While mountain biking yesterday with some of my try buddies I took a nice spill and landed on my shoulder. Its a good thing its off season as I have some time to recover. I really didn’t want a set-back though. I guess I’m gonna get fat over the holidays.
One friend was directly behind me and saw the whole thing occur. He had to turn hard to avoid me. We have a few inches of granular snow on the ground in addition to some soft sand and dirt areas on our mb trails at Ft. Custer recreation area in SW Michigan. I was feeling pretty good getting on my m bike for the first time in a year and we were finishing up our second 8 mile loop. there was a flat section prior to a drop off immediately followed by some turns. I was setting up for the turns when I went over the drop off and had my front wheel push out from underneath me. It happened so fast that my immediate instinct was to tuck and roll. I landed hard on my shoulder and my head followed with a good smack. The hit rang my bell pretty good, but it didn’t crack my helmet (must have been the gore tex cover). I got up and my shoulder hurt, but I didn’t think it hurt enough to be a broken clavicle.
I got back to my truck and got out of my wet stuff and did the symmetry check - no broken clavicle, good. I thought maybe it would work itself out, but after a couple of hours at home my wife convinced me to get some x-rays. Sure enough, 2nd degree separation. Out of commission until no more pain. A doc buddy of mine says that I need to wait until I am pain free before I start doing anything otherwise I could prolong the healing process. It kind of sucks, with no swimming, no adventure racing next weekend ( the paddeling and the zip line would be impossible) or any other activities where I have to use that arm.
Any thoughts on supplements to speed the healing process?
Hey, hey…welcome to the club! I’m 8 years running on a 3rd degree separation. Ended my weight lifting career, but started all this endurance nonsense. Enjoy your new friend…
ice, ice, ice, ice!!! Don’t rush back into activity…that was my problem.
The biggest pain in the ass of AC separation is that 95% of your friends on going to confuse it with a dislocated shoulder made famous from that scene in Lethal Weapon. Urgh…
It seems you didn’t mislay your sense of humour in the crash
Now you will have time to do all those maintainance jobs on the bikes you have been over looking. That’s a good idea as it means no heavy lifting and just cleaning and tightening of small movements.
Sorry to hear of your crash but it seems you have come to grips with it, well done, your body will heal soon, enjoy the downtime.
It’s a good thing it didn’t completely dislocate. There would have been no question as to what was wrong, and you wouldn’t have waited a few hours before going to the doctor (because your shoulder would have been about 3 inches lower than it should have been). You’ll heal up pretty quickly, especially if you give it some help.
After a couple days, try applying heat to increase the bloodflow. Most of the pain and injury is to the soft tissues that stabilize the shoulder. Unfortunately, some of these soft tissues receive little blood supply and as such they heal slowly. Increase blood supply and you speed up healing time.
Also, I’d get started on rehab exercises ASAP. Movement increases blood supply and helps stretch everything out. And as such it will speed up healing time. Swimming is definitely bad, but rotator cuff exercises are a good place to start. My wife has horrible shoulder problems (like, one dislocated a few weeks ago when she was putting a gallon of milk in the refrigerator). She’s got healing time down to about 3 weeks.
I crashed and separated mine, grade III, the weekend b/f Lake Placid. The pain was unreal and it hurt BAD!
As soon as it stopped hurting to breath I began one armed swimming using Zoomers. I did that for 14 weeks! Riding th etrainer with one arm was not a problem. Took 8 weeks to begin “smooth” running with no bounce to control pain.
I still have a hard time riding due to the complete separation and the clavical pushing way up if I stand to climb. FYI, a broken clavical would probably be much better and faster fuller recovery.
The good news is that it is a great time for refection, and I really haven’t lost much fitness. If it is going to happen, it is a good time of year.
In 2001 I smacked into a dog and did a 3rd degree AC dislocation. This was exactly 3 months prior to IMLP. was back biking in three days and was running and swimming in 3 weeks (although I don’t reccomend this, it was pretty uncomfortable). I was able to do IMLP that year.
Don’t start swimming or running as soon as I did unless you like pain. You can get back to biking very quickly, especially if you start by riding on a trainer. It would be wisest to hold off swimming and biking for about 6-8 weeks. Expect the AC joint to ache for about a year or so especially after swimming or weightlifting. It will make some great crunching noises which you can use to gross out friends at parties. Good luck.
BTW, supplements won’t do squat except put a hole in you wallet. Just eat a healthy well balanced diet and save your money for the important stuff, bike gear!
The best thing to do is try to get cuddly with a PT. When I did mine he had me in almost immediately. Stim, ice and rehab. Hurt like hell, but it helped. Other than the tell tail little bump, it’s as good as new.
You definitely have my sympathy. I’m just barely cracking into swimming and my right shoulder is popping and cracking and hurts. Turns out swimming bugs a longtime fibrotic adhesion at the bicep tendon, earned from years of abuse doing weighted dips, etc.
As much as injuries suck, I’d say you should be thankful. When I went down in a criterium earlier this year, I knocked my head hard enough split the helmet. I earned about 10 mins of amnesia, and suffered from spins whenever moving my head too far (any swim drills, getting out of bed, laying down, etc) for 4 months.
As far as speeding healing, I suggest seeing a physical therapist, a good one, right away. Do lots of web research, as I’m sure there’s plenty of valuable info out there for free (i.e., whether to ice or heat it, etc).
How about buying yourself a Computrainer as a survival and “I deserve it” gift? BTW, if you clunked your head, toss the helmet and get a new one.
I’ll repeat the advised PT appointment. I seperated mine 4-5 years ago in a ski race. It hurt for a few months and never really got better completely. 4 years after the accident, I saw a specialist that diagnosed a seperated shoulder injury. He sent me to a PT that set me up on a set of exercises that made the shoulder feel pain free within a month of starting the exercises. I stopped the exercises and have not had problems since then. I guess mine wasn’t as serious as some, but the exercises really worked quickly for me. Good luck with yours.
RB – Sorry to hear about your injury … shoulder injuries can be exquisitely painful. In Nov. 02, I suffered a serious shoulder/rotator cuff injury on the job (I was a police officer at the time and I was fighting with a bad guy). I tackled the guy as he ran and we both landed on my left shoulder on pavement.
The pain was intense, the worst I’ve ever felt from any injury. I was out of work for 3 months, and in PT for 4 months. The PT was painful but effective. I opted for a medical rather than surgical repair (for surgery, I would have liekly been out of work for upwards of 1 year).
My advice, find a good PT with sports medicine training. And then do exactly what they say. Better to progress slowly rather than rush the healing process and risk further injury.
I had my right shoulder separate in a motorcycle, wet road mishap , ( acromeo clavicular joint) typo ?} I had surgery with pins sticking out of the top of my shoulder. I feel your pain .
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Eeks! When I had a third degree separation I found that my biggest problem was getting into the the pool too soon- TAKE YOUR TIME!! and losing muscles in my back as well, get exercises so the groups around your shoulder too- that’s where it hit me. Good luck I was able to snowshoe and even ski without poles on the flats in a sling (if you are comfortable on them). A kickboard in a pool can be a good thing too.
Thanks for your kind words everyone. I’ll be patient with my recovery. No adventure race this coming Saturday.
Its actually not too bad today, but, I’ve limited my range of motion and effort to move my arm. Something about pain being a reward isn’t too intriquing.
No thanks on the percoset. I have plenty of Tylenol 3, just so I can sleep through the night. In fact, I didn’t use any last night and was just fine. The pain is less every day, so the ice and anti inflamatories are doing their job.
The last time I took percoset for pain was when I got burned. After 10 days I was addicted. Nasty stuff, don’t ever want to go through that again.
I separated something 3 weeks ago, and I feel 140 pounds lighter. Swam Like a fish last night for the first time in years. Farley is kind of lonely and my house is quieter. But I doubt any of my friends will miss her.
