Hi all,

Had a big off last week on my downhill bike, flying down a loose rocky section and lost the front wheel. Over the bars and drove my shoulder hard in to the ground. Only real injury a shattered collarbone.

Saw a specialist surgeon directly after the injury, he said as the bone was splintered and the ends very crossed it would have very limited chance of a good natural union. They operated straight away and I now have a plate and six screws holding it together!

Arm itself feels pretty fine now with I would say about 70% movement and strength, Doc is telling me a couple of months minimum recovery though.

Just wanted to hear your experiences of recovery after collarbone surgery, because most of what i can find seems to be about natural healing.

Many thanks

nowthen

Mine to has a plate and six screws. My bone did not shatter it broke about in inch from the shoulder and tried to exit the skin so was pulled back into the correct position. I was off the bike for 6months and on a lot of pain killers. It still twinges four years later. Get well soon and don’t rush it, your bone is still broken and will be for a while. And with respects to recovery get some physio and do what they say and try to stay off the pies and booze if riding is your only excercise. Infact, try to eat as healthily as you can.

Did mine in July, bone in 4 bits with large displacement and because of several reasons didn’t get surgery for 6days but was back on the bike in nov. Skin still numb around surgery site but getting better. Got to go for more xrays in jan to see when plates (also did both wrists, one needed plating) can come out. Oerall not plesant but whatever you do don’t overdo it and listen to the docs.

Had mine plated a week after a crash 3 years ago and have since also had the plate removed again. It’s very annoying when it happens but just let the thing recover at it’s own pace. Your body and your break is unique and so other people’s recovery times mean very little. I heard of a case where even after a year with a plate it didn’t join and so surgeons had to go back in to stimulate the bone for growth. I am not a doctor so don’t know the full ins and outs of it all but my wife if a pilates instructor and she helped me get the shoulder strength back. I needed quite a bit of rehab work as I broke the same shoulder but scapula 1 year before the clavicle.

I still have no feeling in skin around the area where the cuts were made and my collar bone is still sensitive if I knock it on something it really hurts even now! That said structurally it feels stronger than before the break. I have had a couple of crashes on that shoulder since and not had any problems other than the initial bit of pain from the impact.

I feel your pain!!

Had mine plated after a drinking injury. 4 weeks later, the xray showed the plating had not worked, and rejoining had been minimal. So they opened up the shoulder again, replated with a MUCH bigger plate and more screws, and took a bone graft from my pelvis for good measure. All healed well this time, except the plate moved with the new bone growth causing one of its corners to push the skin very taught like it was trying to come through. third and final operation was therefore to remove the plate.

I didn’t get any physio because they were just worried about getting struck back together right, and didn’t want to do things that could potentially disrupt recovery. As with frogger I had some nerve damage over the skin, but that has recovered a little now.

that was 6 years ago. i always imagined I would have bad problems and have a collarbone that looked like a piece of swiss cheese (14 different screws over two fixings). But what amazed me this year, was that when i went over the bars at the bristolbikefest this summer and broke the same collarbone, it broke in a different place – the original recovery had made a stronger bone, and the stress was referred down the bone to a previously unaffected area. Oh, how I laughed 🙄 ! So, similar, to millhouse and frogger’s experience again there.

The positive, even with 2 fixings, little active rehab, and a subsequent break, it really doesn’t give me much bother. Hopefully your recovery will be less fraught and you’ll end up with a strong collarbone. take it easy, and set your forks to ‘plush’ when you get back on the bike……..

had mine wired back together in june, pretty much back to normal now but mine took ages to join the gap, went riding on it and it was fine only problem i’ve had is lots of nerve shooting type pains.

The headline with plating, and I think that you’ll probably already know this and it’s already been alluded to here anyway, is that that the plate isn’t the solution. The bones still need time to knit back and that process is not short circuited or circumvented by plating. So you’ll be off the bike for around 3 months in total.

Mine is three years old and still aches on cold mornings. If my son flops his head down too quickly on the plated shoulder, not only does it hurt his head, but it hurts me like a sonofabitch as well. The skin is still a little numb but nothing that bothers me.

What I don’t know but would also like to hear about, is what happens if you have the plates removed; do you then need to wait a few months for the holes to fil in?

Thks guys, of course wasnt looking for any suggestions on healing time in particular, will follow docs orders or at least try to!

Mainly just looking for overall recovery stories, which up to now you provided, thanks!

X-ray tomorrow so hope it shows some signs already of re-growth…

Broke mine on the 13th – week and half later had a hooked plate fitted which hopefully I will have out in March.

Arm and shoulder was very bruised up after the op and the physio only gave me some movement and rotation exercises.

The consultant has given me an expanded range of movement exercises since but I haven’t seen a physio as they would only give me the same things to do – I am not allowed anything weight bearing yet.

Although the physio wanted me to wear the sling as a ‘sign’ (as I didn’t really need it but people might not accidently bash into me) I didn’t wear it whilst walking to work and found the swinging of my arm to be beneficial. I am now well ahead of the consultants schedule for the range of movement goals.

I did find that whilst attempting to relax my arm I was actually letting it droop too much so then concentrated on keeping it in place whilst swinging it walking, so the mucles got used to holding it where it should be.

However I had problems with different parts of the rotator cuff muscles getting sore/knotted and I would lean and wriggle against the square edge of my banister to try to get rid of them, which would work but then a different muscle would ‘go’. Although he has said I can go for a sport massage I would not like to be person who has to take care in case I apply too much pressure, so I haven’t had one.