Your doc is about right on. A broken collar bone is normally 6-8 wks in a figure 8. You'll probably find running the easiest. I wouldn't ride until it's healed.

Ray-

Sorry to hear about your broken collarbone. My wife broke her's in April, so I've seen the comeback up close and personal. It certainly is a painful experience.

She was a triathlete and now just races road at a high level. I can't speak for the swimming running or picking things up, but her orthopedist told her that pain was her limiter in what she could do. She was on the trainer for two hours two days after the crash riding sitting up with her arm in a sling. As she healed she gradually was able to lengthen her trainer rides and put her hand on the bars, first the tops, then in the drops. After three weeks she was back on the road (closed conditions, smooth surface) and after five was racing on the NRC again.

Now, all that said, she was in A LOT of pain, and five months later it still bothers her some. The doc we saw was really agressive and his goal was to get her racing again as soon as possible. We were told that the figure 8 brace was a relic from 10 years ago and doesn't do any good.

Good luck with your recovery.

I discussed my experiences with a recent break here ;

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...g=collarbone;#197233

It is now 8 weeks and I can swim without fins but I have not tried any hard swimming. Running and biking 100%. Don't push the recover too hard if you don't have to, I gave up my half Ironman, it was hard but it is early in the season here and I am approaching 90% fitness and have caught back to where I was. I know others worse than me who broke it 6 months ago. Hardest thing is not listening to all the heros that will tell you to train through the pain, Tyler Hamilton this and that !

I hope your left arm is your non-dominant arm. anyway, you are indeed looking at about 6-8 weeks depending on how bad the fracture is. is it a multiple fracture, are the bones displaced? stationary biking tomorrow may be asking a bit much, but that's for your body to tell you. don't do anything stupid is the main thing. as the bone heals, work with him on restoring range of motion. after about 1-2 weeks, the bones should set and you won't feel stuff moving around in your collarbone; this will help a lot.

riding the bike on the road, you can push it. I did some riding at 5 weeks after getting a collarbone surgically pinned; it was not pleasant. I would not push running. I have no idea on swimming.

you say you don't remember falling. this could imply a concussion or a head injury. was there any loss of consciousness? even a minor head injury can be debilitating, although it sounds like you just blacked out for a second. warn the doc if you struck your head, and watch out for headaches.

personally, if I were to break any other bones, I think I would break a rib. I have broken enough collarbones, which are normally among the less debilitating bones to break. I think ribs are similar in severity, as long as the fracture isn't displaced too much.

Ray

I broke my collarbone last year at the Ottawa Half Ironman.

My experience:

a) happened at the end of August so considered my season over (i.e. no rush to get back into things)

b) nothing for two weeks

c) after two weeks I could ride my road bike. Had to watch the bumps and couldn't pull up on the bars

d) after 6 weeks I started to run. I could probably have started earlier but I didn't want to train through the pain.

e) eight weeks started swimming again. Mainly drills for the first month (i.e. no pull sets!)

d) ten weeks started back in the gym

f) took about four months before I though I was back to 100 percent. Even now if do too much I still feel a little soreness in my shoulder.

My advise is take your time getting back into things. With added rest you're getting you'll come back strong.



Good Luck

Trevor Syversen

PS The "full Nelson" shoulder harness is worthless! :-)

Hey ray, I'm right there with you brother. I broke my collarbone on August 15th (warming up for the Muddy Buddy). Clavial breaks are not all the same, but urge you to get into a figure 8 ASAP. Don't wait for one to come in, go to the drug store and buy it yourself. I got out of the sling and into a clavical brace and felt better instantly. It won't improve your mobility, but it will take the pressure off of your next and arm. Much more comfortable. The increased mobility will come as the bone starts to heal and the swelling goes away. Once you start feeling better you need to resit the temptation to work the shoulder too soon. I've had a few instances where I "forgot" for a minute and reached for something only to put myself back into serious pain. My other advice is to wear your brace 24/7. I only remove mine for showering. I'm just over 4 week in and it feels a whole lot better now. My Orthopedist says 5 more weeks in the brace and they I start PT. As I said though, not all collarbone breaks are the same, so be careful taking my or anyone else's advice if it conflicts with you doctor.

Good Luck,

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Gary Mc
Did I mention I did Kona

Yep, broke that sucker a few years ago (snowboarding). I have to agree with Gary MC on this one - go out and get a figure 8 type sling. I started off with a normal sling for a few days and then was given a figure 8 by my Doc - the best thing ever. I found that my range of movement with the normal one was limited as everytime I tried to move the bones would shift and pain would be quite unpleasant. A figure 8 pulls your shoulders back and takes some of the load off the fracture - and more importantly, reduces the likelyhood of your shoulder getting pulled in towards your chest (which hurts). This is probably most important during the first couple weeks as the bone starts to set. Once you're passed week 3-4 you might want to think about using the figure 8 on and off - because I felt it was like a security blanket, i.e. very comfortable and I could do way more with it on. I slept with it on for a very long time though as I was paranoid that I would roll over in my sleep and mess up my shoulder again (and figured the brace would provide some support if I did do this).

You still need to take it easy for a while though. The figure 8 will help with day-to-day things but you're gonna have to lay off the training for a good 8 weeks. After about week 6 I was using a liter bottle of water as my free weight to get my shoulder used to some load and movement. By week 8 I was in the pool floating around trying to build up some muscle. I didn't do any biking or running for quite a while. I think anything with impact or vibrations during the healing phase isn't good.

Oh, and I drank a ton of milk. I don't know if this helped but at the time I thought it would. My collarbone healed really well and has taken a beating since so it's pretty much as good as new.

Hope that helps.

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------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

Actually, studies show that there is no particular advantage of figure of 8 vs a shoulder immobilizing sling. Maybe if the bone is totally displaced.

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_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

"you say you don't remember falling. this could imply a concussion or a head injury. was there any loss of consciousness? even a minor head injury can be debilitating, although it sounds like you just blacked out for a second. warn the doc if you struck your head, and watch out for headaches.
"

I agree here.

You might be able to ride on a trainer or exercycle, totally sitting up???
Aqua-jogging might work.??????

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_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

Ray I have broken my collar bones five times, this is what I have learned.

Slings are for outside breaks near the shoulder they support the weight of the arm for comfort reasons. Figure eight braces are used for breaks middle to near the neck, they prevent motion again for comfort.

With either break an arm sling will get you more pity and stop you from using that arm for the things that will really hurt like picking up that 25lb kid or opening doors for women.

I had one of my breaks surgically fixed and that was a very big expensive mistake, the plate weakened the bone and I broke it again under the plate the surgery knocked me back weeks in recovery an then a second recovery when it was removed. Even badly disjointed breaks will find the other end and will grow back on their own. Not that we even need collarbones!

What you need to concentrate on is range of motion, work on getting that arm working right away. After a fracture the body sends out repair cartilage like threads that will locate the broken ends. These threads will calcify and harden. The threads that are in muscles or joints after hardening cause a lot of pain as you beak them down. If left immobile there will be a lot freeing up to do and you may even loose range of motion in joints. The impingment is 80% of the pain that you will feel if you keep it immobile.

Your doc recommended doing what you can, use his advice and get back out there. There isn't much chance of further damage the bones already broken.

This is an area where active recovery works, use of the arm will pump blood and oxygen to the break and promote healing.

For my last two breaks I immediately started motion streaches on my arm. This reduced the swelling and stopped any impinging. I have raced Olympic distance races 3 days after a break, 1/2 Iron 3 weeks after and at the same time had a complete heal in six week putting me back at full fitness in 8 weeks from the break.

I did cut back to one arm swims and reduced yards for several weeks but within a week I was on full training for run and bike.

Training and racing will take the mental sting out of the break, it will promote healing. If you are like me it's easier to hurt while training than it is to wallow in pain doing nothing. As far as Tyler is mentioned the every day pain of the break would have been there if he quit, plus the mental pain of the quit.

Gonnagitcha