# Broken Collar Bone... How to recover, what's the downtime?



## kjmccarx (Apr 3, 2014)

Broke my collar bone two days ago. The tip of it came completely off, I could actually feel the piece moving around before I even went to the hospital. I was along and had to walk 3miles out. Luckily there were some nice (and trustworthy AND trusting) people who went in to get my bike and gear. The bike is about $2000 and I had a pair of nice glasses and a $700 knife in my backpack, and they gave everything back to me.

Anyway, I'm going to a doctor on Thursday, but what's the average downtime for an injury like this? It's very painful, but I should have full range of motion when the pain subsides. I know this is a common injury, so what advice do people have?


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

If you broke it at the very end as you describe, generally you'll need surgery with pins to hold it together for the healing stage. It's unfortunately the worst way it can break. The more common breaks happen farther up the clavicle and they heal faster and without surgery.

How fast you heal and how bad it really is and how good your doctor is will determine your off time. Unfortunately this kind of clavicle break is not the typical throw your arm in a sling for a few weeks fix. You'll know for sure after you see the dr.

Sorry to hear. I hope it's better than it sounds. It's too damn early in the season for this!

My whole back and shoulder area on this side have never been the same after I went through this-2003. Constant muscle knots and muscle pain to this day. Not horrible, just annoying. My break was from a motorcycle accident. The orthopedic surgeon warned me of this possible lifetime pain.

Make sure you do your excercises they prescribe to you. I didn't and can't help but believe that may have contributed to my poor healing ( 9 weeks with the pin before it could be removed) and now constant muscle tightness, knots and light pain.

I wish you good news from the dr.


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## kjmccarx (Apr 3, 2014)

thickfog said:


> If you broke it at the very end as you describe, generally you'll need surgery with pins to hold it together for the healing stage. It's unfortunately the worst way it can break.more common breaks happen farther up the clavicle.
> 
> How fast you heal and how bad it really is and how good your doctor is will determine your off time. Unfortunately this kind of clavicle break is not the typical throw your arm in a sling for a few weeks fix. You'll know for sure after you see the dr.
> T
> ...


Sorry to hear about your pain. I do hope mine is not as bad nor chronic. The good news my "season" is every day of the year, so I have had a very good season up to this point.


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## ibadfish (Apr 22, 2012)

Broke my collar bone in half in the middle a few years back. Surgery was going to cost about 5 grand to place one screw in the bones to mend the break. I wasn't insured at the time so it was a bit out of my price range. Basically I was given a sling that pulled my shoulders back to help the bones mend. It was uncomfortable and I didn't really use it. Took about six months to completely heal. I had regained full range of motion in a few weeks but couldn't really lift much or put a lot of pressure on my arm. The worst part was sleeping on my right side, used to be the side I'd fall asleep on. I now sleep on my left side. I'm completely healed now and have full strength in my arm and have full range of motion. You can feel the edge of the bone at the break and I have a bump on my shoulder. Every now and then I'll have a little discomfort but it subsides quickly.

Hope you heal up quickly dude.

Is that 700 dollar knife that gerber legend? Can't believe somebody would pay that much for a knife but to each their own.


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

Plus brushing your teeth and wiping your ass become hard if you've damaged your dominant side. And be sure you do those tasks in that order as wiping with your unfamiliar hand takes practice. ;-)

Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk


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## ibadfish (Apr 22, 2012)

thickfog said:


> Plus brushing your teeth and wiping your ass become hard if you've damaged your dominant side. And be sure you do those tasks in that order as wiping with your unfamiliar hand takes practice. ;-)
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk


Ain't that the truth. Luckily I broke my dominant arm a few times as a kid so I'm fully ambidextrous now as an adult.


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## kjmccarx (Apr 3, 2014)

Luckily I do have insurance, but I still hope that I don't need surgery. Good to know that ibadfish has full range of motion with very limited pain. 

For some reason my tasks seem to be evenly split between my two arms. I wright and throw with my left hand; but eat, brush, and wipe with my right (which I broke). Oh, and driving my Jeep which is stick is now a whole lot different. Luckily I got a bit of practice shifting with my left hand back in high school because I would hold hands with my girlfriend, so I guess that paid off .

Oh, and I'm a flight student, but I think that I can still fly since my right hand, for the most part, only controls the throttle and presses a few buttons. 

Btw, I did not pay close to $700 for my knife - it's a FOX Carbon Titan (Utility style blade)


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## tea&busquets (Jun 12, 2014)

Sorry to hear ablout your injury. I too broke my collar bone in mid May had metal plate & several pins inserted by the Dr. In a sling for 2 weeks post op then physiotherapy after that. My advice is to do all excercise the physio gives you & eat healthy ie milk for calcium, fruit & veg for recovery.

The physio really helps your recovery after surgery I was told to do it hourly which I did and now 4 weeks post op I'm riding again. 

Hope you get well soon


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## Cayenne_Pepa (Dec 18, 2007)

With Surgery = 6+ months downtime + therapy

Without Surgery = 7 weeks downtime

Eat lots of Apples, which contain Boron - a bone mending mineral. combined with 1200mg/day of Calcium and Vitamin D3 you should see pretty rapid healing. Also, bump your caloric intake, as your body burns through lots of it, just to heal. Lastly, you need minimum 10 hours/day of pure REM-sleep bed rest too.


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## kinsler (Sep 13, 2011)

Zachariah said:


> With Surgery = 6+ months downtime + therapy
> 
> Without Surgery = 7 weeks downtime


??
Really...

Clavicle Fracture (Broken Collarbone) -OrthoInfo - AAOS


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## mtbike52 (Feb 11, 2008)

I broke my left collarbone at the end of March. A little over 3 months now and finally feeling comfortable on rough trails and hitting some drops and jumps. Seemed to take forever to show much bone growth but it getting pretty strong now.


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## Procter (Feb 3, 2012)

Another here. Broke mine yesterday. Wasn't doing anything particularly hard or dangerous, just cruising along and transitioning from light to shade with dark lenses, and hit some rut and went down hard. I have it on video, seriously there was no reason to crash there at all. Such is our sport.










I'm glad it's a break and not a ac separation.

I'll go to orthopedic doc Monday and look into plates.

Wish me luck!


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## thickfog (Oct 29, 2010)

Get well soon guys.


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## coling (Jul 31, 2012)

Snapped mine this week. Miraculously no surgery. Specialist said it will fuse within 6-8weeks.


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## Can-Am (Jan 23, 2009)

Broke mine as well . Aug. 6 on trail 258 Beauty Creek / Caribou Ridge N.Idaho 
Had surgery in Spokane the next day ( Dr Smith mtbing doctor ) Hopefully should 
be up and riding within 6 weeks cuz i'm bored to death .


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## Vegard (Jul 16, 2009)

Zachariah said:


> With Surgery = 6+ months downtime + therapy
> 
> Without Surgery = 7 weeks downtime


Having been through both a normal healing process and a surgery I can say that the above has not been the case in any of my breaks. Surgery was always the quickest route.


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## Procter (Feb 3, 2012)

Agree. 

It totally depends on the break, each break is different and has a different recovery. 

Mine was a distal fracture (outer break, on the end) which means your ac holds the broken end down and the trap pulls the inner segment up. It will never union like that, and surgery is necessary. 

I was riding road in 10 weeks and riding mountain soon after. I even had a light fall on it at 14w and it held up. Now I'm at about 17w and it's virtually 100%.


It totally depends on where the break occurred, whether it's comminuted (fragmented) and other factors. Some breaks will heal fine without surgery (therefore surgery would slow down recovery by adding swelling and trauma). Others NEED surgery to heal at all.


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## ask (Aug 18, 2009)

*deleted.*

posted to the wring thread... sorry


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## patski (Dec 12, 2005)

Zachariah said:


> With Surgery = 6+ months downtime + therapy
> Without Surgery = 7 weeks downtime


Depending on your age/severity, surgery is almost ALWAYS faster, sometimes quite a bit.

Check your surgeon's ratings. I went to a renowned local Ortho, was back riding in 7 weeks(I was 57 at the time). A buddy with almost the same break the month before was down for 15 weeks and you could feel the screw ends. He finally had them removed so he could wear a camelback comfortably.


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