Learn Me Broken Collarbone

I've only got my left hand to type with, so I'll keep this short. I took a study break between finals papers today, and went for a bike ride.

Now I have three collar bones, a sling, and painkillers. I see the ortho on Monday.

What do I have to look forward to?

um.. ouch?

Difficulty sleeping for a while? I separated my AC joint a few years back and had to sleep in a chair for the first month or two.

Mighty impressive break. I have no advice never having broken my collarbone but damn that must hurt.

That'll buff out.

They say it's the easiest bone to break in the body, but every time I break a bone, it isn't my collar bone, so I find it to be increasingly inaccurate. My father, on the other hand, has only broken one bone in his body; 3 times over.

You're in for some suck. No real way to stabilize the break means a fairly painful road to recovery, FWIW.

YMMV.

Ouch. I wish you a speedy recovery.

I broke mine when I was nine. Were you also going over a sweet jump? It hurt. A lot.

Ouch. You certainly went all in on that one. Try to avoid the painkillers if possible.

Get better.

I broke mine when I was 14, also riding my bike. As said, no real way to stabilize it, so it sucks to sleep, shower, get dressed, eat... hell, basically anything.

Are they still using the figure-8 strap/sling, to hold your shoulders back? I hated it. It gets, uh, a bit funky, so be prepared to wash it regularly, since bathing yourself is a painful event.

I found laying on my back was about the only way to sleep.

When I broke mine, I had a couple of weeks before I quit reflexively doing stuff that hurt. Make sure you know precisely how far down any seats are before you start sitting down. Absolutely keep washing it, and start moving the arm the second the doc says its OK. I couldn't believe how much my range of motion was decreased in the couple months of healing. Sling off, I couldn't get my arm more than about ten degrees out from my side at first.

I broke mine almost exactly like that. Pretty sure you are going under the knife. I have 2 plates and 5 screws.

Hurts like hell.

I was on pain meds for 2 days. It was uncomfortable to sleep but I managed anyway.

In other words, surgery for 3 or 4 hours and then a couple weeks of downtime.

Get better soon!

You find out who your real friends are when you have to go to the bathroom. Is there a busted up bike in the classifieds?

Ouch! Better the collarbone than the noggin!!

Woohoo! Does it feel better after surgery? I don't really see a way around that, either. But I'm really looking forward to not having a displaced shoulder for the rest of my life.

914Driver wrote: You find out who your real friends are when you have to go to the bathroom. Is there a busted up bike in the classifieds?

Nope! Bike is pretty fine. Twisted the handlebars a bit, but fine otherwise

Holy ouch Batman!!

Hope it heals quick.

Mumbles to himself, keep both wheels on the ground at all times.

I predict: Someone's gonna be a whole lot more Metal. y0.

I don't see how you can avoid surgery with those fragments. I'd imagine it will be better once they get it reassembled. Use the painkillers as prescribed to keep comfortable this weekend so you can at least move around some. Plus we may be able to get some entertaining discussions going while you're loopy .

(Note, I'm not an ortho surgeon, nor did I stay at Holiday Inn)

Oh yeah, it feels awesome after surgery. That is my good shoulder area now.

It will be numb to the touch for months afterward.

I was in a racecar 3 months later (cleared by my doctor too!).

The pain afterwards is a constant dull ache for a few weeks. The side effects of the medicine was worse than the pain.

The worst part of the entire situation was the time between breaking and surgery. Everything was moving and binding. It made me sick to my stomach.

I had zero rehab when I was done.

Have you heard of the stranger?

Oh yea, if you get screws, they may protrude from the bones and push on the underside of your skin. It looks cool and doesn't hurt at all....

Unless you put a super heavy bag over that screw. Then it hurts. Or if somebody squeezes your shoulders.

Other then that, it is just a scar and a cool story!

All I can say is that you are lucky if you are getting surgery.

My collar bone didn't break, it shattered, so I couldn't even get surgery. I had to wear a figure-8 sling along with some sort of brace. Bathing is going to suck as is sleeping.

I hope to never break that bone again.

Jeez, I'm cringing just looking at that. I separated my shoulder, which is nowhere near the same, and now I just have a bump on my shoulder and pain/soreness sometimes, which the ortho I saw said would happen.

I wish mine had been bolted back together. Mine telescoped as it healed and now my left shoulder is about 3/4" narrower than my right. Annoying as crap and my shoulder geometry is all whacked. I understand that the doctors were more worried about my shattered leg at the time and relearning to walk, but I had no idea my shoulder would heal jacked up.

Go under the knife and have it bolted back together.

I'm betting that you Berkeleyed your labrum as well. Email me dzajano (at) Gmail or Davidz (at) national dot pca dot org and I'll give you the full multi paragraph response of what to expect. Let me know if you'd like to inherit the username.