missus was wacked last night by a bus and came off her bike…the bus broke her right collarbone…any tips with healing/recuperation…
shes very fit as shes in the development program for the commie games in 014….i thought a few of you have probably done the same thing..

Keep her active, take the fuse out of the dishwasher 🙂

is it being plated or left to heal?

read somewhere about keeping off the antiinflams (ibuprofen et al) to aid bone growth.

second port of call must be solicitor though!

What sport is she going for and has she checked with whoever is managing the development program?

I know the rowing program had (back 10 or so years ago!) access to a whole range of sports focussed medical professionals…

Firstly . Healing Vibes , get well soon and back on the bike.
Secondly . Solicitor
Thirdly .- CG currently has a seperated shoulder injury which i think is waiting for structural surgery . Might be worth pinging her directly .

Bust my collar bone and not a lot to do really except let it heal. Make sure he keeps her spine straight and doesn’t slump on her broken side. First week or so was bloody painful for me, then started to move my arm more to help movement etc. Takes a while, is sore, but it’ll fix. Took me about 3 months to have full movement and back on the bike.

Coogan said[quote]buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff buff [/quote]

*swoonage*

Broke mine in July. And it hurt a lot. Since it is not immobilzed, my top tip is don’t skimp on pain relief!

Tesco paracetamol 500mgx2 four times a day
Tesco ibuprofen 200mgx2 three times a day between paracetamol doses.

So top tip is go to Tesco and buy sonme generics!

Recovery took three months; no cycling, no driving and I could barely type or lift anything. Back on the road first, then off road. Tested at 4mo with a good fall.

Give her plenty of TLC for the first two weeks at least, it will be hurting. Oh and if you have one, you could set up a turbo trainer, but I never felt up to it!

shes a road racer…hates mtb,turbo and rollers at home…scottish coach will be told today and hopefully her promised physio will kick in earlier…

they only pin/plate complete fractures..this is just a break on one side..shes got cocodamol and paracetemol and brufen at the mo…she rides with a BC membership so i think that gives some liability cover…gonna call today.thanks all!! 😆

Depends a lot on the actual type of break. I had mine plated but the two ends were miles apart on the xray – most people don’t need it. Three years on I still get a bit of discomfort from the plate so if I were your girlfriend I wouldn’t be disappointed if the docs recommended ‘conservative’ (I.e. non-operative) management.

Things I learnt:
It’s quite disabling having your arm in a sling. Be nice to her.
After one or two weeks when she’s feeling OK and pain-free, something like a turbo trainer would be good for keeping up the aerobic fitness whilst she’s unable to exercise.
I’m sure she doesn’t smoke, but if she does, she’s gotta stop (stopping smoking is the only thing proven to help bones heal quicker – everything else is sort of mumbo-jumbo-common-sense stuff).
The pain is massively variable. Mine never particularly hurt (even when I did it) although I know a lot of people say it’s very painful.

i know a few people who had laser treatment to speed up the healing process, it’s not cheap though.

Broke my left collarbone a month ago. It went in 4 pieces and I had it plated. Still in some pain, but were able to start working this week. I live in Denmark and have expences covered. If the plate and all the screws (8) bothers me in any way I can have it removed, but that will probably be in full narcosis. Stay of ibuprofen as it can slow down the healing process and talk with a doctor if paracetamol isn’t enough.

im going with her tomoro to see the orthopeadic specialist so ill ask some more questions…is brufen bad then?

missionary position only

EDIT: doh! taggers beat me to it

Healing vibes out to Gemma

See you @ the AMBTA fundraiser

boffey 😉

Ah great STW conflicting advice…

Did you mention the sporting side of things in hospital? Mrs FD has recent dealt with an Olympic athlete and her feedback to them was very much along the lines of how to heal the bone etc..thats what their job is, you really need good physio support too. I assume she has a fracture clinic appointment booked?

yep we mentioned it in the hospital…the service was really good actually.she ended up being checked over by the senior trauma doctor(i think he heard “girl hit by bus”)

fracture clinic in the morning…cid officers at reception chatting casually about a local who just had his spleen removed after being stabbed..hed had a worse day! i love dundee!

Have a look on http://www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/ an absolutely fantastic website for all shoulder injuries.
Everything you need to know is there, including an evidence based algorithm for which injuries need surgery and good rehab advice, the shoulder rehab booklet they supply is also excellent.
A nice Aircast sling is better than the NHS rubbish they supply here (but at Wrightington you get a nice Aircast sling). Personally I didn’t take any NSAIDs (e.g. Brufen) as there is a little bit of evidence that they can impair healing, not many people fret about that but I wasn’t chancing it for a bit of pain after plating and a ligament repair.

A decent sling helps a lot, all I got was some collar and cuff from the hospital which is terrible stuff. My gf knitted me a nice sling that supported at the wrist and elbow and went round the other non broken shoulder. I’ve heard of people on bupa getting proper leather slings.

Get referred to the physio early is important, I didn’t and got a frozen shoulder which kept me off the bike for a few months. On the other hand don’t overdo it, if you stop it from knitting by moving it much you won’t get union and then thats a whole new world of pain.

Getting in and out of bed isn’t very pleasant as the bone ends grind against each other as your body weight is taken by the bed so maybe help with that, little things like that are quite wearing after a few weeks.

Main thing is just relax and let the body do its work, the human body is pretty amazing and doesn’t need all the intervention people go on about.

I had a load of other injuries and was given dihydrocodeine which is magical stuff, not sure if you would get that for a collar bone though, but it really helps with the pain and letting your body relax …..and makes you feel bloody great……!

and makes you feel bloody great……!

or alternatively it makes you feel like you’ve taken some really cheap and ‘orrible heroin and encourages to vomit every time you move your eyes too quickly.. 😕

whatever floats yer boat though I guess..

Cocodamol is the devils work. I’ve broken my collar bones 3 times now and had a plate the last time (for convenience more than anything else).

Brufen slows recovery
Cocodamol turns your poo to concrete

Get something else for pain releif if it realy hurts. I was also recomeneded calcium to promote the bone regrowth. Dunno if it made any difference, the late certainly did but the sugery is a bit incasive and the area took quite a long time to return to normal.

I agree with boble about cocodamol, it is terrible stuff, try and keep off it if she can as it constipates the body like crazy!

The worst thing I’ve had done was when I was in hospital they kept giving me all my pain killers at the same time, it’s much better to stagger them at 2 hour intervals if possible it keeps the general pain level muc lower!

My top tips for recovering from broken collarbone are:
1. Get laser treatment if you can, I was out the sling I’mmediately after the treatment
2. Eat tuna and drink milk
3. Have only paracetemol. To heal, the bones need to be inflamed hence why anti inflammatories slow the process

Saw this on FB Chris; Gemma must be gutted. Might be worth speaking to my physio, Anne Dickens. She’s a cycling specialist (and a world class 24hour MTB racer) and is nothing short of amazing. I know she’s the other end of the country but I’m sure she’ll give out some great advice.

http://oxtedphysio.co.uk/

Love and healing vibes from the Fradgleys.

The figure of eight support is not much used in the UK now – I don’t understand why as it would appear to hold the shoulders in better alignment – I would ask about that .

Its better not to have metal put i for long term health if the bone will heal without however it would allow exercise / mobility to be better from a earlier date

i’ve broken both ( do i get a prize? 😀 ). first one gave a lot of pain, second was much easier to deal with.
don’t keep it in the sling all the time, unless you’ve been told you must for some reason. you need to keep shoulder and elbow moving as much as you can otherwise these’ll give problems. exercise is good. i was walking my dog in and out to work a week after i did mine – 1.5 hours each way. get as much physio contact as you can. it helps psychologically as well as the practical advice they give. being told you’re improving helps!
in both cases i was riding gently at 7 or 8 weeks IIRC. at 9 weeks back on the ss.
wish her good luck. not a happy experience. manage the pain as best you can. keep things moving. do the exercises the physios give!

Mine took 3 months to heal, could do turbo sessions after 2 months. Mine was a butterfly fracture and in 4 bits so a bit nasty. First couple of weeks hurts a lot!

or alternatively it makes you feel like you’ve taken some really cheap and ‘orrible heroin and encourages to vomit every time you move your eyes too quickly..

I’ve never taken heroin so can’t compare them, I certainly didn’t have any trainspotting moments though. Very good pain relief and very relaxed and content is how I would describe it, I didn’t get any nausea or anything. Didn’t have a jobby for about 3 days mind you but that was a good thing as I could only bend one knee and had a crutch as well as the bust collarbone, so actually sitting on the throne was a helluva procedure involving a lot of swearing.

I was trying to find a picture of the sling I had, but I can’t, basically it went from my wrist up over the non broken side of the shoulder, round my back and back down to the elbow of the broken side, so the two anchor points keep your arm really stable and support the weight well. My gf knitted it for me but you could make one with some fabric and some safety clips

I found the biggest immediate help was a decent sling. Shoulder and waist strap. Nicely immobilized I could at least attempt to sleep

cool advice thanks…her coach has authorized physio costs which is cool…got an aircast sling on order and cut out the brufen…just codeine and paracetemol…good food and calcium pills..

thanks all 😆

Go here… http://www.physioclinic.net

It’s long way from Scotland but then Poland a fair trot from Ipswich and that doesnt stop Pro motor bike racers going to see Brian.

Highly recommended I was back on full dad duties with in a week of laser/magnetic treatment… My lad had been born two weeks earlier, trying to winding a screaming new born over your broken shoulder in the middle of the night wasn’t much fun, but I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.

IF I or any of the kids break anything in the future (touch wood we don’t) I’m straight back to Ipswich.

Yup, that physio clinic was where i was recommended to go after I bust my shoulder a while back. The guy who recommended them was an ex World Champ BMX racer, and knew of guys who had broken collarbones and had them fixed sufficiently to race ridiculously soon (c2-3 weeks after the break).

Thirding for Physioclinic.

Very snake-oily, but I was back riding (in a cast) 3 weeks after breaking my wrist and did a fortnights DH holiday starting the day after the cast came off with no problems.

+1 for no painkillers

I did my arm before christmas and was told to take ibuprophen untill the opperation after which it was stopped, presumably for the reasons outlined above.

I also read there’s a link between pain and healing (the pain signal tells the brain to stop doing what your doing but also triggers all the responses needed to heat the wound) so if the pain’s manageable, do without the drugs. That and the side effects are worth avoiding.

Hmmmm. I broke my collar bone around 10 years ago and didn’t get it checked out immediately. No x-ray taken, just sent away. Meanwhile ever since I’ve been lop-sided with that shoulder more rounded and it’s always ached.

Two months before my last accident, it started playing up, so much so that I knew it needed looking at. Following my shoulder separation, I mentioned to the consultant about my collar bone and he asked what the x-ray showed. ‘No x-ray taken’ said I to which he raised his eyebrows. At the weekend I had an MRI scan on it.

The point I’m making is that unless injuries are completely investigated, together with any requisite physio, they will come back to haunt you in later life!

Do hope she makes a full recovery and can get back to her serious training. 🙂

The point I’m making is that unless injuries are completely investigated, together with any requisite physio, they will come back to haunt you in later life!

^^ this. Do not skip or accept NHS palming you off re. physio . I was sent home from NHS clinic with no physio as the physio was so used to seeing oldies that anyone who could put there hand above there head was perceived as not requiring help. Big mistake that I have regretted ever since.

I also used Comfrey (bone knit). My bones knitted very quickly I have no idea whether it helped or not,

tips needed- girlfriend with broken collarbone…….
How about a new one (GF that is)?

Broke mine last year.Was off pain killers after 2 days to help the healing.
Think mine aligned into a good position so kept quite still for 2 weeks to help the healing. Couldn’t wear a sling too much – didn’t feel right (Everyone is different I guess)
However SBZ gave me some invaluable advice – regularly make fists and circle your wrists – also bend and flex the arm in the early days and sleep without the sling if you can.
Good physio advice early on is a great help – don’t wait a few weeks for an NHS appointment or everything will have stiffened up. Good luck!

shes speaking to the physio fairly regularly and has just stayed on cocodamol and paracetemol for the moment…the aircast sling is here and when the tenderness has gone she should be able to wear it…

ill not trade her in just yet peterwp! a bit harsh me thinks…thanks for all the advice… 😆