Viewing 28 posts - 1 through 28 (of 28 total)
  • Broken Collar Bones – Experiences
  • hando
    Free Member

    OK, so I broke my collar bone about 10 weeks ago, and when I seen the x-ray the two ends of the bone were pretty far apart. low and behold 10 weeks later the bone hasn’t joined.

    I’m being advised by the consultant that this isn’t a big issue and that his recommendation is to leave it as it is. This sounds a bit counter intuitive to me.

    I’m not getting any significant pain, still getting some though. Range of movement is OK but don’t have full range (the last range of extension in all directions isn’t there yet). However, as yet I haven’t tried to get back on a bike or done anything that puts any real weight through or stress on the shoulder – so not sure how that will work.

    The consultant is referring me for a second opinion, and I should stress I’m in no hurry to have another op to plate it. Had a realy badly broken ankle from snowboarding 2 years ago which needed significant surgery and i’m just about to go under the knive again to get the metalwork out my ankle to increase range of movement.

    Anybody had a similar expereince or are living with a broken collar bone that never joined up? I can’t get my head around it.

    onewheelgood
    Full Member

    NHS or Private? The NHS don’t want to do the op to save money, private consultant does want to do it to earn money. I was in exactly the same situation – the NHS guy said live with it, the second opionion said get it done – especially as you are still going to be doing the biking, unicycling, skiing so you are likely to bang it again. I got it done, and was then advised to have the plate removed as it would make a nasty mess if I broke it again with the plate still there (likely to push the break towards the joints, harder to fix)

    SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    What a load of pish.

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    hando
    Free Member

    what’s pish?

    SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    What they said.

    hando
    Free Member

    OK, can you elaborate?

    SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    “The NHS don’t want to do the op to save money, private consultant does want to do it to earn money.” = nonsense.

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    Had a non-union some years ago and got a plate inserted to come round to the most insane pain I’ve ever experienced – way past screaming in agony, won’t someone just shoot me type pain. (Don’t let this put you off!)

    Had to have to plate out due to it contracting when the temperature dropped and causing a bit of discomfort. This was a much better experience.

    Broke same clavical earlier this year and tried to push for an op straight away as I suspected part of the reason it was so painful the first time round was that it had been left for weeks on end (had many second opinions; eventually a physio told me it definately needed repairing). As the xray this time looked hopeful the NHS weren’t up for cutting me open and, thankfully, it’s healed ok on its own.

    In short I think it’s definately worth getting the op – bones aren’t meant to float around in bits.

    If it ever happens again I’m gonna try these guys out: http://www.physioclinic.net/ apparently the treatments aren’t horrifically expensive (and work?); if it means I don’t have to spend so much time incapacitated as I did earlier this year it’ll be worth paying for.

    clunker
    Full Member

    Had mine bolted, Ti bolts too :mrgreen:

    kudos100
    Free Member

    I snapped mine quite badly about 5 months ago. I can’t help you regarding the joining up bit, but what I do recommend is not taking no for an answer.

    I got messed about a bit and being the stubborn sod that I am wanted to know everything. Explaining that I weight trained, cycled and was very active and needed full range of motion back, they didn’t fob me off in the end.

    10 weeks is plenty for the bone to start joining together so I’d get on the case, do as much reading as you can and go back with a bit more knowledge.

    As far as I am aware, if the bone does not join then it can cause problems down the road.

    rewski
    Free Member

    Severe displaced clavicle here, I should of had surgery immediately due to the fracture being almost compound, NHS A&E dept was overwhelmed with traffic accidents, so I went Private, paid through work luckily, I had plate and hook fitted, yes very painful and uncomfortable for 6 months, plate was then removed and bone healed nicely, a few weeks of physio and everything got back to normal very quickly. Just go easy on the Tramadol, some dark moments.

    TheFlyingOx
    Full Member

    Snapped bone and some level of separated AC joint here. It kind of healed on it’s own, could have been better if I’d not been so eager to get back out on the bike. Plates/bolts were offered to me by the NHS but it was purely as a cosmetic thing. I chose not to, and I now have a bit of a lump sticking up where the bones fused not quite straight. Doesn’t really affect me, although I can’t get a rucksack to sit right now…

    headpotdog
    Free Member

    Broke my collarbone in 3 places last weekend so I’ve got a big splinter of bone loose in my shoulder. Like
    Hando I’ve been worried about the bones joining up too, so I asked a doctor at the fracture clinic about this on Thursday & he just told me not to worry about it as the broken ends of the bones form blood clots on them which are sticky and when they eventually touch will stay together, tissue will grow around the join & form bone.
    Really hope he’s right, but there are no guarantees & a lot is being left to chance, which is very frustrating!. Anyway, I’ve got to wait for my next check up in 3 weeks & another X-ray in 6 weeks time to see if things are working out. If it hasn’t healed properly by then the doctor says they will operate at that point.
    Rewski, I’m on Tramadol too, what kind of problems did you have with it? Should I try something else?

    beej
    Full Member

    There’s a huge variation in collarbone break severity – you’ll get a wide range of experiences and stories. Mine was broken into three bits, middle bit had spun round too. I was plated six days after the accident.

    Decision to have the op was mine (NHS). Fracture clinic doctors gave me the options but didn’t seem to want to make a recommendation, probably because it wasn’t essential that I had it done. In the end I asked them what they’d do – “Oh, definitely go for the op”. Had the surgery the next day.

    I have a 3 inch scalloped plate and 10 screws.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    The real problem is not whether or not it forms a union. The real problem is the world of back pain you’re potentially setting yourself up for 10-20 years down the line.

    I now have both shoulders plated, both done privately after the NHS wouldn’t have operated. The most recent operation was seven weeks ago. The orthopod was a shoulder specialist and said that the x-rays showed only a slim chance of the bones healing and was happy on that basis to operate. After the operation, he said there would have been no chance of it healing and that had I left it, like you I would have been needing a more complex operation two months later.

    But as I alluded to the real issue is not whether it will or won’t heal, although that is a right pain in the ass when you have to start all over again. The real issue is that a severely overlapping union shortens the clavicle and pulls your shoulder forward which then results in referred back pain.

    My father-in-law is an osteopath and made most of his money helping people with back problems because of overly shortened clavicles.

    Get it plated; tell them you’re an athelete and you don’t want to be messed around; that your quality of life is more important than cost saving measures. Yes it will ache for a few months after the op, but it’s not that big a deal and you will be thankful for it when you can still walk properyl in your 60s.

    kudos100
    Free Member

    Just go easy on the Tramadol, some dark moments

    I had a similar experience on codeine. Internet pharmacies are a bad idea…..

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Codeine is awesome. Apparently it turns into Morphine in the liver. It does however, turn your faeces to stone and can have some other interesting side effects.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    My experiences and food for thought … will keep it brief though.

    Around 8 years ago I came off the mtb, was bloomin painful at the time but I checked bike over and got back on. Pain wouldn’t go away so 5 days later took myself to A & E where a broken collarbone was diagnosed. No, I was told, they would not x-ray, have a sling for 6 weeks and then try riding your bike.

    Over the years it’s always ached and am noticeably lop-sided. Used to do a lot of walking but now can’t bear to wear a rucksack.

    Around July time pain was getting worse but I just ignored it. In September I came off the road bike, had shoulder separation diagnosed and obviously mentioned about painful collarbone. Not really much response from consultant.

    In retrospect I should have insisted on having collarbone x-rayed as one gets used to pain and just gets on with it.

    Now I need some metalwork in shoulder but am gradually coming round to the idea that I would rather not. Unfortunately I do not have complete confidence in the NHS to give me an honest appraisal of what, if anything, should be done. 🙁

    To summarise – listen to your own instincts and your body.

    Good luck obviously. 🙂

    M1llh0use
    Free Member

    Smashed mine into a bunch of pieces as well as both wrists (thanks swinley forest!! ;). )

    Nhs said deffo needs plating as well as left wrist. Very glad they did (although it was 6 days after the break as the plate for the collarbone was “on back order”)

    15 months later and all fine…

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Broke mine in two places in July. Looked far apart, but I also went private (nice MRI scan) and was advised all will be well. By 10 weeks I did not have a full union – could hear the bones clicking together, but by 12 this seemed to have died down and all is OK now. From the original X-Ray my NHS consultant said it wasn’t broken, but five weeks later (after a referral letter from my great GP) he said “clearly broken but healing” whilst looking at the same x-ray 😯 . Anyway, 10 weeks was not enough to be sure of a union for me. Did you have cloudy diffuse bone growth around the fracture?

    It hurt so much when I did it, a plate would not have hurt more.

    Oh, and some people make a LOT more morphine from codeine than others. Google 2D6 extensive metabolizers if you are interested or your starter is here

    steveh
    Full Member

    I’ve broken mine 3 times all in. The first time was 9ish years ago, I came off the MTB and broke the right one in to 3 pieces. It looked pretty bad on the xray but they suggested to leave it and it healed fine. 6 weeks to the day I was back on the mtb.

    Then last year I broke my left one in to 4 pieces in another mtb crash. It was a bad break with 4 bits of bone in total, they offered me the choice of operation or letting it heal. I asked some questions and they took another xray to compare the length to my other one and based on the good results from the last natural healing that I decided to leave it. A few friends of mine had used this place http://www.physioclinic.net so I gave them a call and went to see them a week after I broke it. I had treatment with magnets and lasers and while I was very sceptical before I went the effects were immediate. I had much more movement and less pain when I left the place and didn’t need a sling after the day. It was swapped for a figure 8 brace which allows use of both arms and puts them in a much better place for them to heal. I was riding 2 weeks after the treatment and another 2 weeks on I was on a 5 day trip to scottish trail centres riding like it had never happened.

    geetee1972 is right about the problems caused by shortened joints but the NHS in all my cases have been very careful to check the xrays for risks of this and as there was no significant shortening in any of my cases surgery for that reason wasn’t needed. The place I mentioned above is very well known in motorbike circles for treatment and they are a high speed trauma centre. The guy there told me exactly how i crashed (correctly) just from feeling the bones etc.

    ScottChegg
    Free Member

    I knew when I broke mine; it was sticking out.

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    I knew when I broke mine; it was sticking out.

    Minging!!

    I was surprised the 2nd time I did mine as it didn’t hurt *that* badly.

    Would like to voice displeasure of Tramadol too – codine is ace stuff, but leave that bad boy Tramadol well alone! Did nothing for pain relief for me and made me a bit loopy (in a bad way). One of my friends told me not to take it as it had made her Dad really depressed – totally ignored her as the codine had stopped being effective after eating buckets of it so went ahead and took it for a couple of days – 50mg dose.

    A few days later went back to the doc’s complaining that it did **** all and he upped the dose to 200mg slow release – a week later I was quite depressed, so I came off it – the depression got much worse. And stayed with me for a few shitty weeks.

    A couple of years later, waking with a king size hangover, I couldn’t find any painkillers in the house aside from the evil Tramadol so I took one and spent the next few hours walking round the house (hangover intact) talking very loudly to myself 😕

    Terrible stuff IME.

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    Oops! Double trouble

    anto164
    Free Member

    Codeine is awesome. Apparently it turns into Morphine in the liver. It does however, turn your faeces to stone and can have some other interesting side effects.

    When i broke my spine, i was on codiene for 7 days when i was in the first hospital, then got transferred to a different hospital and put on tramadol. 10 days in, due to the pain killers i still hadn’t had a poo as codiene, and especially tamadol bungs you up.. I was given laxatives for 2 days, and 5 minutes before my parents came to visit, my intestines decided to empty all at once. As i was bed ridden at the time, i actually filled over 2 bed pans in about 60 seconds… :/

    Wasn’t good at the time, but it was bloody hilarious thinking back.

    Burls72
    Free Member

    If your not happy get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion if you feel it’s not right. I broke mine and you could see the bone sticking up through a t-shirt but I was told by the specialist to come back in 6 weeks. After going back to the hospital twice, my doctor and the same specialist for a second time I was finally refered to another hospital. The specialist there took a look, pulled a face and made noises as if he was in pain, asked why it had taken 2 weeks for him to see me and he operated on me that day. He said that if I did it again or anything similar to come straight to his hospital as the first one wasn’t very good!

    I had the plate removed 4 months later, which I was glad of because it was uncomfortable. It’s fine now, just a bit of restricted movement.

    and got a plate inserted to come round to the most insane pain I’ve ever experienced – way past screaming in agony, won’t someone just shoot me type pain.

    Same as, I wasn’t allowed any opiate based pain killers (morphine nearly killed my brother) and there the only ones which are any good according to the nurse. When I woke up I though this isn’t too bad, then the nerve blocker wore off, like having a burning hot knife stuck in you and then left.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I was a big fan of tramadol tbh, I couldn’t have functioned without it (hip not collarbone). But yes there are various reactions to it and some are not good at all.

    M1llh0use – Member

    (although it was 6 days after the break as the plate for the collarbone was “on back order”)

    Imagine if they got the plates from Winstanleys, you’d still be getting an email every 2 weeks telling you it’d be in stock Real Soon Now 😉

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    This is off topic, sorry OP, I live on Tramadol. Some days it makes me feel spaced out, which I don’t really mind except when I’m at work and I just want to lay down, twiddle my hair, smile and stare. The best part is that it takes the pain down to bearable, and for that I would put up with almost any side effects.

    OP, be persistent, I hope you get it sorted. To me, and I am no way a medical person, I reckon your collarbone should be in one piece and if it’s in more than one piece, someone must do something about it.

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