Clavicle plate surgery recovery questions

Triathlon Forum
1

Posted earlier about fractured ribs and broken clavicle, hospital for some rEason said surgery not necessary, ortho follow up last Friday said they’re on drugs and has to be fixed. Having surgery Friday, almost 3 weeks after the accident. My head was spinninng a bit since I was expecting a “6 weeks you’ll be fine” diagnosis, not surgery so didnt ask the questions I would have. Really sucks as I’m just sort of now getting over the fracture pain

How bad is the post op pain?
How many days did it last until you could switch to tylenol/etc
How long were you off work?
How soon before you started PT?
when were you able to
Ride the trainer
Ride outside
Swim
Run

I’m being told a 3 month recovery time. I am assuming this means to no restrictions. …

I’m sure theres other questions I’d have but any advice on these or other issues I should be thinking about

2

Broke my collarbone in a TT in 2008. ER doc was a cyclist and said 50-50 for surgery. My sports med doc said the same. Finally got into seeing surgeon (a Cat 3 cyclist) who didn’t want to force me, but I knew it was serious when he scheduled me next day for surgery. The 2 weeks it took before I had surgery were incredibly painful. Never been on so much oxycodone. Surgery was easy. I was off narcotics 2 days later and just taking ibuprofen. Started riding recumbent bike after a couple of days…was able to hit the Computrainer at about 1 week later. Riding outside 1 month later. BTW, I actually ran when my collarbone was broken. From my training log, looks like I was running 2 weeks after surgery. Good luck!

-Pete

3

See *** for my answers:

How bad is the post op pain?***what pain? nThe the nerve block wore off and omg that was the miost painful thing I experienced in my entire life. Ended up getting a narco switch made bc the original didn’t work…at all.

How many days did it last until you could switch to tylenol/etc****about 4 post op and I was drug free

How long were you off work? **** about 12 hours, I work for myself so did email pre op and post op.

How soon before you started PT? ****Coached some PTs never did PT started working on stuff about 2-3wk post op iirc. lost about 5% ROM

when were you able to
Ride the trainer *** maybe 3-4wk
Ride outside *** didn’t for about 6-8 weeks
Swim *** I could have sooner but maybe 4-5months. Once a fish always a fish though ymmv…a lot.

Run *** 5-6 wks or so

4

Plate and 7 pins this time last year.
Post op pain never really kicked in. They say if you get a good nerve block that can help a lot. The ribs were the worst, couldn’t cough or laugh for a while and sleeping sitting up blows.
Ditched the oxy and all the other shit they gave me, made me feel like crap, but Motrin 600 was the bomb.
On the trainer in 10 days. Could’ve earlier but was just whacked out from the meds, surgery, didn’t take decent dump for a week…that really depressed me…
Didn’t ride outside for 6 weeks and I think he said not to for 3 months but all is well.
PT has been the usual. Started it 8 weeks out I think.
Range of motion all there, swimming is fine. I just have a nasty AC bump, having done it twice. And I can feel the pins and plate. Kind of a benign pressure.
The real misery is just getting over the shock and trauma of the surgery itself. Hospitals are killers.
Good luck.

5

Here’s what I’m gonna say.
The surgery is easy, the pain is unreal. The nerve block will wear off and you’ll be in the second worst pain ever - for about 2 days.

Getting bad to training should be done as you feel.
Don’t push yourself and don’t injure yourself worse.

Triathlon isn’t going anywhere. It’ll still be here when you heal up.

But you should be able to ride a trainer in 4-6 weeks.

Your shoulder and clavicle will be constricted for some time.
Don’t push it.

The surgery to get the fixture out is MUCH easier and recovery is only about 2 weeks.
Start PT immediately after that to get the shoulder working again.

6

How long for the nerve block to wear off? Not trying to be a pain, but my wife has to be gone for a few hours Sunday (surgery is Friday ) and wondering whether I need to bring someone in

7

Like others said, nerve block wearing off was the worst, happened for me about 15 hours after surgery, which was about 3 AM the next morning when it kicked in. It was about a week for me where I was able to switch to ibuprofen, went back to wor two weeks post surgery (probably should have taken a few more days but I was bored being stuck in the house). Back in trainer two weeks post surgery for light spins, pool six weeks, run outside another month after that.

You’ll do fine, quite a few members of the titanium club here besides myself who have all been able to resume normal tri-related activities. Mine is still in coming up on nine years now and hasn’t hindered me in any way.

8

How long for the nerve block to wear off? Not trying to be a pain, but my wife has to be gone for a few hours Sunday (surgery is Friday ) and wondering whether I need to bring someone in

you’ll be fine alone for a few hrs.

9

Whoa! The rest of these stories sound awful! I felt out of it the rest of the day of surgery and then wasn’t loving life, but able to work from home, the day after. A week until trainer, 2.5 weeks until back on the bike. 6 weeks and I’m back to swimming.

I took 4 Norco (Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen): night of bike crash, night after bike crash, night of surgery, night after surgery.

I might have a high pain tolerance and my ortho pretty much wanted to parade me around for my freakishly fast rebound.

10

If you can afford surgery, by all means—get it!!! Once you have surgery, pain goes down almost immediately. For me, the most painful time was pre-surgery when the broken bones were still rubbing/crunching against each other and threatening to poke through the skin before being screwed together during surgery. On day one, the ER sent me home without pain meds and I was all alone so resorted to shots of whiskey to numb the pain in order to be able to change and shower… not recommended. i had surgery two days later and it was the best thing I could have ever done.

I was out of work less than a week but lucky to be working from home for nearly a month. My car was manual and since I broke my right/dominant hand, I couldn’t drive for nearly 1.5 months. Because a car hit me, I was able to rent a car and charge the insurance company for the expense.

Once you get surgery, things are painful but stabilized, which makes all of the difference. If you can, get an ice machine for post-op to pump ice water through the surgery site and really help with the swelling and pain. As far as activities after surgery, I think I was back on the trainer within 1-2 weeks (if you’re on a tri-bike, loosen the screws and flip the aerobars to 90 degrees to make it easier to hold onto), walking rigorously within 4-6 weeks and running around 2 months. I think riding outdoors happened around the same time as running since I was scared to get back on the roads. Swimming was the hardest and probably did not start back until 3 months. Even today I notice imbalances between my injured and non-injured shoulder and my push-up abilities have been tossed out the window. My surgeon and I were cautious but still pushing the limit since he happened to be the guy who fixed up Lance when he broke his collarbone near the end of his career (perks of living in Austin with a good health insurance plan).

I ended up doing my first Ironman (IMMT) 6 months to the day after my surgery and ended up 4th overall and earning my first trip to Kona. Don’t worry… this is NOT a death sentence—I am sure you will rebound like it is nothing! I know I certainly did!!

11

How bad is the post op pain?

as far as surgery goes, moderate. key is managing the transition from anesthesia to whatever pain meds you’ll use at home. it’s easy to think ‘i’m good–i don’t need any pain meds’ (esp if it is your first surgery), only to find that the anesthesia and whatever ends they gave you in hospital haven’t fully worn off. once you are behind, it is hard to get back in front of it.

How many days did it last until you could switch to tylenol/etc

my surgery was on wednesday. i was fully on tylenol on sunday. that said, do what you need to do to sleep. if you need the heavier stuff overnight, don’t let pride get in the way.

How long were you off work?

1 or 2 days. depends on what your job is!

How soon before you started PT?
when were you able to
Ride the trainer

i rode the trainer on saturday. biggest challenge is getting on the bike. get things set up BEFORE your surgery.

5’ of spinning on saturday. 10’ of endurance on sunday. 1h of endurance monday. intervals on tuesday.

Ride outside

22 days.

raced 30 days later (stage race). TT was solid power.

time on the trainer, if you do it right, can be your friend. you don’t have to lose much bike fitness.

Swim 
Run

no clue; i’m a bike racer.

12

I broke mine and had a plate put in last May 12.

How bad is the post op pain?

** **It hurt less after surgery than it did before.  The pain of the incision (not that bad) is way less then the occasional bone movement before surgery ;-)

How many days did it last until you could switch to tylenol/etc

I was pretty much only using the prescription pain killers at night after 4-5 days and down to just Tylenol after 2 weeks.

How long were you off work?

Surgery on Monday, worked at home on Tuesday a little, back to work on Wednesday but, I was coming in a bit late and leaving a bit early for a week or so. My biggest issue after the first couple days was I was very tired because I was not sleeping all that well. (I have a desk job - any type of manual labor would be a whole different deal)

How soon before you started PT?

Immediately, however at first “PT” consists of just moving your arm, a little. I was kind of lax as time went on but the more you PT you do the better. There is a tendency to quit once you can do daily activities. Once they put the screws in, you are 90% healed so get after it ASAP and keep it up.

when were you able to
Ride the trainer

I destroyed my bike in the crash so that held me back a bit. I did my first trainer ride at the gym 7 days after surgery but I could have ridden the day after surgery if I had had a bike, (and would have just to show off :wink: I would have gotten to the gym sooner too but I could not drive for the first few days then we went out of town for the weekend. You will be able to ride several days before you can actually get your bike inside and set up on the trainer yourself so be kind to your helpers :wink: It was a couple weeks before I could get my hand on the handlebars though.

Ride outside

5 weeks and 2 days post op my doctor released me and I rushed home and did 20 miles. I took some rides to get my shoulder loosened up enough to be truly comfortable on the bike. Within 2 weeks of getting outside I did my normal 56 mile Saturday group ride at about 90% of where I was before the crash and another 2 weeks after that I was pretty close to being back to where I was before the crash. Once you can get your hand on the handlebars and you don’t cry when you hit a bump, its just about getting back into shape, not about your collarbone anymore.

However - at 3 weeks post op, I still could not get my hand on the handlebar on the trainer for more than a couple minutes. Don’t get discouraged. The improvement is not linear. It really starts to accelerate as you get more range of motion since you then use your arm more and get more range of motion . . .

Swim

N/A
Run
N/A

13

i don’t remember the collarbone being painful either time i broke mine (had surgery the second time). it was the ribs that bothered me.

i was back on the trainer in a few days, on the road for the first time 9 days after the accident (i had surgery 2 days later).

as to if you should get surgery, i’d say if the bone ends aren’t lining up, get surgery.

i didn’t get physical therapy, in retrospect i should have, because it took me a loooong time to get back in the pool.

14

Here’s another reason to consider surgery. I broke my clavicle (along with seven ribs and a cracked shoulder blade) at Boise in June of 2014. Ortho docs said I would do fine without the clavicle plate surgery. Six months later I could still feel the bone ends moving…no pain, just very uncomfortable. Swimming was the worst as I could feel the bones coming together each time I made a stroke. Nasty!

I had what the docs called a non union. The clavicle ends just never fused together and I developed a sort of cartiledge instead. Docs said I could train through it.

I gave up after 10 months and had the surgery. I felt better immediately. For me the surgery was no big deal. I missed two days of work and recovered over the weekend. No significant pain and not even remotely close to the pain of the original injury. Because of my history the surgeon kept me off the bike for about a month. My big regret is not getting the plate sooner. BTW–I shopped for the best surgeon I could find which meant waiting two months for surgery to get on his schedule. Don’t know if the average doc would have done just as well, but if somebody is going to cut on me, I felt like I wanted to make damn sure the doc was at the top of his/her game.

Best of luck.

15

Post op pain was not bad at all. Pain for me peaked when swelling from the break peaked.

Off real drugs after couple days

Trainer a week or two later, running another couple weeks, swimming soon after, only race about 6 weeks out.

16

Crashed January 18th this year. Broken clavicle (into five pieces), a few broken ribs, and a few broken lumbar vertebrae. Had surgery January 22nd for the collarbone (plate and 12 screws).

Pain pre-op was pretty bad. Post-op wasn’t terrible. I didn’t get a nerve block, just narcotics. I switched off the narcotics for day-pain after 3-4 days, but continued to have to take one pill every night for about two weeks (otherwise I could not sleep). I was sleeping on the couch for the first month post-crash (didn’t know about recliner rentals!).

I began PT three weeks after surgery. First month was basically just ROM exercises. ROM came back pretty quickly. Next month was building strength. Still continuing to do strength exercises (on my own) 2x/wk and finally feel I’m getting back to pre-crash strength.

I was on the stationary (recumbent) bike at the gym 10 days after surgery. Started on the elliptical the day after that. First trainer ride a few days later. For those first few weeks, I kept my arm in a sling when exercising since it was basically non-weight-bearing. Tried running (one mile) a month after surgery, but found it very uncomfortable, so went back to the elliptical. Wasn’t until early March (6.5 weeks post-surgery) that I could run comfortably. I stayed on the treadmill for another month before heading outside out of fear of what might happen if I fell. Did my first outdoor ride on March 14th (7.5 weeks post-surgery). I was riding a lot on the trainer before then (thank you free trial of Zwift!) and could have ridden outside earlier, but was fearful of what might happen if I were to crash again. First swim was March 31st (10 weeks post-surgery). Was mostly waiting for strength to return and for the scar to fully heal. I was never a good swimmer and have yet to get anywhere near where I was pre-crash.

Crash meant missing Desert Tri and Oceanside, but I was able to do the Boulder 70.3 on June 13th (PRed, despite a terrible, slow swim).

I pretty much hate my plate (bothers me to sleep on that side and any pressure over it causes me discomfort). I’m going to have it removed early next month. Not sure if I’ll be able to make Miami 70.3.

Good luck and sorry to hear about your accident!

17

Pain wasn’t as bad post op as it was before.

I was sick from the meds they gave me (throwing up should be avoided at all costs fyi) so I switched off as soon as I hit the bathroom the first time.

A few days off work, although I had to have a driver

Didn’t have PT

Rode on the trainer the same week, sitting up just spinning… mainly just for something to do.
Riding outside was a decent clip, after I had started running.
Swimming was a few months
Walking a couple weeks building to running.

Doc basically told me once I had the plate in there wasn’t a lot I could do to jack it up (barring letting the cut heal) so let pain dictate. (Of course no water until wound heals)

Really my biggest hurdle was sleeping. Until you get used to it it feels like someone is stepping on you every time you lay down. I slept in a chair for the first two weeks.

GL Get better soon.

18

Posted earlier about fractured ribs and broken clavicle, hospital for some rEason said surgery not necessary, ortho follow up last Friday said they’re on drugs and has to be fixed. Having surgery Friday, almost 3 weeks after the accident. My head was spinninng a bit since I was expecting a “6 weeks you’ll be fine” diagnosis, not surgery so didnt ask the questions I would have. Really sucks as I’m just sort of now getting over the fracture pain

During a crash during a race in 2010, I had a comminuted left clavicle and scapula fracture, broken ribs and collapsed lung requiring a chest tube to re-expand.

How bad is the post op pain?

I had a nerve block before surgery. It lasted until about 1 am the night after surgery and then the pain was pretty bad. It got better with meds (Toradol), but was gone after about 8 hours and then I was on tylenol. The nerve blocks can last a longer time, mine apparently just wore off.

How many days did it last until you could switch to tylenol/etc

1-2 days.

How long were you off work?

1 week.

How soon before you started PT?

My surgeon was very conservative and I pushed him to let me do more. I was in a sling for 4-6 weeks I believe. Therapy was after there was evidence of bone healing by X-ray and CT scan which was in several months.

when were you able to
Ride the trainer

1 week in a sling.

Ride outside 
Swim 
Run

3 months for all (I believe).

I’m being told a 3 month recovery time. I am assuming this means to no restrictions. …

I’m sure theres other questions I’d have but any advice on these or other issues I should be thinking about

Good luck. I qualified for Boston and 70.3 Worlds with the hardware. If I can do it, you can!

19

My “Surgery, really???” moment went down pretty much like yours. Saw the Ortho day after the crash and he wanted to give it a week to see how things would line up. During that time I was almost ready to ditch the sling, subsisting on only ibuprofen. Thought I was getting better. Came in for the follow up and surgery was strongly recommended. I had a ~3/4" butterfly fragment free between either end that was not lining up. I was in denial until the doc stood me in front of a mirror and showed me what a shortened shoulder would look like for the rest of my life.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes and you can tell me what you want to do”

One of my first ‘big adult’ decisions with no one around for support. Almost passed out.

Had the surgery 2 days later. Once I woke up and had a day or so of recovery the change in pain, mobility, and function was night and day. Felt pretty close to normal almost immediately. Down to ibuprofen after 2 days following surgery. My one regret was not doing PT to fully restore strength and range of motion to that shoulder. Being a roadie only I have a pretty weak upper body and having the surgery did have some minor lasting effects that could have been avoided.

Ride trainer: 7-10 days?

Ride Outside: 2 weeks

First race: 3-4 weeks

Stage race: 6 weeks

In hindsight the above timeline was way too fast and should not have been followed. My body went from near peak condition (crash was 1 week before start of road season) to zero activity for a long time, to max race efforts. I didn’t spend any time ramping back up and paid dearly with inflammation in my knee that took me out for another 3-4 weeks.

Surgery can help your shoulder heal fast but don’t forget about the rest of your body. Rushing recovery by a couple days or a week can set you back many many times longer.

20

take the pills when they say because when the block ends holy moly it hurts, and it is too late. i did not take the percosets when they said and i almost went back to the hospital. worst pain ever for few hours.

just a day or two on the pills really. i think i took one at night to help sleep for a week

3 days, back to work.

PT is really just a few exercises and living your life.

i rode the trainer with the bars flipped up 1970’s style pretty quickly, a few days. did not go outside for 6-8 weeks.

i swam with fins in 10 weeks. kicked and pool ran before that.

walked on tm at incline immediately, jacked to 20% with books under the wheels and got to Z2 HR. ran outside 8 weeks later.

Did IMLP five months later and probably did not lose any performance.