[Closed] Broken collarbone, advice sought Re NHS

If you call the clinic and say you're having problems and want to be seen sooner you should be. We certainly do.

The evidence for fixing clavicle fractures is far from concrete except in very specific fractures in specific patients.

James (orthhpod)

£££££'s
Get your Doc to refer you to a private clinic.I've done this for all 3 of my knee issues.Budget £150-200 for a consultation.

"So my questions are: how do I go about getting seen by the fracture clinic earlier "

Just straight off the top of my head try talking to the hospital.

Just phone up the fracture clinic and express your concerns.

Be polite and patient and I am sure you will be sorted out.

Suddenly you're in severe pain. You cannot sleep and in agony. 😉

OK, wasn't sure if going through my GP would be the best route so that clears that up. As for the Physio, should I expect to not be referred until after I'm discharged by the fracture clinic?

Once you've got a fracture clinic appointment you can deal with them to get better appointments than the GP manages to book. It's the initial referral you need from the GP, or sometimes A&E refer you after initial patching up, but that's less help if you've done it abroad or even in another town or county. You could go to A&E and get booked in there, but you have to go through the 3 hour wait process. I did that when I bust my hand in Wales. Welsh A&E gave me a cast and then told me to go to my local A&E to get the clinic appointment. Local were reluctant and insisted I had to be processed as an A&E patient but once done they booked the clinic.

I'd also stress to them or the GP that you do X activity (e.g. mountain biking or whatever you're here for) and just dealing conservatively and assuming you'll just cope with it not being quite right ever again is not good enough. Though that might mean needing surgery and a plate.

Physio you'll need to push for. You are entitled but they try to save money and just give you useless advice on the last clinic. That said the physio you'll get is nothing great. About 3 sessions, 10 mins each if lucky, and little more than being given a leaflet with exercises to do at home.

yeah the doc I saw in the fracture clinic was actually a mountain biker himself and his recommendation was just live with a shoulder slightly shorter than the other- I didn't really want to go for the surgery option but given the movement I'm still feeling and the only occasional pain (when the two bits of bone collide) I'm now wondering if the gap between the two bits is bigger than he thought and that no actual contact is occuring.

Already figured I'll probably have to go private for decent physio but I want to try the NHS to get the ball rolling and get me on the road to recovery before shelling out for private physio.

In my experience the more contact you have with the nhs the more you get seen, so give them a call and express your worries. Re: physio, there's not much that can be done until you have union. When I broke mine I didn't see one until after the bone had healed enough. I then duly ignored all of her advice and suffered as a result. Turns out that everything she said was actually spot on and if had done the few, simple exercises that she had given me then I would have had a working shoulder MUCH sooner. I did them eventually.

He who shouts loudest gets the most

Listen to Jet26 he's the expert here.

Why do you think private physio will be so much better than NHS? People I know who have had NHS physio recently have been very impressed by it. Certainly get additional physio as well, but if it's a decent hospital the physio team are specialist in particular areas

Not quite the same as yourself but I dislocated my collarbone earlier on this year. Luckily my mother in law is a physio so I started doing exercises pretty much straight away. Nothing fancy, just a few different movements. I ended up not having an op as I was making quite good process and doctors advised to see how you get on. It was about 5 weeks after the accident that I eventually got a nhs physio appointment.
I really believe that the early progress I made was down to starting physio straight away. As yours is a break it may be different but id highly recommend seeing a private physio to get some exercises (if advised) that you can do before getting an nhs appointment.

I have nothing but praise for my nhs physio.

NHS physio can be okay, but it's just very limited what they can do in a short amount of time they can offer. Used them twice for two breaks. When I bust my back they just sheet read literally the sheet of exercises for me to do at home and when the three sessions were up it was pretty much on my own. When I bust my hands there was a bit more involved and more tailored advice based on what range of movement I was getting. Also they did give me an open ended appointment so I could go back after the main sessions if I felt I needed further.

I've had private and NHS physio and the results from the private were so much better and the treatment more thorough. NHS was just exercises to do, no additional treatment.

have you broke it at the sterno-claviular joint?

Find a private consultant. One that is retained by a pro rugby club or a pro cycle team. I used professor Rolf in Sheffield. He is the Swedish Olympic consultant. Costs but worth it

C

stop bloody moving it and it might have chance to mend

I think it's broken about 2/3rd of the way along the bone, wasn't told exactly how far along but it's not close to the joints. I'm not moving it, it's still in the sling and avoiding using it as much as possible.

What sort of physiotherapy speeds up bone union?

Some info which might help you.

I had my collarbone plated in Feb 2014, was back on the bike by June.

I think it was quite painful post-op but tricky to tell because I also has a pneumothorax (punctured/collapsed lung) and a 10 cms tear in my liver... So definitely in pain but difficult to decide has sore each injury was.

A mate bust his collarbone a couple of years before and it took an age to heal. Hence I decided to get it plated (went private) because it gave me a more definite recovery timeline.

In terms of post op problems it's been fairly trouble free, however I did the Physio religiously which helps). I had two breaks. So the bone was in three pieces and hence there are a few screw heads, some of which are close to the skin and can get sore when I have a backpack on for an extended period.

I'd have the op again if I was back in the same position.

Good luck?

physioclinic.net go see magicbrian in Ipswich and spend £200 on a couple of treatments - I've done it with two collar bones and results are great.
My first was broken in to 4 pieces with reasonable displacement and after treatment 5 weeks after the break I was back riding scottish trails for a week without any trouble. I was back on the bike gently 2.5 weeks after. I had a similar break 3 pieces and again displaced years before and healing after treatment was notably better.

I didn't want to believe it would work and live in Sheffield so it's a fair old trip down but I'd do it again in a second.

are you sure it isn't your AC and CC ligaments that have torn? almost the same look and feel as a break (towards the top) but can take longer to fix.

are you sure it isn't your AC and CC ligaments that have torn? almost the same look and feel as a break (towards the top) but can take longer to fix.

I'd have thought X-rays would make it pretty clear if a bone was in two pieces. He's not self diagnosing 😕

well if you look at an X-ray of a shoulder with torn ac and cc ligaments it can look very much like a broken collar bone.

how do i know this i hear you ask..... because of mine earlier this year! Casualty told me broken collarbone.... fracture clinic said.... nah it is your ligaments.

No its not ligaments, definitely the collarbone that's gone- three different docs have seen the x rays

I'm not moving it, it's still in the sling and avoiding using it as much as possible.

i think the other post was referring to your 'i can move it with my thumb' comment. don't do that. don't leave it in the sling all the time either, or you'll get grief from your shoulder and/or elbow. get some physio contact. as one of the others said, make the point about being a mountain biker and make it clear you want to get back to a full range of movement and strength asap. say please a lot. good luck.

when I broke mine in april I didn't have big break but I also dislocated the steroclaviular joint. I had full movement in my arm with a bit of discomft. I wore the sling for 2 weeks then took it off as you need to keep the shoulder moving. didn't really do much with it at first but everything helps. never had any physio but mine wan't exactly a bad break. I couldn't sleep on my left side for a while and took me 7 weeks to be able to drive again, with 3 months before I ventured off road on my bike. My pain would have been from ligament/tendon damage.

Well.... that is actually better news.... weirdly!

First time I did my collarbone i was back on the bike in 4 weeks. but if you say yours is still moving around then it could be a while longer.

Like the others have said go private or start shouting loudly in A&E about the pain and so on.

Get well soon.

How and when do I get referred for physio?- there was no mention of this in the fracture clinic.

I wouldn't just assume that physio is part of it. Surely the physio bit is only required if you've done muscle/ligament/arm socket damage as well?. If you've just broke your colarbone, then it just needs to mend, physio may not be required. The restricted arm movement and loading will most likely be the break. Every case is going to be slightly different, but I would imagine that if you are healing naturally then they will want you, in the short term, to be doing very little with the arm. I got a bit of a shock on my week 8 x-ray, for some reason I was expecting a fully formed bone, but it didn't look much different to me.
I wasn't referred for physio until the week 8 clinic appointment, and that was only because I was complaining of muscle pain in my deltoid, which itself only became apparent after all the other pain/ discomfort /healing had subsided (I'd had surgery, so was dealing with post surgery as well as the clavicle break).
Good luck

I would say be patient. 4 weeks is not long enough for a bone to heal.

There's not much anyone can do unless you argue to have it plated - I imagine the NHS may go that route if there's no union after 8 weeks (or there's no sign of improvement via an X-ray)

There's a few things you can do in the meantime - squeezy-ball/hand grips are good, and some people enjoy dosing up on various supplements (glucosamine and chondroitin). Once the bones union (assuming ithey do), then you should see good progress.

Don't worry about physio either - the NHS will just give you a sheet of paper with a few exercises and tell you to come back in X weeks time. I'm not saying that's bad...but don't expect much more than that. Physio = slowly building up ROM / Strength and it's 99% down to you.

Thing about the need for physio and broken bones is (as my physio explained to me) the bones heal with additional growth around that ligaments and muscle have to adapt to and you may need physio to get things moving properly again. Though maybe less so with a collarbone, I don't know but I had that with broken fingers. I've known some with broken collarbones though that had trouble raising their arm above a certain height and need physio.