Broken collarbone / shoulder – recovery times?

Hello all

I had a bit of a tumble whilst out on my new bike on Saturday and managed to snap my collarbone and shoulder (scapula). Stung a bit and necessitated a couple of nights in hospital, with a return visit tomorrow to get some metal put in to hold it all together.

Just wondered if anyone had experienced similar injury and how long it was before they were back on the bike? Doctors were fairly non-committal.

On the positive side the new bike is unharmed!

Cheers

AC

3 months before I was riding again, 4 till offroad. Some people heal quicker, my mate is back on the road bike after 2 months.

As above. Three months minimum, longer for off road. No scaffolding required for mine. Wiggins was back on the bike within two weeks, but he’s paid to ride and had scaffolding.

cheers – yeah saw something on bikeradar about cancellara snapping his on Sunday and potentially being back on rollers by next Tuesday! not gonna happen for me I think. New baby arrives in 3 months so should hopefully be back up and running (figuratively speaking) by then, and probably won’t get too much riding in after that for a while anyway.

I would say it’s good that you’ve been x-rayed. My broken collarbone never was, cue many years down the line and it’s still not right. Undergoing surgery this Thursday for AC shoulder separation with metal work.

Presumably use a good physio who’s got experience of dealing with this … and grumpy cyclists!

Good luck. 🙂

I would say at least 4 months mate, but best thing today is too take the advice of your surgeon, they are the ones that understand it best!

After a few broken clavicles and dislocated shoulder my only advise would be the following:
– Listen to the drs they know best, not mates down pub or internet.
– Get a good physio on board, and make sure they understand you are a keen cyclist and that you are aiming to back on bike.
– Up your calcium intake and I found that glucosamine/ chronditin tables seem have speeded things up a bit the last few times.
– Start slow with a few flat rides and at the first sign of any problems stop, better to let something heal right than be left with permanent problems.

i was back quickly, on tarmac 4/5 weeks, offroad a couple of weeks later
but it was a clean break and no metalwork required.

thank guys, really helpful

What sort of plate did you have?

I had a hooked plate which they left in for 6 months as I made a bit of a mess in there and it took a while for enough callus to grow.

Then they took the plate out and I had to wait another 2 months for the callus to strengthen as it wasn’t now helped by the plate, and for the screw holes to fill in a bit as they are weak points otherwise.

For recovery I found it good to ignore the advice to wear a sling (as you are plated up) and to swing my arm when walking to and from work (about 1hr 40mins per day), which strengthened it up and meant I had mobility that was far in excess of what they expected everytime i went to see the consultant. I didn’t have any physio but did do some band exercises as well.

When moving the arm bear in mind that you should watch your ‘form’, as you arm will tend to drop early on as the muscles that support it are weak. so concentrate on keeping it level with the other shoulder.

If yours is a hooked plate though you should be aware that you might not have full mobility due to the plate anyway.

Hook plate was quite uncomfortable, kept catching everytime I lifted my arm, was a relief to get it out. As above 6 months before plate removal, have physio too, you don’t want frozen shoulder.

Hook plate was quite uncomfortable

think I was lucky 🙂

think I was lucky

uncomfortable is a bit of an understatement, didn’t get a decent nights sleep for 6 months.

12 weeks for me to be back on a bike. No metalwork for me. Also did my ribs and they were much more painful than the shoulder. Hope you get better soon – positive vibes.

didn’t get a decent nights sleep for 6 months

yes – I had a lot of restless nights and pain but my mobility picked up ok.

It feels like they must have dropped you off the operating table (a few times) after the op to put the plate in – but if you watch the operations on youtube then it is understandable.

The op to take the plate out wasn’t anywhere near as bad and I recovered from it quickly.

However, after having a lucky recovery I think a car hitting me 6 weeks ago and me going down on my shoulder has probably messed it up – not a break but it swelled up big time, chest went yellow/red, and the collarbone is all lumpy at the end near my neck 🙁

watch the operations on youtube

I’m no way near ready to watch those. 🙂

I would agree with what TurnerGuy is saying about not just leaving arm to hang in sling and trying to get it moving early. I was recommended by physio (once surgery had healed and it was safe to do so) to not actually take arm out of sling, but to lean forwards to almost 80degrees, so that the sling still takes the weight of the arm, but then to swing your arm in small circles within the sling, over time and as it strengthens, to make those circles increasingly bigger, which really seemesd to work.

but then to swing your arm in small circles within the sling, over time and as it strengthens, to make those circles increasingly bigger, which really seemesd to work.

I think I did those, plus I actually worked from home for the first couple of weeks – as I am a programmer that was easy as I could lie in bed with laptop on lap.

When I first thought that I might be slinged up for a while I installed SmartKeyboard Pro on my Android smartphone, changed the smiley keypad to generate curly braces and other programming symbols, and installed VNC on the phone and laptop.

I could then connect to work via RDC on my laptop and connect to my laptop with VNC and use the keyboard on my phone, which I could handle with both hands with my arm still in the sling. I could also use the phone touchscreen or rollerball as the mouse 🙂

I never actually used it though – it was the challenge of setting it all up that was the fun part 🙂

I was plated last year and was riding tow paths after 3 or 4 weeks and riding in the alps after about 8 ( pretty conservatively at first mind). Get out of the sling asap or it will take ages to get any strength back.

I realise that I was very fortunate (clean break etc) but with a lot of co-codamol I was back on the turbo within three days , and on the road within a fortnight. Couldn’t drive for six weeks, mind.

3 weeks if your called sarah and hardcore (2 weeks til back on the snowboard) or in my case 7 months as it got infected when it popped out the skin (which the nhs originally didnt care too much about) then I had an emergency op and had to wait another 3months…

I’d say 8-12weeks depending on the size of your man the **** up can.

co-codamol

makes you poo concrete, take with movicol.

Have a look on shoulderdoc.co.uk a very good shoulder website. Some excellent evidence based algorithms for when to repair, and their shoulder exercise book is useful for rehab along with a bit of physio advice, I’d seriously recommend getting a copy.
You don’t want to risk re-injury too soon unless you’re being paid a fortune to ride your bike. How long until full recovery depends on the extent of injury, e.g. those above with the hook plates presumably have lateral 5th fractures which are more trouble than mid third fractures, once you’re having ligament repairs in there too you’re out for a while and rehab will take longer.

Have fun, you aren’t a proper cyclist until you’ve bust a collarbone 🙄

Mine was ‘fixed’ with a plate a week after the break I was on the turbo in this time and then again a few days after the op. I was back on the road bike 2 weeks later and back on mtb a couple weeks after that. Had plate removed 6 months later and had a week off. Surgeon said it would be weak for about 6 weeks after the plate came out but said that it was better than leaving the plate in where if I was to fall on it with the metalwork in place the damage could be alot worse.
Best advice is to get it plated, my mate did his a few months after me and it was left to heal, took ages before he was back on and still struggles with full movement. Every break is different but I was glad of the quick fix.

Thanks again all, some really useful stuff. Can’t fault the care i’ve been given by the NHS but the flow of information is absolutely useless, hence the question on here.

Anyway I am nil by mouth from midnight for an 8am op, so gonna have a final sandwich in a second, pop some of the codeine type stuff they have given me, then hopefully will get a reasonable nights sleep before the surgery tomorrow.

Cheers

AC

One last thing regarding shoulder problems…

A while ago I had a rotator cuff injury such that stretching my right arm above my head was screamingly painful.

I was getting nowhere with stretching and strength exercises, but actually fixed it in one go when I was in the Maldives and tried to swim round the island.

I used an extended breaststroke from above my head right down to in front of my pelvis and no leg work – which took ages and I gave up after about an hour.

Next morning no more pain – completely fixed! Must have been scar tissue that I broke down.

Last August I went back there after my collarbone was fixed and swam round the island 10 times during the 16 night stay – each lap takes 1.5 hours and around 2000 strokes, so 20000 extended breaststrokes in the holiday, plus all the time spent snorkling (3 or 4 times a day).

The increase in musculature was quite pronounced and I would imagine that the repetitive but low(ish) strain motion should return an injured shoulder to decent health, unless there is bad impingement somewhere.

The island is Biyadhoo and it has a decent house reef that circles the island (unlike some), and the cost was something like £1650 all-inclusive.

So if you end up with shoulder problems I would highly recommend this therapy 🙂

but if you watch the operations on youtube then it is understandable.

Oi TurnerGuy, I wish I hadn’t now. 😯 It’s your fault for suggesting it. 😉

Sorry 🙁

make sure you get referred for physio, mine was too little too late and I got a frozen shoulder which kept me off the bike for months longer than needed from just the bone break, twas a nightmare. Did you get dihydrocodeine? It’ll take the edge off, great stuff.

Just broke my collarbone in 2 places last night , I knew straight away something was wrong when I could pop something in and out . Managed to cycle home up to A & E to be told It was broken , though I had a bad crash a couple of years ago at Gt which I reckon hadn’t done the same bone much good . Great nights sleep with fairly trippy dreams but feel like shite this morning. Hopefully be a bit more mobile in a few days and will get my camping trip at fort william for the world cup next month.

unlucky mate, its a right PITA. or shoulder. get it plated if you can, mine was and although the operation is not pleasant i think you can use your arm a lot quicker than if waiting for it to heal naturally. I was out of action for about 3 weeks, back to work after that and back on my road bike now after a month.

I also paid for some physio at a place recommended on another thread here, at The Physio Clinic[/url] in Ipswich – they specialise in high speed injuries and really knew what they were doing.

best of luck with the recovery