Anyone had anacromioclavicular (AC) joint disruption?

I’ve got a grade 1-2 disruption after a spill 🙁

Seeing the physio tonight for specific advise but I wondered generally how long is it before you ride again?

Any experiences?

6 Weeks.
RM.

5-6 weeks for me too

Doh!!! Fly to morzine in 4

Disrupted my ACJ and cracked my scapula on 10 Feb coming off my commuter bike. Kept my fitness up on the turbo trainer and was back on the bike in a few weeks. Completed an 80 mile road sportif end of March. Getting back into MTB took a bit longer due to the upper body strength needed. DO YOUR PHYSIO … and you’ll be right as rain in no time (although mine still aches sometimes even now!).

I have a grade 4. I was back commuting on the road after 10 days, but could not MTB for a month or so.

Its been 3.5 years now. That arm is slightly weaker, pulling manuals results in me veering left and lying on that side in bed can get a bit uncomfortable at times. Otherwise no issues. Did 6 days walking in the Brecons with a fairly heavy pack on last month, no issues.

Cheers guys really appreciate all the comments.

Fingers crossed but I do have the option of maybe taking the carbon enduro rig instead of the heavyweight dh rig.

Or…..I’ll spend a week in robinsons pissed on mutzig 😉

@ anotherdeadhero

did you have / consider an operation to fix ? I have a grade 2 which I’m hoping will be healed enough for an alps trip in Aug : /

btw there are many comments around this injury here, which make me feel fairly lucky:
http://forums.mtbr.com/rider-down-injuries-recovery/ac-separation-shoulder-separation-300318.html

did you have / consider an operation to fix ? I have a grade 2 which I’m hoping will be healed enough for an alps trip in Aug

No. Consultant surgeon at the BRI in Bristol took a look at it, he said that generally grade 3 or less tend to be OK without surgery in the vast majority of cases. So they tend not to operate unless a problem develops down the line, or the patient is concerned over the aesthetics of it all.

Grade 4 up, surgery can be required. His advice for mine was that it was only ‘just’ a grade 4 as the superior displacement of the clavicle was pretty minor, even though all the ligaments had pinged off never to be seen again.

So his suggestion was to let the swelling go down, give it a few weeks and see where we were at. I was pretty sceptical, because it felt at the time like I’ve never pick up a pencil with my left arm again, much less anything else. He told me to be less of a pansy, and that most international rugby forwards had this kind of injury and were still playing.

After 10 days it was still pretty sore, but I was bored and didn’t drive at the time. So I just got back on the bike and got on with it. After about a month of nursing it, it was fine for some XC jeyboy stylings.

We had a follow up and decided that surgery wasn’t required, we’d just keep an eye on it.

To be honest though, this event did coincide with me falling out of love with MTB for a while, so I’ve not done any serious hardcore MTBing since then. I was getting into rallying at the time and I’ve not done anything other than road commuter work, audaxing and an infrequent mooching about on local trails since.

My advice is do your physio, nurse it, and see where you’re at before you go. You will probably be surprised just how quickly function comes back.

Ruptured mine at Grade 3, being the fool that I am I climbed back on my bike within ten days.

The pain was indescribable, my GP was correct in his assertion that I was an “******* idiot”. I left it another four weeks.

Less than a year later I had a modified Weaver Dunn to fix my wonky AC and spent three months off the bike. I made sure that I heeded doctor’s orders this time.

4-6 weeks if I remember from a few years ago after an OTB spill into a wooden post with my shoulder.

I grade 4’d mine last year in a high speed shoulder to tarmac interface.

Top end of grade 4, (consultant said any worse would’ve been a 5) so I opted for surgery.

Arm works pretty much perfectly a year later, minor issues with it clicking occasionally, not being as strong as I was, but that’s more the several months of no exercise than the repair and not being able to wear a 4-point harness/heavy rucksack without modification due to the pin wearing a hole in me if I do.

Can’t recall whether mine was III or IV but I just avoided surgery.

Loads and loads of physio.

On road bike at three weeks and mtb, albeit painfully at six weeks.

No issues now other than discomfort lying on that side, the fact that it’s still visible, and some stiff shirts are uncomfortable. Sounds like a bag of spanners though!

I remember getting back on the road bike a hell of a lot sooner than the mountain bike. All about the rotation in the shoulder.

I’ve got a recurring (because I keep falling on it or doing other stupid things… 😳 ) low-grade AC disruption. I actually find that the bike is good for it, seems to be quite effective re-hab (unless you fall off…)

You’re not the guy from bike park Wales with jedi’s jacket are you?

I ended up with a grade 3 separation this time last year. Was riding again after 5 weeks & back properly riding (some d/h stuff etc) after 7 weeks.

Apart from aching now & again and still not being able to sleep on that side properly it seems fine. Oh and if I get my shoulder in a certain position it looks like the bone is going to come through the skin which is great for freaking people out 😆

Physio guy says I should be fine for the alps in 4 weeks.
He put me on a machine that crosses current via the surrounding area thus stimulating the muscle & ligament fibres speeding up the healing, then supported with kt tape.

Back next week for another session which will involve more machine time and a program to stretch and strengthen.

Fingers crossed.

then supported with kt tape

I ended up doing that myself fairly early on after the hospital was virtually useless, can’t say for sure if it helped or not but my shoulder felt a lot more supported when it was taped.

The hospital just gave me a sling, told me to take it out now & again to move it around and said that they might give me some physio further down the line if my range of movement wasn’t very good!