Clavicle Error - Broken Collarbone

ah well, it'll at least buy Bart some time to get that new bike built up.

Sorry to hear (same for you @M_V), last time I broke mine was this time last year and it sucks a bit to be broken at this time of the year, but patience is key. Try to avoid letting the frustration get the best of you, focus on the opportunities "time off the bike" gives you and find the positives in that if you can.

back on the turbo in two weeks, back on the road in 2 months

That's my experience with both plates I had put in, it will heal quite fast (once the surgery swelling is gone) to the point you will have to refrain yourself from gaining confidence too quickly. Probably back on the bike even in 6w if you're confident and progressing well.

Eat well, collagen and calcium rich food, rest up, stay in the sun as much as you can. This all helps with bone healing. Stay on top of physio and start as soon as you can.

I did my first plate through NHS and second privately (through work insurance), if going with NHS make sure you're on top of it and chase for follow up appointments/Xrays. Same for Physio.

I broke mine around 3-4 years ago now, and gave up trying to get the plate removed after chasing the NHS for 2 years (Pandemic, so fair enough)

I no longer have any pain or irritation caused by the plate, which is nice, but should I be concerned about it causing issues in later life?

Probably more to do with the fracture and how well you have recovered from it (is your back aligned? are your muscle well balanced around it?), but generally a plate should mean your skeleton is more aligned than a fracture healed without a plate and a possible shorter shoulder.

My understanding is that the plate can stay there indefinitely if it doesn't bother you. It does have complications should you fall hard on the same shoulder as it stiffens up your collarbone in an unnatural way, therefore making it stronger, meaning you might injure somewhere else, like at the shoulder joint, which is more troublesome or at the edge of the plate.

I got my first plate in 7y ago, had it removed less than a year later as I was going backpacking for a year and I didn't want it to bother me somewhere remote. I then needed a second plate in (same collarbone) last year and for the moment I am thinking of not removing this one.

The second one is also more subtle, thinner and less prominent, that depends a bit on your case and what type of reduction they did.

Yours looks nice and neat from that x-ray but yeah I hear they settle in different places and will just heal like that. I've got a considerable outcropping into my skin, there's little white spots where there's tension like a tent.

I was on 10mg co-dydramol which kept me nice and numb but i'm now not really on anything. It's really uncomfortable first thing in the mornings but just a general ache throughout the day now. I did instinctually try to reach for a falling phone the other day and that floored me for about 20 minutes.

@MrBaklava He might use this as an excuse to put it on the back burner which is understandable tbf.

@giofox Yeah happened last monday in which the following 6 days were the hottest most consistent sun we've had so far this year. Nightmare.

I've heard the speed of recovery after surgery has been really surprising for most people. Will hold back on the skids for a while longer in that case. I heard a nasty story of a pothole impact essentially re-fracturing a semi-healing bone. Awful.

I've semi signed myself back on to work but now i've got the visual of how bad the x-ray is I don't know what I was thinking.

I've semi signed myself back on to work but now i've got the visual of how bad the x-ray is I don't know what I was thinking.

No to this. Rest up laying flat (away from precariously balanced phones), hold the arm on a pillow and do nothing until 2w after the surgery. I do a desk job and holding the arm up for that long was the hardest to come back to. Would not want to displace/tear up muscles with that split bone chip in there.

Yeah, I think mine broke nearer the end than most do. Dunno what that means for healing.

I'm not seeing any signs of tension like you have, it's just noticeably a different shape but so is the wrist I broke 2o odd years ago.

I took cocodamol at first but got to three days and stopped, doc has said the three day thing is really just because it's available over the counter and he's prescribed me some more.

Not sure if it's something you'd be into but I picked up some CBD gummies from Holland and Barrett, I'd been thinking of getting some for a while as I sometimes don't sleep so good due to general back/shoulder/neck pain, anyway, took a couple about an hour before going to bed last night and got the best sleep I've had since my break.

When I took my sick line in to my work they were angling at getting me back sooner just to do some coaching (normally I'm doing mechanic duties and handing out hire bikes which means lifting them on and off hooks on the wall) which I might think about but definitely not before my next hospital appointment.

Hows everyone's healing going?

I got xrayed on Friday, Doc said no signs of it healing yet which I didn't like the sound of but he seemed to think was ok. He was also happy with my range of movement and that I've been using the arm a good bit.

No more sling, cleared to drive, but, told to wait till 6 weeks post break to start cycling again...Mother. Fucker.

When he said "drive" he didn't specify car so took the motorbike out today and that was fine. Pretty sure I'll be back cycling quicker than 6 weeks.

I had one similar to yours, started physio at 3 weeks, back to full strength (rock climbing) by ~10, but definitely cycling by 6.

There's been no chat of physio yet actually. I got a booklet of exercises, a newer version of which I'd already found on some other nhs board's site and I have a phsyio that I goto for other stuff though so I'll probably pay for a few sessions with him rather than waiting for a referral.

That's reassuring that you were back to climbing by about ten weeks.

Been a bit panicked that I'm doing too much with mine but while I'm getting muscular/tendon type pain it's not much beyond that.

Yeah, I went private after the consultant said I "wouldn't need to do any physio"

Amazing, good to hear you're confident enough to be out on two wheels, I couldn't imagine that with mine right now, can still feel the distinct separate bits of it pulling weirdly, actually getting more aches and pain twinges than before, guessing it's healing and setting weird

3 weeks since that crash today and no clue on my surgery date yet, I keep calling my doctor's secretary and she just says wait for next people to call me (who don't have a contact number). The NHS website says that average wait times for orthopaedic surgery at Kings college is 17 weeks which is an unbelievably miserable number.

I'm going to look into getting my GP to potentially refer me to another hospital with lesser wait times. I've briefly googled it and seen that it could be an option.

17 weeks, it should have healed itself in a third of that time. Just look after it for another three weeks.

Yeah exactly, realised that after I thought about it for a second, but I’m guessing I wouldn’t wait that long as the doctor wouldn’t have said ‘let’s do surgery’ if they thought I’d wait longer than the time it takes to heal on its own?

Mine had a reasonable level of strength after 5 weeks. If you keep that arm in use, but gentle use, you should retain most of the muscle mass too and not need physio.

Mine (2017) took a long time to heal but it was plated straight away (seeing as it was in three bits with a floating piece in there). I explored having the plate removed a few years later but the consultant didn't think it would be either easy to do or worthwhile. It aches occasionally in wet weather and it doesn't like having my daughter lean on the plate but otherwise I don't really notice it. Good luck with all your healing everyone.

Surgery booked for tomorrow, first time under general. Getting up to eat before 7am is gonna be a stretch.

That's good, did you get a referral to another hospital then?

Mine was killing me last night, maybe it's because I googled non-union and was reading all about bone grafts and stuff 🤮 lol. Might actually have been the metalwork, turbo, running and furniture shifting I've been doing over the last few days though! Back to taking it easy today.

Got a call yesterday morning from Kings, no idea how the scheduling for this stuff works but no one I spoke to seemed to know, I guess they don't want to put any kind of date or timeline in your head just in case it falls through?

Will you be having some more x-rays to check the healing soon? I'm not actually sure technically what mine even is, there's more paperwork going to greggs.

Will you be having some more x-rays to check the healing soon?

Yeah...ish.

Nothing's ever simple!

I live in Glasgow but the accident happened in Perthshire on a sunny Friday so instead of coming back to Glasgow to sit with 101 drunken arseholes in a Glasgow A&E I went to Perth Infirmary so my 'case' if you will, started in the Tayside health board.

This meant it was Tayside that sent the appointment for my follow up so it was at Ninewells (Dundee).

My GP in Glasgow said he'd try to get me an outpatient appointment here but that realistically it would be unlikely to be in good time so if I hadn't heard by the time the Ninewells one came round, to go to it. Which hadn't, so I did.

The doc in Dundee said he'd want to see me back at the end of July but we kind of agreed that instead of going to Dundee again we'd try and get this sorted for Glasgow since there was a bit of time in which to do it. Of course, when I got home from Dundee there was a letter waiting telling me I had an appointment in Glasgow on Monday coming which is pretty late as that'll be well over 3 weeks after the break.

I've tried to push that appointment back to the end of July but of course you don't actually get to speak to someone in the orthopeadic dept who can understand and do that, you speak to admin staff in a central booking office who tell you all they can do is generate a new appointment. So who knows when that'll be.

However, despite the doc in Dundee saying he wouldn't bother making me an appointment up there, I've been sent one, for the start of July!

It sounds like I'm whinging about the NHS which I'm really not, they're fantastic, it's just frustrating that you want to do something efficiently but you can't because of the layers of bureaucracy.

I'm pretty tempted to just dinghy trying to get seen in Glasgow and just travel through to Dundee again because it was really quick and efficient there last Friday. Plus, I mean, me travelling to Dundee is probably like you travelling what, half way across London?!

Jesus, hell of a commute that is. I’m guessing the busier hospitals in bigger cities would love ship people out to places with more capacity but that probably ends up being more work put on a stretched workforce than just having some on a waiting list longer?

I’m also confused about what procedures that estimated 17 week estimated wait time is for? Considering a collarbone is probably really low down on the list I’m not sure how I’ve snuck in within 3 weeks? No point in doing it after 5-6 weeks I guess. Could be that it’s quite routine so more surgeons are able to do it?

I’m off to the hospital now, hopefully the surgeon gets creative with the stitching, maybe a few waves or a cross hatch pattern would be nice.

Best of luck, hope it all goes well for you.

An appointment in Glasgow for the 12th July has come in today so that’s pretty good.

Think surgery went well but apparently the surgeon had gone home before I woke up and didn't hand over a report so who knows if the bones now in the right place or he's installed an extra pocket or something.

I didn't do the countdown from 10 which was disappointing, just passed out mid small talk about cycling. Felt great as I regained consciousness still flowing with morphine I guess, had a coffee, three custard creams, was offered more. Got back home and was basically having a massive comedown all evening, horrible.

Back to normal now though apart from numbness around the shoulder which should go in a few days. Starting the physio now and it really hurts making my arm straight, 4 weeks in 90 degree bend will do that I suppose.

Joined the gang yesterday. Haven't seen my x-rays or been told anything other than someone will phone me in a couple of days to discuss next steps. Sent home with a sling and a couple different pain killers after a 5 hour wait in a&e

oh fuck! heal up Phil