Originally Posted by Boudicca

I called myself after my first road bike, who is called Cea. (The Roman name for Boudicca was Boudicea, spelling varies). Word has it her fierce band of Iceni warriers burned London and St Albans to the ground. The Romans killed her for it.

I did some more homework on the plate-removal stuff, and it seems that as a biker it's not a bad idea to have it taken out because the stretched-out, road-bike position needs all the room in your shoulder it can get. The plate hooks around the end of the collar bone, presumably to stop the bone moving as it heals, and that means there's less room for all the soft tissue to do its stuff.

May I say how boring it is to do 1-2-3 hours of shoulder/elbow/wrist exercises each day, and how totally important it is to keep doing them until I heal.

Interestingly, I did not set off the airport security alarm on my first post-surgery flights last week.