[Closed] Broken Collarbone, slow healing

I feel your pain...it's 2 years ago today I broke mine at a sportive roadie event! Pain off the scale. It was a relatively 'clean' break right in the middle of my right clavicle (I'm right handed too)...I was in a sling for 6 weeks but a lot longer than that before I felt comfortable. September before I was very gingerly back on the bike by which point any fitness I had had buggered off. Still hesitant now with anything that's 'crashy' and involves getting wheels off the ground. You'll get there eventually but be prepared for the long haul...healing vibes and good luck.

yup. almost a year here before i stumped up and went private for it plating.

Basically if its not healed in 6 weeks it wont without them doing some kind of bone graft / roughing it up. It may connect with fibrous material over the coming months tough.

time to look at other things im afraid

Been there got the tshirt.
Broke my left clavicle last July.
No signs of healing, eventually operated on in September.
Even after the op it was slow to heal.
Last xray was a couple of months ago and there was still a small crack visible.
Still getting pain from it but strength is coming back and almost have full movement.
Think most of the pain was caused by nerve damage during surgery and tendon damage from not being able to move my arm for months on end.
Still doing physio every day but slowly getting there.
The good news is I'm able to ride again and don't really think about it when I'm on the bike.
It might be a long road to recovery but just try and stay upbeat and keep chipping away at it.
Feel free to PM me if you want any advice or just someone to talk to about it.
I got pretty depressed about the whole thing at some points.

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I would say hang fire for a few more weeks if it looks like you have decent alignment. surgery is not always the best answer and comes with its own risks

Well this thread makes grim reading.

- Tomhoward, who broke his collarbone 2 weeks ago, and is hoping to race in 5, having been to see Jedi in 3.5.

Stu, i am surprised yours wasn't operated on straight away, looks quite far apart. Mine is very close together but he checked and no real pain at break point just pain from surrounding muscles. I don't get any clicking with it but shoulder is still stiff but physio is helping with that.
Don't fancy an op as the last one took ages to get back to normal.

Bust my left Clavicle 6 weeks ago today, if there is a plus to that I'm right handed.

I did a half decent job apparently as it broke into 4 bits, one of which was a bit pointy (upwards) but nothing that the consultant was too worried about, as the alignment wasn't overlapping or out too much and assured me that natural healing as opposed to a plate was a better option for me.

I would say hang fire for a few more weeks if it looks like you have decent alignment. surgery is not always the best answer and comes with its own risks

^^^^ This is basically what the consultant said when I asked about surgery. She then went on to explain a little, but to be fair I was offered the full on consultation, which I declined (for now at least) I said if it doesn't heal as you plan or I'm in pain then it's an option I would like to discuss in more details.

So far, 4 weeks in a sling, then second lot of Xrays 2 weeks ago which look promising and I stopped using the sling then. I go back in another 2 weeks for another check up/Xray and I'm confident it'll be ok as it's not giving me any jip. Yeah, it still aches a bit but I'm not sure if that's the healing or if its the injury and I've got a lump on my shoulder. Bruising has gone from dark purple to a lighter shade and the area is getting smaller.

I'm heading out on the bike for the 1st time tomorrow night, albeit along the canal for 10 miles and back again, defo no dickin about. Then I'll see how I feel on Friday, as that will determine what/if I ride at the weekend.

Healing vibes to all

Had similar, broke my collarbone in 3 or 4 bits a couple of years ago, was told it was healing well and had movement back at the 6 week point, went back 3 months ago due to issues i'd been having to be told i have a non-union and a mal-union and will require surgery to fix, as well as a bone graft from my hip, good thing is it's not desperate so can delay surgery for a while.

I'd definitely ask if this is now classed as a non-union, many things can cause this, but it'll just rumble on for a while if it is.

Broke mine 4 weeks ago, however it stayed aligned and no surgery required.

The bone itself doesn't cause any discomfort from what i can tell.

However the ligaments around the collarbone hurt a lot, starting to gets things moving i have no idea on the how long it will take for that pain to settle down.

All very much depends if it's knitting together.

My vertebrae took some time to 'fill in' where needed, but one is now a wedge shape rather than square as I lost the bone - it just shattered after I came out of hospital after over 6 weeks.

If it's not knitting together, then it may need plating. Pretty common from what I know, and certainly people I know that's busted collar bones.

It took about 3 months (summer gone) till I grew a nice lump across the break and it clicked for ages after too.

Painkillers and coffee and other nice things are apparently not beneficial to healing time.
Diet plays an important part in rebuilding, would recommend looking into it.

I only took a pill when I really needed to sleep well which is also really important.
plus I dont much like prune juice...

Hope you have a complete and swift recovery.

Basically if its not healed in 6 weeks it wont without them doing some kind of bone graft / roughing it up. It may connect with fibrous material over the coming months tough.

Don't 100% agree with this

Mine took a fair amount of time to even start showing healing, but just as I was starting to get properly pissy about the mixed messages from consultants and slow healing time, they took yet another X-Ray which showed the beginnings of new bone formation.

I thought it was 6 months until I was back on bike but actually Veloviewer shows me it was only 10 weeks! and I spent a lot of that time on turbo trainer.

I had surgery on mine when I broke it(first time) was back on bike after 6 weeks. Broke it a second time(broke at end of plate 🙁 ) that thankfully healed quick with a sling.

Give these guys a call, not sure how much impact it'll have late on but early treatment certainly has given me very good healing and I've been back riding on road in 2-3 weeks and off road 4-5 weeks. They work with all sorts of high impact sports injuries, moto x, Moto gp, horse riders etc at the highest levels. I'm in sheffield but still totallyworth a trip to ipswich.
physioclinic.net

These threads come up pretty often don’t they. Lots of advice. Not sure I’d follow all of it. Be guided by your consultant…
6 weeks is early days and there will be nothing on the X-ray

When I broke mine I opted to let it heal without surgery- less time off work. Finally felt confident riding off toad 6-8 months after. That may have been shorter with plating.

As per robster - no rush - six weeks is nothing in terms of fracture healing. Treatment of clavicle fractures is probably one of the most controversial topics in orthopaedics.

No good evidence that surgery is better than non-op for most fractures, and a source of major debate.

Most important thing is a good discussion about the pros and cons with whoever is treating you based on your circumstances and your injury as not two injuries/patients are the same.

(In the orthopaedic trade but not in the collar bone trade)

I went to see the physioclinic linked to above.
Didn't help my recovery at all.

Jet26, Had a good chat when it broke first of all 3 months ago about the hook plate but as it was so close together it didn't really need it they said. I guess i'll have to wait and see what happens but its just frustrating. Maybe i should take up golf instead of biking......

Ouch. I broke mine into 4 pieces in Morzine a couple of years ago. The doctor in the UK wanted to leave it to heal but the French doctors were pretty insistent it needed an operation. I went for the op and I’m very glad I did when I read threads like this. I was on the operating table 20 hours after the crash. I was back on a bike in 3 weeks (rather gingerly!) and riding properly again in 5 weeks for a cross-Iceland MTB expedition. I have had zero problems with the shoulder. My ribs took months to stop hurting though!! The impression I got is that there is a reluctance to operate in the UK and the norm is to let it heal naturally. That may be fine in many cases but as shown by some of the comments above it sometimes doesn’t work or takes much, much longer than it needs to. Maybe give it a little bit longer as 6 weeks is still a fairly short time, but don’t keep getting fobbed off if it’s not healing and don’t discount an op if it’s needed. Good luck.

I broke mine in the early weeks of January. Bloody hell did it hurt!! You have all my sympathies.
I guess it took until early May before I was feeling back to normal. That said I was cycling the roads (but taking it very easy) after a couple of months.
Everyone seems to react / respond differently. I heard stories of guys getting back on their bike within days, others took a year. I don't think three months is a long time. Perhaps in another three months I'd start thinking about other options.
I went back to hospital a couple of weeks ago, as the 'sharp' end of mine wants out of my shoulder! I can't carry a rucksack, camera, even the strap of my bib shorts is uncomfortable. The consultant wants to wait another couple of months to allow callus to develop and see if it calms down.
This is the x ray 5 months after injury.

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Yosemitepaul to me that looks like it needs an op with that overlap. So they plan to leave it like that and they think it will heal?

I'm convinced the "it will get better on its own" line is just to fob you off and hope you dont come back.

Currently lying in hospital after having my multiple broken clavicle plated this morning.

Robholland.I think it is all connected back together now, pain is virtually nil (perhaps when sleeping on my side) and movement is back to 95% + of what it once was. My only issue now is the bone wanting out! If it doesn't heal up they're intending shaving the top bit off to make less of a spike.

My oldest last crashed after his pedal hit a stump and he detached the collar bone at the outside end. It ended up sitting over an inch higher than where it used to be attached.

They never operated and it was a very protracted recovery that left him with a muckle lump sticking up and a dropped shoulder. They did however say it would have been better for him to have broken the bone as it would have been an easier heal.

I’m convinced the “it will get better on its own” line is just to fob you off and hope you dont come back.

Tbh that’s kind of how I felt at minor injuries, nurse very matter-of-factly said after the X-ray ‘Right, you’ve broken your collar bone, wear this *hands me sling* for 6 weeks and it will heal on its own. You don’t need to come back.’ She seemed pretty put out when I asked her for something a little more potent than paracetamol. Got 5 days of codeine. Fingers crossed…

Did mine 7 years ago and it never fully fused so I have a non union joint.
No pain from it and perfect range of movement. I put that down to being told only to wear sling for one week then to use it as normally as possible after that. Had two consultations in Canada when it happened and another when I got home. All three said waiting was best option. Was given a years open appointment on nhs but never went back after 3 month check. Have a weird lump but don’t regret not going for surgery.

Clubby do you still do everything you did before it broke?
I’ve got bit of a frozen shoulder it seems, I think keeping it in the sling for to long wasn’t great.

With the non-union and malunion on my collarbone the issue i have is that it's meant that it's set shorter than before, and my shoulder blade potentially is slightly out of position now, causing some issues with range of motion at the extremes, if i was in my 20s i'd be getting the op, but in my 40s now the loss of a bit of strength and motion isn't as problematic as it could be, so just awaiting it causing further issues, or falling off an breaking the clavicle again!

Biggest things i noticed was that push ups were just not good to do anymore, felt like i'd break after a few, same with dips, a few exercises just went out the window, so i kind of knew what the limits were.

I’m convinced the “it will get better on its own” line is just to fob you off and hope you dont come back.

Well you would be wrong on that. As above:
Most clavicle fractures heal well on their own without surgery
surgery carries risk that you do not get without surgery. Both the immediate risks of surgery and pain and discomfort from the break and worst off all infection in the bones. A significant number who get it plated need the plate removed later

Its a subject of much debate in the medical journals

My personal preference is for a figure of 8 support not a collar and cuff

My experience (I'd be seriously dischuffed with some of the outcomes above!);

Day 1 - OTB on the MTB, x-ray shows broken clavicle, packed off home with some ibuprofen
Day 3 - Fracture clinic, consultant was 50/50 on operating but this was my preference as 6+ weeks in a sling was a non-starter. He agreed
Day 5 - Plated and a bio-ligament fitted
Day 9 - On the turbo
Day 13 - On the rollers
Day 16 - Riding on the road
Day 30 - Back on the MTB
Day 60 - Racing CX

Granted I looked after myself and did a lot of work in terms of exercises, recovery and so on but the idea of being basically incapacitated for months is madness. I have no issues at all now beyond one specific rucksack strap rubbing the top of the plate. That's 7 years on.

Yeah, I don't think anyone in the NHS is preventing clavicle operations in young active (working!) people for penny-pinching. In fact, surgeons generally like operating so might sway towards that if there's equipoise in the evidence of risk / benefit.

The trouble is that surgeons are variable, and injuries are so variable it's almost impossible to compare treatment plans effectively.

Anecdotally, I had surgery on a clavicle fracture but I had, I think, bad advice post-op and wasn't back to riding as quickly as I perhaps could have been (I left it 2-3 months or so and ended up missing a summer of riding including a planned Alps trip).

@robholland yeah, I really don’t think about it. Hasn’t affected anything I do on the bike or in the gym. No problems throwing a toddler around like daft dads are supposed to do.

Biggest problem I see is the attitude of places like this where if you’re not back riding again with 12 hours then there’s something wrong. You’ve broken your body and you need to give it time to heal. As TJ mentions, chances are if you get it plated you’ll need to have it removed at some point, usually when you’re a lot older and surgical outcomes aren’t as good.

Biggest problem I see is the attitude of places like this where if you’re not back riding again with 12 hours then there’s something wrong.

Easy for you to say but I was unable to work for 6 months unable to ride for 9 and lost my job because of it.
I fondly look back at lying on the floor thinking that's broken but it's OK I'll be riding again in 12 hours. Idiot.

BTW they have told me my plate is now a permanent fixture of my body.

The trouble is that surgeons are variable, and injuries are so variable it’s almost impossible to compare treatment plans effectively.

This.

Personally - simple break with good alignment? figure of 8 and wait 6 weeks at least before worrying about slow healing. Multiple breaks or poor alignment? Plate

Pros and cons? No surgery = simpler quicker healing but more chance of poor alignment
Surgery -Everything is held in place so your arm is quickly usable ( but its not healed fully) good alignment But - risks of surgery, healing time from the surgery, plate may need to be removed ( but it may not)

all medicine is inexact - its not a science. Its about opinions and skills not facts.

Just my experience...

broke my clavicle and scapula descending to Sa Calobra in Mallorca in October 2019, a switchback and a front wheel loss of traction and I hit the deck shoulder-first with my hands still on the bars before I'd really realised what had happened.

I was ambulanced and spent possibly the most miserable night of my life in hospital with my arm not actually attached to the rest of my skeleton*, then they operated the next day and put a plate into my clavicle and discharged me the day after.

I flew home a day later and went to the Fracture Clinic at my localy hospital, saw an excellent registrar who winced at the big line of staples holding my op site together and told me I'd have been better off pouring myself onto a plane and coming home for the op rather than letting "a rural butcher" do it! But he assured me that the clavicle is "just a strut" and as long as the joint is undamaged and the bone ends up the right length and in more or less the right place, it should have no ongoing problems.

A private physio session was almost witchcraft - so much mobility returned as she "unlocked" the muscles spasmed together after the crash that I was astounded.

The recovery was painful, as you all know, but it passed and I was back on a bike tenatatively after about 10 weeks, just commuting very cautiously.

The ongoing problem was that the plate was on the upper-outer edge of my chest, in exactly the right position to cause discomfort when I wore a seatbelt or a rucksack for any length of time. I had a fracture clinic follow-up appointment a year after the break and mentioned this and the surgeon told me it wouldn't be a problem to operate and remove the plate.

Covid set that date back, but a couple of months ago I had the op to remove the plate (and the surgeon "tidied up" the original site and removed a lot of lumpy scar tissue where he said the previous guy had just cauterised everything together on the way out!). Within a couple of days my mobility was more or less as it was before and now it really feels great. Apart from a whacking great scar, the odd twinge of pulling sensation and some localised skin numbness, I'm back to the mobility and strength I had before the op.

However, I know that I've been a) lucky with my healing and b) very privileged to be able to have a "non-essential" op on the NHS. I was advised to take calcium and vit D supplements both times after the operations, which _may_ help with bone healing if your diet is deficient.

*OK, maybe a little dramatic, but after attempting to remove bib shorts and have a shower while my arm flopped uselessly and excruciatingly around by my side, even the gentle night nurses and Tramadol drip did not make the night any more bearable.

EDIT: attempted to upload a photo of the healed scar, but I think the proportion of skin in the picture may have triggered the NSFW filter on the hosting site!

Sorry to hear that @singlespeedstu but no need to be calling me an idiot.
There’s a definite view here of “just” get it plated, without consideration of the consequences of at least one general anaesthetic and possible long term nerve damage and need for long term rehab. Unfortunately your own experience with nerve pain backs up my decision not to go down the surgical route. Hope the recovery keeps going well.

@clubby, I think singlespeedstu was calling *himself* an idiot for lying on the floor thinking he'd be OK after a few weeks...!

Pieere - thats a very good example of the difference between a good and a not so good surgeon and some of the issues with surgery - but your final outcome seems very good

Yes, I was very lucky!

Edit: can't get the image to work - again! Oh well, https://ibb.co/M18Z8rN if you want it!

there’s a definite view here of “just” get it plated

Not from me there's not.
There's nothing i would have liked more than it healing on it's own, not loosing my job and being off the bike for nine months
After three months of waiting for it to heal I had no choice.
I don't think anyone would really "want" an operation if it could be avoided.
Looking back though I wish they had offered it me at the six week stage when I started to ask about it.
Instead I got the runaround and fob off treatment...
I only got offered the op after I asked for a second opinion at a different hospital.
As others have said the hospital couldn't wait to kick me out the door and wouldn't even give me any painkillers.
As for the idiot comment it was aimed both ways.

Will be 4 months at the next 6 week x ray I get. I could go private to see what someone else thinks, might save some time. But the private shoulder specialist/ surgeon is also the same surgeon that the nhs use so might be same outcome. Not sure if he was consulted though, might be worth a appt to see what he thinks but don’t fancy spending loads without private insurance.

Rob.
Have you asked them about the op?
I'd be pushing for a second opinion at four months.
Might gee them up a bit, certainly did with me.

4 months I would be pushing hard. Infact I wouldn't have left it that long. basic private opinion and scans etc is not ridiculous money. surgery is

I asked at every check Up to see if it needed an op, mostly due to worrying about it but cause it’s so close together they didn’t think it did. Plus the type of fracture at the end they said can take longer and even with surgery can take same time.