hello, I recently fractured my shoulder blade last week due to a bike crash. My orthopedic surgeon told me that the fracture continues into my glenoid (shoulder joint) and my recover time will be longer because of that. I know that this tri season is over for me, but i signed up for my first Ironman in France next year. The race isn’t until June of 2013, but my doctors told me that I may not be able to swim until another 6 months and that I may never be as fast as I use to be. That was a huge surprise. I didn’t think this injury wold effect my ironman training. This news is a huge disappointment. I though I would be swimming in 2 to 3 months tops, but what do I know. Luckily I don’t need surgery I was told to leave my shoulder in a sling and maybe in a month or two I will start physical therapy. I have no idea when I will be able to run again. I plan on getting back on my trainer as soon as the pain diminishes. Does anyone have any advise or has experienced a similar situation? What was your recovery time like? What kind of training did you do to during this process? Any information at all will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Crystal
So sorry. Get lots of calcium 
I can’t offer any advice beyond that.
Does anyone have any advise or has experienced a similar situation? What was your recovery time like? What kind of training did you do to during this process? Any information at all will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Crystal
Similar, but not identical experience. Tomorrow will be six weeks since I broke my collar bone and shoulder blade in a wreck. Today was my first day back on the bike outdoors, although I was on the trainer 2 1/2 weeks ago. My shoulder blade break was not as extensive as yours, but I did have the collar bone to deal with. My advice is to not get on the trainer until your doctor says it’s okay. Definitely do not use the aerobars or put any weight on your broken shoulder blade for at least the first 4 weeks. If your wreck was as bad as mine, you probably have some damage to the soft tissue of your shoulder, too (tendons, ligaments, muscle). You’re likely to feel a lot of that once you can move the shoulder without fear of pain/damage to the shoulder blade.
When you DO start working out again, listen to your body and don’t push though pain, especially sharp pain. You’re better off easing back into it and assessing your IM fitness later than risking overdoing it early and setting back your recovery by months.
Sorry to hear about your accident: Here’s my experience. Fractured my entire scapula up into the glenoid also (and quite a bit of soft tissue damage as well - e.g. labrum, rotator cuff, nerve damage, etc.). It happened in Fall of 2005. It was really, really (really) painful for weeks. I was in a sling and started PT several weeks (maybe two months) after my accident. I couldn’t do much in PT for a while. The harder I worked in PT the worse it got. I ended up getting “frozen shoulder”. My ortho told me in December if it didn’t progress by January, I would have to have surgery to “release” the shoulder. It was by “accident” I discovered a pattern and got a bit of relief. Ortho also wrote a script for me to get cortisone injection. After speaking with half a dozen friends about cortisone shot(s), I decided not to do it.
I was going to PT twice per week on Monday and Wednesday. By chance, one week near the holidays I had a 7 day rest period between appointments. I noticed slight improvement (slight). I had another 7 day rest period between PT appointments and then my Dr.s appt was rescheduled from early January to the backend of January. If I had gone in early January, I probably would have gone under the knife. I made some slight progress when I had my follow up at end of January and upon further discussion with Dr., I went ahead and had the cortisone injection done.
I followed Dr.s orders to the “T” and it was textbook case as to what I would feel and when. I had to keep my arm / shoulder still for two weeks with the exception of “finger crawls” up the shower wall 2X per day. After two weeks, I had made some major progress. I gave it another 2 weeks of keeping my arm and shoulder very still. After that (total of one month), I got most of my range of motion back and the inflammation was down. From there, I made good progress and continued (re-started) PT.
(side note - just about all of the people I spoke with initially about cortisone injection, I found out later, the reason it didn’t work for them is they started training again right after their injection and didn’t allow proper time to heal and therefore it wasn’t effective for them. I followed Dr.s instructions and it was “spot on”).
I didn’t race in 2006 but I did one race in 2007 (crashed - one mile into the bike potion of 1/2 IM and called it a season). Came back strong in 2008.
I think you’ll be as fast as you were. It has no bearing on running and no bearing on cycling. Swimming … I don’t think I lost anything. If I did, it wasn’t much. I wouldn’t worry about it.
My advice to you - let your body heal. If you’re on a trainer and pushing your body, it ultimately takes away from the healing process. If you’re lucky, you could be back within a couple of months and you will have PLENTY of time to prepare for IM France. If you try to do too much too soon, it will set you back (ask me how I know). 
Best of luck !
Nine years ago I went over the handle bars in a bicycle crash and broke my scapula. The break was through the spine of the scapula, and did not require surgery. Healing and recovery were very slow, probably because of my age. After six or eight weeks I could use an elliptical trainer, but it was about eight months before I was released to run, and fully a year before returning to normal run training. Swimming was another story. In short, I went from being a poor swimmer to basically a non-swimmer. Even now, after a few weeks of easy pool sessions, the shoulder feels like it was broken yesterday. Sort of takes the fun out of it. Hope your outcome is better.
Tripped on a trail run Jan 9th. Sheared off the edge of the glenoid socket. Operation January 23rd.
Little to no activity for 2 months. 3 months no swimming.
Went through extensive rehab with a great PT guy. Near the end of my term my session was almost 1 hour+.
Started back in the pool end of May. I’ve got about 140,000 yards in now. No real issues with the “bad” shoulder
…except…extended periods in the aero bars it starts to ache!
***FYI…easily one of the most painful injuries I’ve ever been through.
Good Luck,
Mark