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Bummer, sorry to hear that.
"Multi-fragmentary fracture of the middle third of the shaft of the right clavicle. Mild displacement at the fracture site."
Means that it's broken into several bits at the point where it snapped, somewhere in the middle. Displacement means that the ends don't currently join up.
With displacements, they often recommend surgery to avoid you having a permanently wonky/shortened collar bone. I've broken mine twice and didn't have it the first time even though it was displaced, and never caused me any issues. If yours is mild they might not suggest it.
I got fully discharged today for my second break, 2 months after surgery. Glad I got the surgery as you stop worrying about how it's going to heal (mine was 4cm displaced), but it does take it out of you. If they are confident it will heal fine without it, not sure I'd recommend it. The plate is pretty gnarly and any surgery has its downsides.
In terms of recovery time, even with the surgery, they said stay off the bike for 8-12 weeks so will be a while, I'm afraid. I'm now on the other side and missed cycling a lot, but you get by. Good luck and get some good Kindle books (need 2 hands for a book) and some slip on shoes. You get used to sleeping on your back!
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abr
I joined the Clavicle Club during Thundercrit on Saturday. Spent 2 nights in Homerton Hospital thanks to other additional complications.
Haven't seen an x-ray but my discharge papers describe the break as "Multi-fragmentary fracture of the middle third of the shaft of the right clavicle. Mild displacement at the fracture site."
Can anyone translate that for me? Anyone suffered something similar?
I was told it's pretty clean break so they're not overly keen to plate it. Having done some reading, I'm definitely leaning towards pushing for surgery with my main motivation being recovery time (don't want to lose an entire summer of riding and racing just as the weather gets good!)
The Doctors weren't very communicative with me but my Fracture Clinic appointment is next Thursday so I guess I'll learn more then.
Sleeping is impossible due to discomfort. Having only one viable arm makes every task almost impossible. The pain is surprisingly mild though which is an unexpected up-side.
6 week sick-note from work helps too, though I imagine I'll go mad with boredom by then!