it was fairly invasive and the recovery was 6 weeks – 6 weeks of NO ACTIVITY. He was going out of his mind. When we finally hit the 6-week point, he was ready to go! He and his buddy Erroyl were planning to start a weight-lifting program called "Massive Muscles in 10 weeks", and he was really excited to get back into mountain biking. He has joined a group on base called the Beer Belly Bike Club. As the name implies, it's mostly a group of middle-aged guys with beer bellies (and some without - beer bellies are not an absolute requirement). He had just gotten a beautiful new mountain bike (pictured below), and couldn't WAIT to get out on the trails with it.

Well, the first ride went really well. It was a muddy day (it had rained the night before), but Shane didn't care. He was like a little boy on Christmas morning, he just HAD to get on that bike. He had a fantastic ride, and even got some air on one of the jumps. He came back nasty and covered in dirt, but he was happy as a clam. I was happy for him, especially after seeing how miserable he was for the 6 weeks following his surgery when he had to be a couch potato. He hates being a couch potato.

The second ride was in the mountains, a few hours away from the base. He got up EARLY that Saturday and kissed me goodbye (I was barely awake). They carpooled out there, and from what I was told it was a gorgeous day and the scenery was breathtaking. Apparently the trails were not too difficult - lots of uphill in the beginning, but then there was a lot of cruising along relatively easy trails. It was on a slight decline downhill when Shane had his accident. The road was rocky, but not too horrible. Shane - in his typical "big kid having fun" manner - decided it would be a good idea to go super fast down this hill. He got going too fast, and WHAM! - he hit a rock, his front tire caught and threw him over the handlebars. He hit the handlebars with some significant impact on the way down and then he landed full-force on his right shoulder - on a very rocky area. He tells me he landed with a THUD. No bouncing from here to there. Just THUD! - shoulder into the ground. He immediately felt excruciating pain, and he "knew it was bad". He thought maybe it was dislocated, but there were no medically-trained people there so nobody felt comfortable trying to re-locate his shoulder.

After hiking about 2-3 miles out of the mountains (with his arm in a make-shift sling), Shane and his biking buddies made it back to the cars. His good friend Terry brought him to Acibadem, the main hospital in Adana (with which Incirlik is affiliated). I met him there, which was an adventure of it’s own. I've never driven by myself in Turkey before. I was a little nervous, but I felt like I was being spurred on by the need to get to my husband. I made a few wrong turns, but eventually I got there. He was lying in a hospital bed in the ER, alert but in obvious pain and discomfort. We were seen by the ER doctor, and then he got X-rays done. Here is a 3D reconstruction of the CT scan they did:

Good thing nobody had tried to re-located his shoulder! Turns out it wasn’t dislocated – it was fractured! He broke his scapula, which in layman's terms is known as the shoulder blade. It takes a good amount of force to break that bone, and depending on where the fracture is, it can be a "bad break" (one that requires surgery). Shane's was definitely a "bad break". The orthopedic surgeon looked at it and said, "I do not like this fracture." He said Shane would need surgery as soon as possible, but he needed to order the equipment he would need for the repair, so we had to spend the night with plans to go to the OR the next morning.

The hospital itself is very nice. It’s clean, modern, and nicely decorated. It kind of feels like General Hospital. All the doctors and nurses are dressed up nicely, and the rooms have an ambiance you would normally associate with a hotel, not a hospital. Unfortunately, the care itself is not the best. Turkish nurses do not receive NEARLY as much training as nurses in the U.S. do. Most of their training is on-the-job. They don’t have the rigorous education that American nurses have. They also don’t have much experience. This hospital is a private hospital, and therefore only wealthy Turks (or military members from Incirlik) can afford to go there. Most local Turks go to less cared for hospitals that appear more third world (kind of like what I saw in Honduras). We were impressed with the doctor – he’s a Turkish doctor that is one of our contract docs at Incirlik, so I have met him on several occasions. He has a very warm smile and wonderful bedside manner. We also appreciated having an interpretor, and she was also incredibly friendly and helpful. But the nursing care was not that great. They were just not very attentive. We asked for pain meds over and over, and it would take 1-2 hours to get a response. They put his IV in wrong, and it ended up infiltrating – causing a huge amount of fluid to collect under his skin. They didn’t even notice because they weren’t checking on him very often. I noticed, and we pushed the call button. Nobody came, so I took it out myself. They had to call the anesthesiologist to put in another IV. That’s just sad. It’s not like Shane is a difficult stick. His veins are so big I could throw a dart into one from across the room. These nurses were just not well-trained, and you could tell.

Anyway, aside from that it wasn’t too bad of a stay. We ended up being there two nights. Shane had the surgery on that Sunday morning, and because of the pain we stayed another night. He was discharged home on Monday – thankfully that was a day off (because of the Super Bowl) so I didn’t have to worry about re-scheduling patients. I had my own patient at home to take care of. He has actually bounced back much quicker than I thought he would. He had to wear a sling the first week, but then he started using his arm more (per the doctor’s orders). He’s getting physical therapy now, which is helping a lot. He still has 3-4 weeks of recovery, just for the bone to heal. Then he’ll need more time to rehabilitate his shoulder. So obviously, that is quite frustrating for him. He had JUST gotten out of recovery from his previous surgery. Now another recovery period. But he is keeping a good attitude about it and staying busy to keep his mind off of all the things he can’t do. Well, except that he reads about mountain bikes non-stop. But I guess that’s okay. He needs to feel connected to the biking world somehow.

So Shane now has two screws in his shoulder. Here's a picture:

What a crazy way to start the year!! And there are more stories to come, so stay tuned!!