Peoples that have broken their collar bones unite...

[Emerin]

LOL... sorry, heading is bit dramatic. But to get to my point, most of you guys know i broke my collar bone about 5 weeks ago... i want to know, from all you collar bone breakers, how long did it take to start to knit or heal? I went for my 5 week check-up yesturday and it wasn't good. The break hasn't healed... actually, it hasn't even moved closer together. It is exactly the same as when i first broke it!! My orginal X-rays are exactly the same as my first.... and the doctor i saw said i should wait another 6 weeks to see what happens... FARK THAT!! I'm contacting a specilist to find out if i need to do something more then just sit about with this nagging pain. SO? How long did it take? Cos' i was kinda expecting SOMETHING to have happened... u know, scare tissue, bones moving closer together, the bones kniting.... ANYTHING!

[Silver Wahoo]

Hey Em they hardly ever heal in the same spot, I broke mine at the Magpie ck round this year very badly and I was riding within 8 weeks xc and dhing in 10. I have a large lump where the bone has calcified but it's all good.

Wont be long matey and you'll rollin again

Cheers

SW

[Emerin]

:oops: Well... about that.... i am rollin... everyday and XC every weekend... :( I'm a bad girl an't i! It's not the riding i'm concerned about... it's the fact that it hasn't started to heal AT ALL. No calcifying, no scar tissue, NO NOTHING. In 5 weeks i expected a little something. Even the doctor said in a suprised tone "oh, ok. So there isn't anything happening there... hmmmm". That can't be a good thing. I'm not actually windging here ( :shock: ) i'm truly asking did your collar bone SHOW signs of healing at 5 weeks or did it take longer? And yes, i have a lump, but that is because one of my bones is now sticking up, not due to anything interesting like IT ACTUALLY HEALING.... :(

[Silver Wahoo]

WOW! Your Riding allready. It must be healing if your riding. At five weeks I still had my arm in a sling and gettig dressed was still an issue with the pain so you doin real well. :D :D :D

[Emerin]

That's what i THOUGHT, but it isn't the case. I got the x-ray yesturday, and it hasn't healed at all. I have a really high pain threshold, so i was outta my sling in the second week, strengthining my muscles so i could get back to work... but it just hasn't done ANYTHING. I don't know. The doc said that we'll check it in another 6 weeks to see how it is going. THEN, he added "Now, it looks as if it WILL heal with scar tissue, so you have about a 60 to 70 percent chance of that being very painful and us having to operate on it anyway. But lets see how u go." Assholilo. I want a pin and i want one NOW.

[Chilli]

ummm...
i think riding with a broken collarbone is a bit stupid :? probably why it hasnt healed
theres a thread about ankle breakage somewhere on farkin, you could get continued problems later on
so youve got the choice of surgery now, which will take a fair while to heal, keep riding with it, but it wont heal + problems later, or just sitting around for like five weeks doin nothing so it has a chance to get better
(oh jesus i sound like my folks)

[LordNikon]

Moving it too early will cause problems Em... Just because you can move it doesn't mean it's healing. In order for your bone to heal it has to remain still all the time.

I broke mine a long time ago and bones were completely joined within 5 weeks. Completely due to the fact that I was also in traction for 3 weeks and couldn't move at all.

My advice would be to stop moving it and keep using the sling as much as possible... and defintely stop riding for a while.

[Big Red]

Staying still is the secret.
R&R is the only way to mend broken bones.
I did a superman into the back of a taxi.
Broke my left collarbone, shortened by left sholder by an inch!
I was in a lot of pain, as the bone was sitting just below the skin. I didn't want to move.
Moved back home for a month to get looked after by the folks. Best move I made.

Good luck with it. But seriously try and take a break.
It will do you good in the long run.

Cheers.

[Emerin]

:cry: But my doctor said it was ok to ride. AND he said that i should try not to use the sling as much as possible.... I'M CONFUSED!!! And i'm not doing stupid stuff on my bike...

[Silver Wahoo]

Yep keep it still and stay off the MTB, The more you move it the more time it's gonna take.

This is Silver's basic break down on how bone's heal. Is every one sitting down and listening.

When a bone breaks cleanly in two. Especially a colar bone, The marrow in the bone drips out and on to the other half of the broken bone and creates the join between the two broken pieces. This is why we all end up with lumps. So if you keep moving it the marrow cant calcify as the join dos;'nt have time to set, Kinda like jelly sets in the fridge. So stop movin ya arm, Not riding sux well massivly but your just gonna prelong the sufferring if you keep riding and moving. :D

Cheers

SW

ps

I am not a doctor so i could be completly wrong, this is just my take on it. :?:

[LordNikon]

Umm... I'd get yourself another doctor, or at least a second opinion.

Everything I've ever heard about healing bones says to keep them still until they've joined and then to careful of them until fully healed.

[ruthlessgirl]

from what I know about broken bones (which is sadly a bit...) the bone prolly won't look like it's healing for about 2 months after it's been set. So like 8 weeks. That is when it'll show up on xrays (calcifying). Before that you get this soft bone that is still bendy but holds the two (or more) pieces together. Doc prolly wants you to have it outta that sling because it's your shoulder muscles that he doesn't wanna screw up. That reason being that you have a bunch of tendons and stuff in the shoulder that if you stop moving will shorten up and you wouldn't be able to move your arm nearly as much as before. She they'll want you to move it, but just not too too much and do nothign that could re-injure the collarbone. Know what I mean? I knwo this all cuz I've broken a few things and my arm is taking a hella long time to heal. A friend I have suggested a mixture of calcium, magnesium, and vit. D to help the bone heal but I'd talk to the doc b4 trying any of that. At least you can ride still eh? That has to help keep the mental stuff in check and keep you sane.

[curtisrider]

took me like 6-8 weeks and i was fine, cos i rested it and had my arm in a sling though

[bikeman_baldrik]

i broke mine a few years ago, it was a prett bad break, with the bones displaced a fair bit.
I was put into a collar and cuff immediately and i was told about 6 weeks till i could ride again.
The day after i broke it, the 2 halves of the bone shifted back into a position where they were able to heal.
Within 4 weeks i was back on the bike, and DHing after 5.
I think the beast thing at this stage, especially if it hasn't begun healing, is to restrict movement as much as possible.
Apply a collar and cuff sling so that your shoulder isn't bearing the whole weight. I think you'll find that if you haven't been wearing a sling that your shoulder is carrying too much weight and hasn't been able to relocate the bones in to a position where they will heal.
Try putting it in a sling for a couple of weeks, if there is no improvement, go back to your doctor and ask for a referral to see a specialist.

Hope this helps Em.
Get well soon.

[Ivan]

mine took five weeks until completely healed..
different bones repair at different rates. my Ulna took three 6 months to mend but probably a year to get any strength, i was told that my cheekbone would take 12 months to get any strength.

in my personal opinion i believe the bones should be kept still.
and avoid gettin metal in your body at all costs.

my arm took for ever too heal cause i broke the plate holding it together. i got a new plate put in and they wanted a full cast put on my arm because they said that if the bone was completely immobilised it would heal faster.

smoking slows down your healing alot (Both types!)

[wombat]

AWWWW! I want to join the colarbone club! How about if I break someone else's clavical? :?

[peep]

I had mine in a sling for about three weeks and on limited movement for 3 more. My doctor said no riding for 6 weeks which drove me insane (and i asked AGAIN at every check up!) but it turned out fine in the end - I'm all healed with nothing but a little lump to show for my troubles.
I could feel the ends of the bones knitting after one to two weeks and most of the bone pain was gone by then too.
I'm not sure whether the doctor letting you ride so soon was such a good idea (sounds kind of unusual for a broken bone) so i'd definately go get a 2nd opinion. I'm pretty sure the average time for a clavicle to be healed and back to normal strength is 8 weeks.

[lupine128]

when i did my left one the first time it was good to ride with in about 4 weeks, and fully healed in 6. first time i did the right one, 9 weeks before i could do anything with the damn thing, because i had nearly 40 mm of drop on it. i guess i was kinda lucky tho because the doc i got for that time was a visiting ortho from the states and first thing he did was put me in an immobiliser cast. damn thing was heavy as hell, hot, sweaty and awkward. but it stopped the shoulder from shifting for long enough to let the bone knit properly.
second time i did both of them at once, and thats when you really find out who your freinds are......... was lucky that the right one was good to use again in only 14 days, or i'd have gone nuts.
even worse tho is breaking a collar bone on one side and a wrist on the other, makes it a little difficult to do anything. (oh, and i had a broken leg at the same time, just to top it all off. damn moto's)

[Emerin]

Thanks guys! That helps heaps. Especially ruthless girl... although i'm kinda sad for you that you know so much about this through a "personnal" view. :twisted: hardcore chicky!!! But yeah, i've decided to see a specialist on thursday and settle this once and for all.

[bikeman_baldrik]

good choice.
A specialist will tell u whether u need to have it surgically re-located or whether it will drop back itself (through my experience, it should have done that already). Mention to the specialist that your doctor said it was OK to ride str8 away, i'm sure he'll have something to say abut that.

Anyway, hope that the specialist gives you some good new and that u don't have to go under the knife, that really sucks.

Best of luck and i hope it heals soon.

[Cruz]

Is it a break or a dislocation or both? I dislocated my right one about eleven years ago and it is stuffed now. I dislocated and broke my left shoulder 5 years ago and it took about 14 weeks before I could work again, and another month before I could hold onto a handlebar properly.
It is also stuffed and needs an operation to fix it up.

[Emerin]

Thanks bikeman_baldrik! I hope i can find out some GOOD news about this.. and yeah, i think he (the specilist) will beat me with a stick for riding... actaually, i'm fairly confident he will! *sigh* oh well. We will find out this thursday!

And Cruse, it is a break, nothing more. The bones are fairly badly displaced, with approx. 2cm inbetween the two bones. Looks cool... feels like crap. Nah, the pain isn't hardly there now, just when it rains or if something or someone jolts it. :(

[Weasel]

Errm 18 weeks because i re seperated it after i got back on a motorcycle to soon.

[bazza]

i cant remember how long mine took to heal, but i just cracked it, back on the old malvern star, stood up to pedal, grip slipped off went down with arm out, crack. owwy. sling for a while, now i still have the nice little bumb, nothing major.

[bikeman_baldrik]

yeh, when i broke mine, i had a 90degree angle between the two halves of the clavicle(collar bone).
I was lucky enough for it to relocate itself and not have to get it located and pinned.
But even so, i was on the bike after 4 weeks.
Well today is thursday, so do tell us what is happening.
Hope it's good news.

[Emerin]

Not really darl. The doc said this:

"Ok, we'll it WON'T heal. You will have the bones as they are, where they are forever, unless they 'happen' to come together by a stroke of good luck. This isn't always a bad thing though. You WILL heal, but with scar tissue instead. Now there IS a chance the scar tissue will be painful, at which point we will have to think about operating. I don't REALLY want to do that, because it is a moderatly dangerious operation."

At which point i wasn't happy. So i'm broken, for good! :cry: He said no dirt jumps for the next 6 weeks and then we will see how it is going. But i can ride as much as i like and do what i please. He also told me to get physo for my shoulder and shoulder blade so they are stronger, considering they now have to support the entire wieght of my arm by themselves. :(

[schmook]

emerin, someone has probably already asked but do you take calcium tablets? you should.
and it the meantime make up some exercise routine for the rest of your body to help keep you in tiptop shape and the muscle tone still there. set up your bike in front of the tv and pedal stationary, and pout lots abot dj'ing...
and eat porridge with loads of honey for breakfast everyday.

ive never done a collarbone, which is a good thing. i dont even like people touching my collarbones. i've got stickey outey ones...

[creepyjoe]

would calcium tablets help when the two ends of her break arn't even anywhere near each other?

[schmook]

when they finally meet perhaps. broken bones can cause holes in your teeth which the calcium tablets may help to prevent. can't cause any more damage anyway...
ps. elephants don't have clavicals.

[ruthlessgirl]

hey no prob... everyone can learn from my follies as I shall call them... when you break something they usually immobilize the joint above the break but in a collarbone the most directly attatched is the shoulder. There are so many things going in the shoudler it's nuts! Hopefully the specialist says something nice... in some cases they will just keep it immobilized for longer in order to not have to do a plate (like if it sets and begins healing (soft bone) straight and stuff then they won't... but they could tell that prolly after a couple of weeks. As for riding, i could understnad being allowed to ride road or easy XC but no DH or FR stuff.

Let us knwo how it goes!

[Emerin]

emerin, someone has probably already asked but do you take calcium tablets? you should.
and it the meantime make up some exercise routine for the rest of your body to help keep you in tiptop shape and the muscle tone still there. set up your bike in front of the tv and pedal stationary, and pout lots abot dj'ing...
and eat porridge with loads of honey for breakfast everyday.

ive never done a collarbone, which is a good thing. i dont even like people touching my collarbones. i've got stickey outey ones...

Ok... i'll ask my doctor about the calcium tablets to see if they'll help. I don't like taking vitamins if i don't really need them. And as for the porridge thing, its summer man, in queensland, there is no way i'll be able to stomach that. I'll just stick to my high fibre and fruit cerial. As for the excercise, yep, i'll do that for sure. :D

[jamit]

POP...... here is another Collar Bone broken, broke mine on Tuesday. This thread has been a good read, like Emerin said the A&E Dr that saw me said to wear my sling for 2 days and not to wear after that, after reading some of the posts here I am thinking of getting a second opinion..... One tip I did get from the Doc was not to take pain killers that were also anti inflamitry's because part of the healing process is for the injury to swell and if you prevent that swelling it will take longer to heal, there goes the Nurofen Plus... :(

My break is not to bad the bones have not jumped out of alignment which hopefully well speed up the healing process.

One thing I have to ask anyone got any tips on sleeping cause I hate sleeping on my back?

[at the drive in]

I broke my collarbone about 9 weeks ago. Emergency medicince at the hospital gave me a brace things and told me to come back the next day to get some x ray for my shoulder and my arm( i broke my wrist as well) Off i went home thinking that it was a pretty standard break.I went back there the next day to have more x rays. The take the X rays and the first thing i am told is that i am going to have to see a specialist ASAP. Later that day i see the specialist. He basically tells me that my celavical is so badly broken that there is no way it will heal by itself or in a brace thing. Then only option is to have it wired. Two days later i have it wired. They send me home with two types of pain killers and told me to use it as much as i can othewise my shoulder will frezee up. Things seem to be going well until a week before stiches are due to come out. They wound starts pouring out fluid. I go back to the specialist he thinks part of the problem is that he used one stich for two wounds and that bad break caused alot of tissue granulation. I have to have another operation to clean out the scar tissue around the collar bone and the wound i think it was called a wound deprivment. Things have gone well since then but i am still on anti biotics and the specialisr is pretty sure the screw will have to come out

[jamit]

Gee at the drive in, you make me feel as though I got away lightly, I hope you are on your bike soon.

I can now see why the Doc said to keep my shoulder moving, I have been getting these really strong cramps in my shoulder muscle if I wear my sling for more than 3 hours straight.

[at the drive in]

Ive been bike on the bike for a bit now the one advantage og the operation is that it just about cuts the healing time in half. but for some reason its only give to about 1% of people who break their collar bone

[Captain Blake]

i broke my collarbone last year playing footy, had a enormous guy swing me around and i landed on my sholder, then he landed on me

at first we thought it was a dislocated shoulder, and we went to have x-rays at hornsby hospital (which ever one is closest to cliff oval in sydney)
they only x-rayed the shoulder, and they couldnt find anything wrong with it, so they sent me home that day with an incredible sore sholder

then that night my mum was having a look at it (shes a physiotherapist) and she noticed that my right collarbone was incredibly higher than my left, like an inch higher (yeah that hurts)

she took me to her work in the morning to have some x-rays, couldnt see shit because there were all this ribs and bones in the way

so its off to the sports specialist in crows nest/st leanords, he could tell there was something very wrong with it, and got me to have a CT scan (cat scan for all of you that dont know)

couldnt see anything from the original images so they did a bone reconstruction on the computer, so they can ignore all the random bones and just have a look at my right collarbone

yep, broken, chipped a big bit of my collarbone right next to my sternum, which is now just floating around my chest, and my collarbone was 1/2 inch out according to the doctor (now its perfect, the specialist said it would take years for the bone to go back into place)

i was taking a panadol before i went to sleep for a week, but i could use my arm a 5 days after i broke it (i missed out on my year 7 camp, break your collarbone the day before school camp, means you dont have to go)

i was riding bmx again with in 4 weeks, just cruising

by 5 weeks everything seemed alright, went back to the specialist, said give it 3 more weeks before you start rugby and riding again

1 week later i was training for rugby, 2 weeks later playing another game of rugby, my collarbone was perfectly normal again

mine will heal faster than you, because im a child, children always heal faster than adults, we are just faster healer :D

if i was you, i would see a physiotherapist about it, get you doing some excersices, and rest up, dont try anything dumb, or the bone will never heal, and if its a break straight through the bone you might end up with a shorter shoulder

get well

cheers

By the way, i never had any operation, it just healed naturally

[®ider]

yep i broke my collar bone on the 2nd of january 2005, great way to start a new year.
I cleared a gap and then plowed staright into a tree, this was up in ballarat.
My collar bone is now bent 15 degrees from the normal and it has has 3 months healing already so im back on the bike tomorrow.

[BrumbyJack]

Gee, a lot has changed in almost 20 years!!!!!

I broke my collarbone in August 1985 ;) but I did mine downhill SKIING, not riding.....

I had long lasting problems after it healed and reading this stuff makes me realise probably why....

I had it in a sling straight away, it was in a bad position, they were threatening to send me to Canberra for surgery but I avoided that..... I just ended up with one collarbone about an inch higher than the other one.

I was swimming within a day of breaking it, just floating around in the heated pool at the lodge.... and was clowing around on skis teaching beginners as well, but wasn't doing anything serious.

I had no rehab or physiotherapy (they didn't bother with things like that 20 years ago) and it took 14 years to get full movement back in that shoulder... a trip to a rehab masseuse about another injury sorted my shoulder out.

I can see from my experiences that keeping some sort of movement going is essential to prevent your shoulder muscles from getting wrecked (mine did) but you need to keep the bones reasonably still so they can heal...

I think moderation is the key, as it is with most things.

Good luck Emerin.

[Mahoney_007]

WOW alot of busted collarbones. As they say it is the one of the easier bones to break.............. and one of the most painful.

Ive got to jump in to, even though mine didnt occur on a bike. Just an ordinary hip and shoulder playing footy but when I went down and connected with the ground something went "pop" and I was in some serious pain. Trip to the doctors and an xray later and its completely in 2. I need to find that xray its awesome.

Sling for about 4 weeks, minimal movement except for the stretching exercises I was giving, which hurt like hell, and 6 weeks later I was back swinging a baseball bat (footy season had finished).

I was only a youngen so that would of help the mending process.

[Juls]

Yeh I had a pathetic bike crash when I was 15.. just fell on the ground.. basically, arms out kinda deal.

4 weeks in a sling.. bout 2 weeks after that I was back to normal.

Juls

[Skin]

I am not a member of your club.. nor do i wish to be ....
done alot of others but,
it's the collar bone that i wish least to break .....
Hope they all heal up well...

[Acidman]

collarbones are great to break. i broke mine just before xmas. and since then i have rebroken it twice and rode at allschools for 2 days of dh with a broken collarbone i now regret that because my doc now wont let me back on my bike for months

[tim_69]

yeah i broke myn at the last you yangs dh race. were sopposed to be off the bike for like 2 mounths but while a had the sling on, me and a few friends made a double bike with mtb forks lol and bmx bars damn it was sweet. And yeah i sat on the back so i didnt have to liek steer n shit and yeah we did drops,stairs even drifted round some corner on a wet day. But then one day we were going about 35kms down this path with some different friend and lost control and HIT A TREE. I WENT OVER 2 HANDLE BARS and then hit a tree with a sling on. luckily i didnt hurt it that much more. And yeah im going to teh doctors tomorrow to get it cheacked up cos i dotn think it healed properly. yeah and i dont thinky all those rides in america helped it to when i went over there.

[Superman]

i broke mine last year

i wore the sling for most of the day, and took it off to sleep.
i wore the sling for about 4 weeks, then i could jump after 5 weeks, then after 6weeks i could ride well again.

getting out of bed the morning after i broke it hurt more than breaking it.

i still have a little lump.


oh and one thing i did learn in food tech at school, was that salt prevents cramping, so jamit, maybe you could go get yourself a couple bucks worth of chips down at the corner shop.