at the other edge -broken ligaments

Perhaps you've already heard, but my journey has taken an unexpected turn and brought me back to Managua in less than 2 days. Somewhere between Matiguas and Mulukuku on a dirt road the front tire on my motor cycle lost air pressure and after some struggle to remain in control, the front tire slipped out and I went down on my right side. I'm still trying to make sense of it, but in the end, my feet were both under the left side of the bike and I was sitting upright. When I tried to lift the bike off my legs it became apparent that it was far too heavy for me and that something was wrong with my right shoulder. I thought surely it was out of joint. As I looked around, I saw people in both directions and an approaching truck soon stopped and picked up the bike for me and helped me remove my helmet. A few minutes later the people I was traveling with showed up and were startled to see me on the ground with a small crowd around me. We ended up getting in the truck, leaving one of them with the bike, and headed for the next town and medical center. There they took a look at my shoulder, offered me some pain meds and after unsuccesssfully trying to get my shoulder back in joint suggested that we head to Siuna for an x-ray to make sure we didn't do more damage.

Two hours later on a terrible road, we arrived in Siuna. The x-ray technician ended up taking three shots because the first two were so bad they didn't show anything. Soon the doctor arrived and determined that my shoulder was not out of joint as we had thought, but rather that the clavical had come disconnected from the scapula, all four ligaments separated. This, he explained, would require surgery in Managua.

So we retreated to a hotel and the next morning went to the airline office and I bought a ticket back to Managua. I found out later that the airport had been closed for 4 months due to the dirt runway being washed out during the rainy season., and had only reopened two days earlier.

A friend and coworker from the Nehemiah Center graciously picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the hospital where I was seen by who is probably the #1 doctor in the country. He looked at me, took another x-ray, confirmed the diagnosis of the doc in Siuna, got some blood samples and made an appointment for surgery Wednesday morning at 7am. They'll put me under, make an incision, screw my clavical to my scapula, and attach the ligaments again with some wire. Then I'll go home and begin my 3 month recovery.

The Lord has shown his mercy a great deal during this time by preventing more harm, bringing people along side to care for me, opening the airport, and in many more ways. I have been relative painfree, which is also an enormous blessing--and I'm not sure how long that will last. I have health insurance with a $1000 deductible, and they should cover everything over that as long as it is precertified.

Thank you to those who have been praying. Please continue praying for the healing in my arm, for low pain levels, and that the insurance comes through for me.

Also, now that I'm back in Managua, I'll be updating the Sea-to-Sea blog each day of the trip, as they phone me of the day's adventures. Feel free to follow along! bikenica.wordpress.com