jonTu

So on the way home from racing the other night MikeT and I had an oncoming car take a quick left without slowing or signaling right in front of us. We managed to avoid hitting the car but both went down hard. I landed squarely on my left shoulder, causing what the ER diagnosed as a Type II/III AC separation. (I also have a bruise that is a clear imprint of my Speedplay pedal on my calf, which is pretty neat, and some less-neat road rash. Mike is fine, thankfully, aside from being out a set of Rolf's). Though I won't know the exact extent of my recovery time until I get a follow-up exam in a week, suffice it to say that this means time off the bike, probably 4-6 weeks. I find myself obsessing about working out, so even though I'm under doctor's orders to hold still for a week, I wanted to see if anyone had experience trying to maintain fitness after sustaining an upper body injury (especially a shoulder or AC injury). The resistance trainer seems like an obvious (if miserable) solution, as does some sort of stretching regime to maintain flexibility. Think I can run before I can get back on a bike? Maybe some kind of weight training at a gym? Obviously I'll run anything by my orthopedist before I do it, but any tips or tricks anyone out there who has been through this can suggest would be much appreciated.

2Tired2Shift

Be sure to do PT on the shoulder. You don't want to end up with a frozen shoulder like I've had for a year now. It sucks.

jonTu

Yeah, that sounds like it would suck, sorry to hear that. How does one wind up with that condition?

NoGaBiker

Had the exact same injury June 5, 2006. Type 3/4 AC separation. When I arrived at ER the doc's first question was did this happen on a bike? (I replied, well, no, technically it happened OFF a bike. )

Anyway, I got a sling. ER doc said go see an ortho in a week when the injury has calmed down. I did and he said I could try to get it back with PT, but chances were very good that I would need surgery. I asked if I could ride again in the meantime and he said "Sure, just don't fall off and land on this shoulder." Then he rethought it and said, "Actually, since you're prolly gonna need surgery anyway, I guess it would be okay to land on it. But I promise you won't enjoy it!"

I was riding again (in the hood, slowly) that afternoon (one week from injury). I basically could only drape my left hand on the hood and work the gears and brakes, but couldn't put any weight on the arm. But within a few weeks I was fine. In fact, I rode a 28-mile group ride 3 weeks after the crash, and continued to ride all summer. After a month of PT ( and I really worked hard every day on it) I realized I wasn't going to recover without surgery. So I scheduled it for December 12, a time I wouldn't be doing much riding anyway. (And I got excused from Christmas!!!)

The surgery was pretty brutal; doc took a tendon from a cadaver to replace the ligament I had destroyed, the one that holds the clavicle down where it belongs; without it the end of the bone is trying to pop up out of the top of your shoulder skin and hit you in the ear. It resulted in about a 1" high bump there before the surgery. Anyway, he came in with this tendon and tied it to some bone down inside me, wiring it up with wire. Then he looped it up over the top of the clav, and back down the other side, where he tied the other end after cinching it up tight. He said my body would take over the tendon and give it a blood supply so it wouldn't die. This was old fashioned, rip-a-big-gash-in-your-skin, non-arthrascopic butchery. But it worked.

I'm 7 months out now; started PT in January (did it at home, since I knew all the drills now.) He advised me no real weight lifting for 3 months, so I started back in March. I'm up to 130 pounds on the bench (I was pressing 230 before the accident, then nothing till the surgery.) I have full range of motion, but I get the feeling I'll never get full strength back. But I can sleep on my left side again for the first time in a year.

The surgery hurt like an SOB for 4 days, but I only popped Advil and Tylenol because I hate how the other crap makes me feel. It was also expensive (around 40k after everybody was paid), so I hope you have insurance.

If I had elected to not have the surgery I would have not been able to lift a gallon of milk up to shoulder level the rest of my life, probably. But I COULD ride!!

Best of luck,

Matt

jonTu

Thanks Matt, that's really encouraging to hear that you made it back on the bike so soon. I'm really hoping that this can heal without surgery, both because that sounds terrible and because I'm severely underinsured. Two days out my range of motion is returning (I can now apply deodorant to my right armpit with my left hand, great success) so hopefully my recovery won't be as difficult or costly as yours sounds like it was. I guess only time will tell, though.

OneArmedScissor

I also had an AC joint separation from riding a motorized scooter a few years back. It wasn't extremely severe, but I did crack that AC joint darn near in half.

I swore up and down I was fine to my family, but I was injured leaving a doctor's house and then came home to Dr. Dad and I was forced to get some X-rays. It didn't take a radiologist to see I broke the thing in half.

AC joints are pretty common to break for any athlete and it is pretty easy to recover. Like Jontu said, it takes a while to sleep on that side agian comfortably. I took a personal trainer specializing in injury to rebuild my tendon, but mine wasn't bad enough to require surgery, but itw as reccomended. I might still do it because I'd like to play tennis again and I did lose some range of motion.

The good news is it didn't keep me off of a bike!

idcruiserman

I got a grade II/III separation plus 2 broken ribs & concussion on Aug 31 riding home from work. It's killing me doing nothing, but I can't imagine riding my bike right now. I'm going to see a shoulder doc on Monday. I imagine surgery will not be recommended. I'm hoping the recovery will be quick.

Speedee

Ride a more upright bike, like a hybrid, with one hand. That’s what I did when I had a separation.

Machka 

I have the same shoulder injury. I crashed at the beginning of April, and I'm just now starting to feel some better. I was warned it would take about 6 months.

Of course ... I kept riding, which didn't help.

My physiotherapist basically told me to quit my part-time job (which involved a lot of repetitive heavy lifting), which I did, and to quit weight lifting, which I did, and he would have preferred that I take it easy on the cycling too ... which I didn't do.

Fortunately, with my injury, reaching forward was OK, so I could put my hand on the handlebars. And I've got a fairly upright position on my bicycle anyway. The thing I couldn't do was reach out to the side (so left turn signals were out) or behind me ... and that's what my physiotherapist worked on. I still don't have completely full range of motion back, but it is much better than what it was ... and I started sleeping on that side again about 6 weeks ago.

idcruiserman

I can't reach forward much, and definitely can't do it with weight. As much as I hate it I'm going to skip riding for a while. I'll do what I can in the gym, and try the stairmaster. I'm hoping I'll be able to ride in about 6 weeks.

bassplayinbiker

man I seperated my shoulder in a car wreck about a year and a half ago. Man that hurts. It still hurts me to this day. Not as bad as a broken collar bone, but I still suffer from the shoulder.

Rowdy

I dislocated my shoulder 13 times 20 years ago. I have tried every exercise out there to strengthen it and make it feel good nothing work until I started to do yoga. I now do the down dog yoga pose daily. I try to hold it for minutes at a time and it is the only exercise that has made my shoulder feel strong.

genejockey 

I have a Type III A-C separation myself, and yep, I got it riding a bike. When it happened, I was sure that I'd need surgery, but the Orthopedist said that unless you're on a throwing sport (which bicycling isn't, Bjarne Riis's tantrum in the 1997 Tour notwithstanding), the most effective treatment is nothing. Treat the pain with Vicodin, and use it normally when it stops hurting.

And 12 years later, his advice seems to be correct.

WRT training, I'd spend a few weeks on riding on a trainer, until your shoulder doesn't mind puttinbg both hands on the bars. Then get back on the road - that's what I did.

serpico7

Jeebus! At this point, what do you have to do to get it moving again?

info

i had my first wreck two weeks ago . I was going over an railroad crossing track. Part of the wooden tigh was worn out my tire hit it , i flip landed on the head ( Thank god for good helmuts ) then rolled over , landed on my elbow broke the ball joint . I do not need surgery But it hurts . I thought about getting an indoor trainer too . but i do not know too many lortabs right now . i did call csx rialroad made an claim . They said they wuld fix the crossing and turn over my injury to there insuracne ( but who knows what will happen)
Bike is ok , it laned on me
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