Kelz

I performed an amazing impromptu jump yesterday while cycling in the country & landed on my shoulder. I've broken my clavical. Apparently this is a very common bone for cyclists to break. Anyone experienced this before? How long to heal?
Kelz.

BlazingPedals

Six weeks, if you're lucky. I had a friend whose bones refused to knit right, and ended up off his bike all summer.

Joe_Mo

I was recently cut off by a car and thankfully because i was wearing my helmet i only suffered a broken collar bone and some road rash. its going to take a lot longer than six weeks. I am just a bit over that mark now, my arm stills hurts. I cannot lift anything, and worst of all I'm out of my favorite hobby for a bit longer. How do you sleep? It was very tough for me, I sleep on my left side and thats the collar bone i broke. I had a hard time sleeping for a couple weeks until it healed enough and I found a comfortable position.

one last thing: keep it iced.

Kelz

Sleepin was tough last night but I'll survive. My helmet broke when my head hit the ground. I guess it could have been a lot worse. We did't wear helmets as kids! I'm gonna miss by bike for a while then.

Nermal

About 8 weeks for a bone to knit, quite a bit longer for normal use. Mine never really healed, and remains connected by a mass of cartlige. I would suggest at least a few sessions of physical therapy. I ended up with a frozen shoulder, which is not a good thing to have.

JanMM

That Armstrong fellow broke his collarbone about a year ago and was able to recover to the point of finishing 2nd in the TDF last summer.

ahsposo 

I've broken my right clavicle twice. I was back riding very slowly and carefully in about a month the first time. I was I some form and wanted to keep some of it so I bought a trainer. The discomfort I remember the most was my back muscles adjusting to a less wide frame.

Lance got a pin (and back on the bike quick) and my orthopedic guy thought it carried too much risk of infection and other problems. So it just knits in a big lump. But that lump is strong! Got hit by a car on the right side a few years later and the very end (I think it's called the process) was the place it broke.

Broken ribs are far more painful...

seawind161

Broke my collarbone in 1997 at age 50. The doc said it would be 5 weeks before I would feel like riding.

At 4 weeks I was still sore and beginning to have doubts, but that fifth week was amazing- at the end of it I got back on the bike with very little discomfort.

I did go back to the doc three weeks after the accident, with pain in the ribs. He said it was "soft tissue trauma". When it still hurt to cough or sneeze 10 days after that, they finally did x-rays and found 2 broken ribs- mostly healed by then.

Be patient, wear your sling, do whatever rehab they tell you to. Practice the mantra "Tuck and Roll". Use this time to catch up on your reading.

sknhgy 

I believe if you have surgery it heals much faster. I shattered mine and they put in a plate. Had to keep it in a sling for 6 weeks. No pain. Six weeks and one day and I was doing anything I wanted to.

umd

Not so much that it heals faster, but that since it is fixed in place you don't have to worry about the healing being interrupted by movement. When I broke mine my surgeon gave no restrictions on use, said that it was stronger than "new" and I could do anything "as pain allows." I was riding again a few days after surgery.

choc034

I broke my left clavicle in april last year in a collision with a lorry and required surgery to have an internal fixation (titanium plate and 5 screws). After the surgery my left arm was immobilised in a sling for 2 weeks. Immediately after surgery I nearly had full range of movement in my left arm. After 4 weeks I had full range of movement, but was unable to lift any weight. After lots of physio I returned to riding after 12 weeks. The plate did it job and the bone healed great, but the plate was starting to aggrevate my shoulder and was standing so proud you could actually see the shape of the plate through the skin. This was making riding uncomfortable and I was having pain shooting down my left arm.
A month ago I was back in hostpital getting the plate and screws removed. Amazingly this procedure was carried out, not with a general anesthetic like the first operation, which is what I was expecting, but a local nerve blocking injection to the left arm. The surgery went great, but very strange being awake. Again it was 2 weeks in a sling and physio. I was told by the consultant that it would take 6 weeks for the screw holes to heal. Now after 4 weeks I was out on my bike again for the first time on a short 10 mile ride and it went well with no problems. Its still early days, and I'll take it easy for the next couple of weeks building up the strength in my left arm, but things are looking good.

Dolamite02

Yeah, but he's got balls!

/too much?

DX-MAN

10-22-08, a day that will LIIIIIVE in my memory.

Locked up my front brake (couldn't feel the feedback from the gloves I was wearing in 34F), and dead-sailored off the bike onto head/R shoulder. Broke the c-bone in five places.

I got plated, closed up, and forbidden to ride for seven weeks. Seven weeks and one day, of taking ONE oxycodone a day for the pain, no sling (made the pain 5x worse), resting the arm on a couch pillow out away from my body -- seven weeks and one day, I was back on the bike. Sure, it ached. Didn't care.

But I took almost a year to get past a bit of 'unease' in hard right turns......

frisky99

Hello , we had a blow out up front on our tandem and went down breaking my wife's clavicle and scapula . She spent the whole hot summer with her arm strapped to her body since there was really nothing holding up her arm. After summer break she returned to teaching only to trip, and while protecting her damaged side ,broke her other collarbone. We picked up one of those Bike E's so she could at least get out on a bike trail. good luck

umd

Jeez, you guys need better doctors.