Looks like I’ve broken the acromion bone in my shoulder after a crash on the bike, probably needs surgery, anyone experienced this, how did it go and how long to recover?

probably start here
https://www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/search/acromion%20break

Similar, separation. Required sub acromial decompression and some tendon repairs. What I would say is not to sweat the surgery. But use shoulder doc, learn about injury and recovery and be absolutely religious and relentless with your rehab.

Thanks, I’ll have a look through shoulder doc once I find out more about the repair they plan to do on Tuesday.
Wouldn’t care but this is the second break this year following a cheek fracture! Looks like this one will be at least as painful as that to come back from…
Still not a bad statistic though a little confidence sapping, riding a bike since 5, 43 now, 2 breaks in that time.

I had a fracture/ dislocation to mine. surgery will be 4-6 weeks recovery as a minimum, within three weeks you should feel well enough to start getting it out of the sling.

Getting back on the bike wise, I’ll be honest, I haven’t really ridden a mountain bike since the initial injury. Partly due to a change in circumstances (all my mtb friends are super rad DH manimals, I’m more of a singletrack hunting map reading all day adventure type!), partly due to the fear and also as my shoulder couldn’t take the knocks anymore.

I can ride a road bike, something to do with the rotation i suspect?

Anyway, the main thing is the physio, its a drag, and you get bored, but do it loads, once you’ve finished your NHS physio (Or private if you’re that way inclined) get a physio who knows about cycling as you’ll find that an arm injury will also impact your back, and conversely pelvis/ legs etc.

once I could get my arm out of the sling i spent 2-3 hours a day on the turbo, this is quite good for the shoulder as it meant I could lean into the bars but ease the pressure/ stop if I needed to. I’d recommend WW2 in colour on netflix or long documentaries for this!

Also nappy cream in your armpit and where your arm meets your chest if you’re going to be in a sling for a while!

Yay! One more for the bumpy shoulder club!

I broke my scapular (shoulder blade) and 4 ribs, bloody horrendous pain for weeks

Do you know that that’s definitely what you’ve done? I knew practically nothing about the shoulder when I separated my ACJ. Thought I must have broken my collar bone, then when I realised it was all in one piece, guessed at rotator cuff, because that was the other shoulder thing I knew about!

Went for surgery, competely student to yours, probably, and glad I did. I did find that it’s very hard to use anyone else’s experience of their surgery to inform your decision, though.

Good luck!

Yes nedrapier, definitely ACJ, spent last night in A&E being told “this is super rare, its usually the collarbone!” and thinking “well that makes me feel a million times better”

I probably done the same as you – came off, felt my shoulder and realised something was wrong, felt along the collarbone, realised it was all in one piece, thought “oh, its just dislocated, easy fix”… Errr…. No!

I have just actually been reading your authored post on it after doing a bit more searching and it seems I’m in for a bit of a recovery period, I am on holiday from work this week and was hoping to be back at work Monday! Maybe possible if the pain does down as I’m a desk Jockey anyway, we’ll see…

Actually thinking about it, what are the chances of me being able to drive by in 7 days time?

Well, surgery is planned for tomorrow so here we go!!

sorry duckers, just got back to this. What surgery are you having?

I wasn’t up to driving after 7 days. More like 3 or 4 weeks. I don’t need to drive day to day, so there was no harm in being cautious.

I was told no driving for 6-8 weeks, but was able to do short journeys within 5, because my wife is a terrible driver. Auto makes it easier, I found bringing my seat further forward helped a bit as well.

How soon were folk back at work?

Broke my collar bone 2 weeks ago, am working from home typing one handed but they are badgering me to get back in the office. Arm still in sling and because of other issues can’t take any painkillers. Are they being unreasonable to expect me to go in?

depends on your journey. Is it worth getting it bashed and setting yourself back? There’s no great peril sitting at a desk typing, getting into work by train/tube was the riskiest part for me.

Work was happy for me to take as much time wfh as I needed. I started going in for a day or two a week to try it out and show my face from 3 weeks then back full time from 5, I think.

Thinking about the driving again, it was longer than 4 weeks. I might have done the recommended 6 weeks for the sake of it, but would have been happy driving a little earlier.

I had my left ACJ excised, a sub acromial decompression and some other tidying up done to my bicep on 28th March and my shoulder is now working well. I’m back on the mountain bike and able to keep up with my normal riding buddies down hill. For me 12 months of chronic pain was instantly removed and after 3 months of physio it’s back to 90% with the only issue being lifting anything above my head.

I had all sorts of trouble getting to see the surgeon, I didn’t have company health care, as the NHS (who I’m a great supporter of) insisted on 9 months of physio, reviews and an insistence it was muscular!

When I saw the surgeon he did the usual movement tests and then said I’d snapped my ACJ, X-Ray didn’t show this but he then did an MRI which clearly showed the problem. He had a 3 month waiting list but 18 days after seeing him he had me under the knife as he felt the damage that’s was accumulating would be significant if left another 3 months.

I did my acromon a few years ago with a less than elegant dismount from the bike. It is an unusual break and apparently takes quite a lot of force to do it… Oops!

I think it was about 6 weeks before I could drive again (right shoulder went), pain eased after about 3-4 weeks and I was lucky not to have done too much other damage so was back up on a bike (steadily) after about 8 weeks. Spin bikes/trainer was fine to use before that time.

Only advice i can really give, having had medal pins in head of humerous after dislocating shoulder with a load of force is:

– Get a good physio on board, ideally one that understands cycling from as early as you can start moving it.
– Lean forwards and let neck and sling take the weight of your arm, but try and do little rotations of the shoulder to keep it moving as soon as you can, easy for shoulder to become frozen.
– I always up my protein and calcium uptake, i figure the body needs the building blocks to repair itself.
– Get off the codeine based painkillers as soon as is comfortable, horrible things that will bung you up!

Thanks dude, good advice… Story So far
– Operation carried out Tuesday
– Home yesterday
– Taking paracetamol and a small amount of ibuprofen
– Given Physio exercises (rotations as you describe, some others)
– Taking calcium/multivitamin/etc supplements and eating healthy (well, healthy to me anyway 🙂 )