broke clavicle last sunday on mtn bike and had successful surgery friday - plate and pins. usually there is no surgery but broken two places with large gap. also fracture in floating piece. i know lance was back in two weeks, but curious on mortals’ recovery. what was you timeline for stretching, swimming, biking, running and how did you transition back into each - pool running, spin bike, walking, etc ? mt surgeon is very sports focused and following his orders, but havent gone back fo recovery plan yet. i’m 41 m and will probably be over cautious coming back. would like to race usat nats and augusta 70.3
W - this may surprise you, but neither of us is Lance. Depending upon xray evidence of healing, if I trusted the road biker, we’d be on the trainer as soon as he/she could handle the pain (assuming a stable reduction) and back on their road bikes about 4 - 6 weeks post op. Again this decision is patient specific and you would be well served to get the answer best suited to you from your doc… as he/she knows exactly how stable the repair is.
I’m 4 1/2 weeks into a broken clavicle. Clean break and displaced. No surgery. 45 yrs old.
Trainer and stationary bike in first week, plus some walking.
On bikes at 3 weeks but not in the aerobars with the affected arm. Aerobars at 4 weeks, cautiously. No climbing or sprinting where I would want to pull on the bars.
Running again after 3 weeks, but I have a very smooth stride and can run with my shoulder pretty still. It’s the bouncing that is not good, so I would think most people would want to wait until 4 weeks or longer.
I’ve been in the water for mental therapy (I live at the beach) but swimming is still not an option with the affected arm.
Very important to work on range of motion.
Good luck.
Tyler Hamilton was back on the bike minutes after breaking his collar bone! HTFU, take a few pills and get training again!
i know, even my dog is getting sick of me.
Here was my timeline.
I think with plating you’re supposed to be able to get back faster because
the whole thing is stable.
Good luck.
-Jot
Yours sound like mine did a few years back; here are my recovery timelines:
Stretching/range of motion exercises - day after surgery
Swim - six weeks
Bike - two weeks (on trainer)
Run - ten weeks; doc said this would take the longest time due to the jarring that the body takes plus armswing.
FWIW - I did IMLP nine months after the injury.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I’m walking about 30 minutes each day on flat terrain, to keep my head straight.
John (or anyone) - Any benefit to the “figure 8” brace over traditional sling? My f/u appointment is next week.
From what I found on-line (see link below), the figure eight is typically used depending on the degree of displacement where the bones are reasonably aligned, but if you’ve already had the procedure then you’d probably be better off with the sling, but that’s your doc’s decision. My surgery was about 10 days after the initial injury and I tried the figure-eight in the meantime but didn’t find it that helpful (or comfortable); the sling worked better for me where I could still take it off every few hours to do range of motion exercises.
http://www.physioroom.com/injuries/shoulder/collar_bone_fracture_full.php
Just got back from doctor - 16 days after crash, 11 days after surgery (plate & 6 screws)
Today : No sling, unless I want to. Released to walk or indoor recumbant cycling. Next week okay to get in pool, but limited arm movement (no real swimming). Go back at 7 weeks from surgery, hoping to then be released to run and cycle.
These maybe conservative (Lance was racing at 6 weeks), but I have no reason to push it.
One thing that helped me when I was able to get back in the pool both in regaining my swimstroke and general range of motion in the arm was Doug Stern’s sewing machine drill. I can’t do justice in describing it but the link below was very helpful to me. Good luck!
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=782744;search_string=sewing%20machine%20drill;#782744
Did you ask when you could do the cheese roll?
A broken clavicle is not just a broken clavicle.
- just a crack all the way through no displacement
- cracked but with displacement
- cracked with displacement and possibly some “bits” floating around
- 3 plus shoulder or other injuries.
I don’t recall what Lance did, but all much of a muchness really. Bone heals quickly and well in almost all non-load-bearing cases and in my experience this is 6-8 weeks. Multiple breaks (3. & 4.) don’t mean one heals after the other, but they all heal at the same time.
I did a 4. many many years ago and had one main crack near the middle of the clavicle with a bunch of tiny fragments in the middle of the crack. I had no surgery, just had the ends pulled apart with the bits floating in the middle. Due to a subsequent re-injury that I should have gone back to hospital to have re-aligned, I now have a lovely kink in my collar bone from one end passing the other end with a slight overlap and a lovely lump at the kink joint.
I was back skiing in about 8-9 days from memory (with my arm duct taped to my body) and it was arguably fully healed in 8 weeks. I was very tentative on it for a long time, but that was really just all in my head I think. I still get phantom shooting pains in it from time to time (say once a month or so) even though it happened nearly 25 years ago!
Good luck with the recovery and take care of it very well until it’s properly healed, then give it heaps!
Im starting with sliced cheese on flat surfaces. If there’s no pain, then maybe the cheese roll.
I am amazed on how quickly you have each recovered. I fractured my humerus bone in a bike crash on may 9th. I am still in an arm sling and as of last week my fractures were still showing on the x-rays. My doctor has approved use of my trainer and elliptical (boring) - but no running or swimming yet. In fact, I can not even do an arm circle yet with my right arm. It is getting much better but not 100% yet. I hope to be running again next week after my next f/u with my doctor. I was hoping to be able to do short distance tri’s in August but my doctor does not not think I will have my range of motion back yet for swimming. Any ideas on when I will be able to swim again? Are there any pt exercises I can do now until my doctor sends me to pt?
I may not have been clear in my post. I am far from healed. I’m at 3 weeks post surgery, 4 weeks post crash. At two weeks, doc said okay not to wear sling but allows me only to walk and ride indoor recumbant bike, and limited arm movement. At 4 weeks I can do elliptical, but nothing else until I go back to doc at 8 weeks. I have a plate and 6 pins.
just joined forum, but found a post that is within my area of expertise…
couple things:
- figure of 8 brace is rarely used since it has no more benefit than a sling and really hurts at the fracture site for most people.
- humerus fracture is a much bigger injury; doubt you’ll be allowed to run before 6-8wks, but you REALLY want to follow your doctor’s advice on this one. surgery to fix this bone if you don’t heal properly is a big deal and a road you do not want to go down. you should be allowed to do limited pendulum exercises at this time if your fracture moves as a unit. if it’s still not sticky you should just hang tight and let it heal.
- your timeline is right on for taking good care of your shoulder. 8wks for ROM and maybe running is reasonable, i would personally not allow a patient to bike except on a trainer until this time as well.
good luck to all.
cheers
I broke my collarbone in three pieces, along with a few other things at the same time, and the recovery took a little bit. I had to have a bone graft done with the third piece as it broke in the middle where the handlebar hit and turn 90 degrees and came just, and I mean just, short of puncturing a lung. no pins or plates could fix so it was surgery in a day, sling for a while and then rehab since I had lost mobility from being immobile for so long. Still dont have 100% range of motion in my right shoulder and probably never will. I know that the timing on the collarbone was at least 2 months. Hard to tell though for sure since I was also sidelined by a few ribs and a vertebra. Dont rush it. Not having full range of motion is a no good thing.
I may not have been clear in my post. I am far from healed. I’m at 3 weeks post surgery, 4 weeks post crash. At two weeks, doc said okay not to wear sling but allows me only to walk and ride indoor recumbant bike, and limited arm movement. At 4 weeks I can do elliptical, but nothing else until I go back to doc at 8 weeks. I have a plate and 6 pins.
The recumbent bike works well. After finding out how much it cost to join a health club, even for 1-2 months, I opted to by a recumbent bike for $300. I used it a lot the first week and even after I got the OK to ride on the trainer. I found I couldn’t handle 100% of my time on the trainer, so I split time with the recumbent for a few weeks. Listen to your MD. I snuck in some outdoor riding after a few weeks, but only on empty “rails-to-trails” paths. Ironically, I don’t think I lost fitness from my surgery, I actually came out fitter. Good luck!
I’ve heard and read this as well and another poster fxjeff makes the same point. In my case, though, I was on the west coast when I broke my clavicle and in absolute misery on the plane ride home. Same with being driven to the ortho in a car two days later. I had a mid clavicular fracture with displacement and almost a 2cm step off. The second my doc put on the figure of 8 brace and pulled it tight so that my shoulders were back almost like a military posture, the pain was gone.
Being over 50, it was about 16 weeks before I was able to train at all and three years later, it still hurts when it rains. Interestingly enough, I could actually swim pain free before I could run pain free. It also took awhile to get back on the aerobars.