My wife hit an unmarked hazard (very large diameter fire hose, which was being used for construction on some houses) on a quiet residential road, lost her balance, landed on her right shoulder and broke her left clavicle mid-shaft. A shoulder doc has already dx via text/pics of x-ray that surgery and fixation are indicated as it is very displaced and a little bone fragment in there too. We’re getting another opinion today but don’t expect it to change the fact that she needs surgery. I’d like to know from those of you who have had it, what’s it like and what should she expect as far as recovery? She wants to be back on the bike ASAP of course.
I posted this a little while ago in another clavicle fx thread, but I had a similar, displaced midclavicular fracture and underwent an alternative to plating. I had a very good experience with the two procedures (one to put a screw in, one to remove it):
I fractured my clavicle playing rugby about 10 years ago. It was displaced and I wanted to return to athletics so I saw an orthopedic surgeon. Instead of a plate & screws, I had a single ~6 inch screw inserted along the length of the clavicle from lateral to medial to realign the 2 pieces. The procedure involved a 3 cm incision over the mid clavicle and a 1 cm incision on my upper back. Approximately 4-6 weeks later they removed the screw through the 1 cm incision, so the clavicle was realigned and I have no permanent hardware. This seems to be a great alternative to the traditional plating technique if feasible for the fracture type. No residual neuromuscular side effects, and I have no restrictions on weight lifting, ROM, doing tri’s, etc.
The surgery itself, while pretty invasive, is not bad at all. My surgery started at about 8:00 am and I was home by noon. You’re totally out on general anesthesia so just go to sleep, the doc slices you open and goes to town with the screw gun and when you wake up, your collar bone is better than new Keep 2 things in mind 1) it is necessary so you have to do it and 2) the surgery itself is way easier to get through and a lot less painful than it sounds like it would be. I was pleasantly surprised actually.
Tip - DO NOT watch any Youtube videos of collar bone surgery before you go in. Having the actual surgery is not anywhere near as bad as it looks and this is definitely one time where ignorance is bliss!
When people talk about the downsides of surgery, its the recovery they are talking about. And, I’m not sure the recovery aspects that are hard are any different whether you have surgery or not. Basically, your arm is immobile for a while and takes some time and some effort to get it back in motion. See the other threads.
My number one tip is that recovery/progress is not linear so just keep plugging away on the rehab and don’t freak out at your rate of progress. Improvement the first couple weeks can be really slow but then improvement really accelerates as you get to using your arm more and more in normal daily activities and you ramp up the rehab.
Well, I had one of the recent threads in regards to mine. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since my surgery. I’m doing a duathlon this Saturday, not sure how that will go with the clavicle. I won’t make the surgery sound all so great. The night of the surgery I was miserable…had to wake up the family and have my wife take me to ER. I needed some muscle relaxants. I wore my sling for about 8 days, which is the same day I started back on my trainer. As of today, I have really good range of motion. I don’t see really any restrictions. I can swing a golf club at about 75-80% pain free, bit afraid to take it all the way back. My biggest issues are the numbness that I have to touch and temperature, and also difficulty still getting a full night’s sleep. I wake up frequently feeling sore and stiff through the the shoulder/clavicle. As I’m sure this is true with most clavicle fxs, I sustained a lot of other soft tissue trauma aside from the clavicle fx. I hit hard, had quite a bit of whiplash, and believe i may have fractured my 3rd rib.
I don’t regret having the surgery, but I will say that could change if the numbness stays. Good luck with your decision and fast healing.
Procedure isn’t bad, was a few hours of day surgery and I was home that afternoon; PT had me starting ROM exercises right away. Eight years later only issue is some very slight numbess towards the outer edge of the shoulder since they do have to get through a nerve to get in there but it does not hinder me in any way from doing anything.
Shattered my clavicle in early June and had surgery about a week later. Went over the handlebars and all I remember is waking up in an ambulance with an apparent concussion. Was happy to have at least one race done (Rev3 Quassy Half) the week before, but the season was then over immediately although I’m very fortunate & happy my injury was not far worse. I had 5 hours of surgery with plates and screws. Here’s my x ray, taken at my Doc’s office computer.
Recovery process was quite painful and was out of commission for some time. Not wanting to be on painkillers, I quickly weened myself off to Tylenol and then nothing. Sometimes even moving your arm or bumping into something would make me take a knee. Sleeping was very difficult and I had to often sleep with the sling on. No weight bearing allowed, at least for me (still!). Gradually you can begin to take the sling off or move it to the side when you are sitting down, but in many ways the sling protected me from myself. Felt great once I got out of the sling but I still find myself waking up at night when I accidentally roll over on to my shoulder.
However, 6 weeks post surgery, I was able to begin range of motion exercises and even began getting on the trainer - something I never did in the summer. After a month of that, I got clearance to start running and am loving that. I still don’t have full range of motion in my arm but expect some PT after my next visit, for the Doc wanted more bone to grow around the plates. Swimming still not there for me yet, but I’m confident I’ll get back to my Masters group soon. All in all, collarbone recovery is hard but largely dependent upon severity of the damage. It’s been rough but I’m lucky it was not worse. Having a good Doctor is a necessity so you should chat up as many folks as you can to get good references. Although recovery rough, it’s only a bleep in the larger scale of things and to be honest, this was the most down time I’ve ever had and perhaps I needed that - especially when I became a Dad for the 2nd time one week post surgery (yes, I was useless to my wife during Labor).
I do understand why some folks do not want to take the pain killers but one thing about the pain killers is they do help you sleep. The biggest disruption to my day to day life during the first couple weeks (aside from having to get myself dressed with one arm . . .) was the sleep I lost. It is tough to sleep, both because of pain and because you very likely will not be able to be in your favorite sleep position. When deciding how much of a doper you want to be, you need to weigh the effect being awake most of the night will have on your recovery. If they help you sleep, they will help you recover faster. I was off the drugs pretty quickly during the day time (I had to be able to think at work) but I did take my Oxycodone/hillbilly heroin at night for about 10 days. It made me feel a little trailer trashy but I needed the sleep
hydrocodone did nothing for me other than make me terribly sleepy. The oxy worked great in terms of pain, but it caused me to be constipated for the first time in my life…horrible
I was on Oxycodone after having an allergic reaction to Percocet, had the same issue with getting backed up and feeling like I had to shit a brick. The day after finishing the Oxycodone was the worst hangover of my life, even after weaning myself properly off the dosages. I don’t know how anyone can get addicted to that stuff.
I had mine plated Last wednesday after going over the bars last saturday.
I put mine into 5 pieces, a plate was really the only way to go. Pain prior to the surgery was fine, which is typical for me.
When the local anesthetic wore off at about 3am Thursday morning, I was in a world of hurt. I tried to tough it out on Thursday on 5mg of Oxy every 6 hours. We eventually got that upped to 10mg every 4 and life got much better.
On the other hand I’ve had people tell me they had no pain after surgery, so a reversal of my own experience.
I’ve been out of the sling since surgery and off pain killers since Saturday night (3 days post op). I’m typing this with both hands, using both hands to change baby diapers etc. I’m lacking strength and ROM on the affected side, but recovery is going well.
I ought to be riding a trainer by tomorrow, which is 7 days post - op. I’ve been told 4 weeks post op I can ride outside and 8 I can probably “ride technical mountain bike”.
This will all be behind her before you know it. Its amazing how quickly life goes on.
I went through the surgery about a year and a half ago. Having never been through a ‘real’ surgery it was nerve wracking for me but the reduction in pain and instant usability of my arm (relatively) was a very stark contrast. I did not have the nerve block done (this is what causes the arm numb for many hours after). I still have some residual skin numbness around the scar but it is mostly an annoyance.
Now, the painkillers. I got a package deal of 4 things:
Oxycodone or derivative that served as a long-term (i.e. 1-2x per day) baseline
Something else that was a more potent 4-6 hour killer (don’t remember the name)
Anti-nausia medication
Laxative
I never had an issue with nausia but narcotics will make your digestive tract grind to a halt. The docs advised me to ‘stay on top of the pain’ (take the killers early and often) but I was down to just tylenol after 2-3 days. Which is good, because I definitely couldn’t stand to be on the narcotics any longer. They work wonders for pain but the side effects are so not worth it.
As time went on and the major post surgery pain subsided, I found the over the counter Tylenol worked quite well for pain relief. Surprisingly, it was almost as good as the heavy stuff and more than good enough to handle things after a little time passed.
I “needed” the heavy stuff for 3-4 days then only needed it at night for a little over a week more. Then after that, I carried a few pills around with me “just in case” but I was pretty much just on Tylenol for the next couple weeks.
I asked for low dose meds since I hate taking anything and feeling weird.
My doc gave me Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen 5-235. I took 1 the night I had surgery so I could sleep and 1 the next night and that was it. No other meds/Tylenol.
I would rather “feel normal” and be uncomfortable than take anything, I had no trouble sleeping without meds but I was pretty stiff and sore in the mornings.
Keep 2 things in mind 1) it is necessary so you have to do it and 2) the surgery itself is way easier to get through and a lot less painful than it sounds like it would be. I was pleasantly surprised actually.