Clavicle collarbone experience wanted
 

I crashed hard on my way to work Monday and broke my collar bone. It's completely broken so that the ends overlap. Oddly, it's not that painful, but the crash certainly hurt. I'm told the body will miraculously put the two ends of my collarbone back together and become strong.

Question: How much movement can the area take before the healing process is hindered?

I have a sling to stabilize the arm on that side, but all day long I am clambering in and out of uncomfortable positions in bed, bustling about my apartment doing dishes, bathing, driving, rearranging, sitting, cooking, etc etc etc...

I don't see how my sling could be preventing much movement in the area given all my activity. Am I supposed to be diligently sitting quietly waiting to heal even if I'm not in extraordinary pain?
I try to be gentle but the circumstances of my life seem stacked against this.

Anyone been through this and can tell me if the bone will just heal anyway or am I setting myself up for surgery without knowing it?

I knew someone that had the same type of injury. She kept moving about and the bones wouldn't heal correctly. She eventually had three operations to insert pins to keep the bones together so they could heal. You want to avoid as much movement as possible and consult with your primary health care provider.

Oh yeah, if it doesn't heal correctly, they must break it again. I don't think the 2-3 weeks of staying as immobile as possible is worth all that.

My neighbor broke his in a crash at the start of last summer when some kids thought it would be fun to put branches across the opening of a dark tunnel we ride through. The doctors put him in a sling and told him it would heal and if it didn't, they'd do the surgery. It was completely snapped in half and it wasn't fun to wear the sling but he managed. He didn't ride at all for the summer (he tried after about a month - the pressure caused too much pain) but he was back out running within a week or so and managed just about everything except riding and paddling. I understand the pain of a snapped clavicle is pretty horrible, though, so much sympathy on all fronts...

Two summers ago (1st week of August) I broke my collarbone, left shoulder, on a failed at speed MTB log jump. I spent time in a sling and rode the trainer to keep the legs in some sort of shape. By mid September I was able to ride a bit and draw my bow with no pain/problem. I have had no problem since.

Two funny things though. First, I figured I'd ride back to the trail head. When I got there I did not unclip on one side, your guess which one. My wife was impressed! Second, quote from the emergency room doc "Two Percosets to go." That is not something you hear every day.

Wear the sling, take your meds, drink milk. It will heal.

Best of Luck,

Lee

First, if you haven't done so already go see an orthopedic doctor. Some clavicle breaks can be severe enough to cause internal bleeding or nerve damage.

Aside from surgery, usually doctor will give/prescribe a figure-8 type brace; fits over the shoulders and kinda pulls your shoulders back for support. It really helps !!

I've had both clavicles break on two different cycling mishaps. In one instance, my clavicle was broken in 2 places.

Using the brace I was able to ride a few weeks later. However, sharp turns in direction of clavicle break would hurt much like a pulled muscle. Climbing would do the same as you tend to pull up on bars.

Doc said no lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for first 10 days of injury.

While recovering from own broken collarbones, it was easier to put on a button-down front short-sleeve shirt as opposed to t-shirts or golf-type shirts. You just gotta manage/take it a bit easy thru, at least, week one of injury.

I broke mine falling off a horse when I was 18 or 19. The only thing I had a problem was that I lived in a dorm with a loft, and had to climb a ladder to get into bed. It's my understanding that healing time depends on where on the bone you broke it, because of the way ligaments attach to it, and which move the bone.

Ouch! I feel for you. I broke my left one totally in half just like yours about 10 years ago. It was broken front-to-back. Mine was very painful though. The ER doc gave me a sling and said "just let it heal". I saw a orthopedic surgeon a few days later, and he the same thing. The sling was way too uncomfortable so I did not wear it. I slept in the living room recliner for a week and tried not to move it any. I had to be waited on hand-and-foot during that time. Could not even take a shower!

Anyway, after that week the bone knitted somewhat and I had to be careful for a while. Was back on my commute ride in a month. It healed up very well.

So my advice is to be careful not to move the arm and by all means, don't lift it above shoulder height!

Heal up soon!

I broke my left collarbone playing touch football when I was 15--my "friends" tackled me hard and it popped.

I wore the figure 8 brace described above for quite awhile, with button up shirts.

What hurt was when the doctor put the brace on and cinched it tight. Ouch!

Your doctor hopefully will recommend the treatment that is best for you. In some cases, doctors recommend surgery to pin the bones in place. In other case, they determine that the figure 8 brace is enough.

I broke my collar bone when I was about 16 in a dirt biking accident, similar to your typical cycling accident -- that is, I flew over the handlebars and landed on my shoulder. The doctor didn't recommend surgery in my case and I wore a figure 8 brace for a couple months. It all seemed to heal just fine, although I still have a small bump where the collar bone broke. Whether they pin the break or not depends on the severity of fracture.

I dislocated my sterno-clavicular joint ( SCJ ) almost ten years ago, in a car accident. My friend, driving, hit a patch of black ice, and the car flipped onto its passenger side. My 'friend' wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and I broke his fall, but the impact did something like what you describe to my SCJ. When I managed to get myself out of the car, I was in shock; the car was damaged, and it took three days to get home.

I did some things I shouldn't have in retrospect - lifting, mostly - but this got painful pretty quickly. After the shock wore off, I couldn't lift a cup of water because of the pain.

They gave me a sling, and steroid shots into the joint. Once the doctor explained what was going on to me, I was pretty diligent about not moving it. That meant being sedentary for a long time, which was very difficult. But I sleep on my sides, and that probably wasn't for the best ... it's also not something I could change.

Now, you almost wouldn't know that anything had happened, although every now and then the joint "pops" and it's not comfortable. I'm able to ride a bike, paddle a kayak, etc. Push ups noticeably stress the joint even after all these years, though.

Thanks so much, everybody, for your replies. Very helpful.

You might appreciate the article from the American Family Physician. This is a peer-reviewed journal that is generally well-written. There are some good drawings and a useful discussion of the mild controversy over figure-of-eight vs. sling.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2008/0101/p65.html