Broken Collar Bone Recovery - Roll Call

Several crashes were reported earlier including ST-famed Rappstar and Slowman. Wondering how everyone is doing?

My May1 crash and May 5 surgery resulted in a plate secured by 7 screws.

I have worked may way back. Running came pretty soon. I had my first club ride for 45m on Saturday. But the big accomplishment for me was 600 yards in the pool on father’s day.

Is everyone getting better quick? Hope so ! !

Several crashes were reported earlier including ST-famed Rappstar and Slowman. Wondering how everyone is doing?

My May1 crash and May 5 surgery resulted in a plate secured by 7 screws.

I have worked may way back. Running came pretty soon. I had my first club ride for 45m on Saturday. But the big accomplishment for me was 600 yards in the pool on father’s day.

Is everyone getting better quick? Hope so ! !

I swam 2 25s of butterfly today during my workout, which was the first fly I’ve swam in 3 months. So that was good. Still some awkwardness due to the nerve damage associated with my break, but all in all, things are moving in the right direction - FORWARD!

Still going to PT/OT for my shoulder and thumb respectively from a crash on 4/2. Improved considerably (easy when starting from being unable to move it). Neither are as strong as they’re supposed to be. Road shock was/is hurting my wrist on that side alot more, would end up with a pretty stiff wrist by the end of the ride, thats gotten partly better as well.

Still haven’t had anyone give me an idea of wtf happened to my shoulder, no pain, no rotator cuff damage (per arthrogram), no fractures, and no ability to move it initially.

Been able to swim and bike for about a month now and back to racing (although mooseman oly had the swim cut, so I don’t really have any idea how well).

clavicle and scapula fracture May 15th, along with 5 ribs and perforated both lungs.

clavicle was fitted with titanium plate secured by 9 screws. (yes, I am screwed). scapula left to fend for itself.

I’ve started physical therapy, but no weight bearing work with the shoulder yet.

cleared for treadmill and indoor bike. pool and outside bike is probably a few weeks away.

I’m finding physical therapy to be an unexpected challenge. It’s amazing how much it doesn’t want to move. Of course, being patient and working it is the way forward to 100% return. grrrr…

I am impressed. After my break last year, I wasn’t allowed back in the pool for 5 months. I wasn’t even allowed back on the road for 4 months. I spent summer 2009 on a bike trainer in my garage catching up on all the movies I had missed over the years. But, I am back at it, and except for the scar…it’s like it never happened!

Tip 'o the cap to all you recovering monsters.

See you all back out on the road.

Count me in. Broke mine in a road bike race last Wednesday, along with 2 ribs. Broken into several pieces right near the sternum, but not displaced. Met with the ortho today, he wants me to take the next three weeks off and get another xray then. I’m registered for IMWISC, and even if healing goes well, it’s going to take a big chunk out of training.

Damn this hurts, I’m really looking forward to a good nights sleep some day.

TCW

Welcome to the club Thom, hope your recovery goes well!

A fractured clavicle and bone in my hand on May 10th. A cast on the hand, but no surgery for either break. The cast is off and I started running a little more than a week ago. It’s still painful to raise my arm above my shoulder so swimming is out of the question. I can’t grip handlebars, so no biking either. It looks like I’ll focus on training for a marathon in the fall, although I’m still hoping to do one or two poorly trained tris in August.

One thing a broken clavicle has given me is awe of Tyler Hamilton. I still can’t sleep on my side six weeks later and that frigging stud finishes fourth in the Tour de France after breaking his on the first day of the race.

broke it 5/22 along with a couple of ribs in a few places. plate and screws on 5/25. on the trainer on the 12th day after the crash, on the road in 18 or 20 days, this is the 30th day, and after about 10 rides i’m just about back to pre-crash fitness.

fitness on the bike, that is. but the run is slower coming around. ran for 1hr today, first run since the accident. mostly it’s the ribs that are the inhibitor in coming back in the run. but, i’m back running, so i’m happy.

the swim? i can kick. that’s it. i don’t know how long that’s going to take to be able to swim again. i’ll just do what i can every day that i’m in the pool, and hopefully that’s a little more each time.

this has happened to me before, almost the same crash, but on the other side, 10 years ago. it’s very life altering the first time it happens. this time the physical effects ofthe crash were just as bad, but, it’s just not that life altering the second time. you know what to expect, you know you can come all the way back, so, you just fight to get back as quickly as you can without doing anything silly that sets back your progress.

surgery on the c’bone is something i’d recommend to anybody with a displaced fracture, as of this writing. it makes coming back much quicker. just, i don’t know what i don’t know about any side effects to the surgery. so, i have to place an asterisk there until i see how it affects me in the coming months (if at all).

otherwise, the only real difficulty has been sleeping. just too many bone breaks in too many spots, and i’ve had a hard time finding comfort. the percocet took care of that mostly, but now i’m off the percocet, and i just got a prescription for ambien filled today. let’s see if i sleep well tonight, we’ll see how that goes. i hope i don’t start driving around or fixing another dinner in the middle of the night.

Had my left clavicle plated 3 weeks ago today. The plate sticks out a bit over the clavicle at the lateral end; the orthopedist said he had to do that to keep 3 screws on either side of the fracture and put 2 screws in the middle pieces. This is giving me a lot of pain since I am a thin guy and the plate pushes up against the skin. He said that he will probably need to remove it once the bone is healed. I am still in the sling at work, but removing it at home. Starting to do passive movements, but I do have a frozen shoulder. Agressive PT probably in 3 weeks.

My scapular fracture is healing by its own judging on the x-ray. This is the injury that concerned me most, but now I am less worried.

I am up to an hour on my computrainer and feeling very good on the bike. No running or swimming yet. After having a punctured lung after the crash, I feel pretty happy to be doing what I am doing now.

Overall, I am glad I had the clavicle fixed. I am estimating a few months until I am back in full form. No racing probably until the fall.

Many thanks to the Rappstar for his comments and suggestions.

For the folks with broken ribs and / or clavicles that have problems sleeping:

the one piece of equipment that was a virtual lifesaver - a recliner. it helped big time with comfort.

unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the sexy Carbon Fiber model, so healing was slower.

Broke my right one badly on the 1st of Feb. No surgery and six weeks in a sling. All good now!

I’m about a year out after a severed thumb ligament and 12 screws to my clavicle. Pretty much back to normal in all respects save for some stiffness and residual swelling in the thumb. Could have been worse.

Dang - you are right about the no sleep thing. Forgot about that. X2 on the recliner. But it did seem like i had 11 overnight flights to Asia in a row for that period.

I can say that something magical happened about 5 weeks after the injury. All of a sudden, the pain/discomfort and range of motion improves dramatically each day. At least so it was for me.

Keep smiling. The best thing on the c-bone break is that we should all come back to 100% … not like a joint injury

Right clavicle near the shoulder during a crit on 5 June. No surgery, just a sling. 2nd ortho follow up on the 30th. Very little pain since the first couple of days as long as I keep my arm in the sling.

Several crashes were reported earlier including ST-famed Rappstar and Slowman. Wondering how everyone is doing?

My May1 crash and May 5 surgery resulted in a plate secured by 7 screws.

I have worked may way back. Running came pretty soon. I had my first club ride for 45m on Saturday. But the big accomplishment for me was 600 yards in the pool on father’s day.

Is everyone getting better quick? Hope so ! !

Fractured mine when hit by a bus june 12th last year, did a very painful 1:09 swim in IM Austria three weeks later last year. (Then ended up in hospital when some oaf pushed me over in T1 and I sliced my to the bone, got stiched up and made it to 66km on bike before collapsing.

Broken rib and bruised lower back 6/13. Already stir crazy waiting to heal. Hope to hit the trainer in a week or as soon as I can throw my leg over the bike.

i believe you said that you were going back in to talk to your doc about surgery. did you do that? what is the current thinking? i remember when i didn’t have surgery last time, it took 3 months or so but the pieces eventually did find each other. you can tell when they finally do, then just stop moving around.