So as you may or may not know I stuffed it on my DH bike back in December and broke my right collarbone into a bunch of pieces. After consulting two different doctors, I made the decision not to operate, and let it heal on its own. It did pretty successfully, with a small amount of shortening of the bone as a result of the break. Now, nearly 7 months out, I've been riding a good bit, but still have lingering shoulder pain for on the order of 10 days after I do. It feels muscular, not skeletal or anything- the bone is solid, as verified by x-rays, and the fact that I've hit it reasonably hard a couple of times with no issues. Aside from continuing to try to strengthen my arm (I feel like it's back to normal strength at this point, but maybe working it more would be better?) and stretching routinely, does anyone have advice for what I should do to work on it? Aside from build a time machine and get it operated on, which I probably should have, in retrospect. It's not so bad as to stop me riding or anything, but it's far from ideal. Any thoughts or suggestion would be appreciated.
Broken collarbone aftereffects
- Thread starter HAB
- Start date
In my experience shoulders take longer to get better than any other part of the body. I cracked the top of my humerus and although nowhere near as bad as a broken collarbone it still took at least a year before it felt completely right.
Not a shoulder, but broke a wrist and ankle before. It takes a damn long time for everything to feel 100% normal again after a fracture, and sometimes it'll only get to 99%. But it took my two fractures at least a year before I didn't really think about/feel them again.
Short answer: your tendons and muscles take longer to heal than bone. If you haven't already done so, get ahold of a good PT regimen and follow it to the letter. You'll probably feel improvement within a couple of months.
Long answer: I shattered my collarbone last November (12+ pieces), so I feel your pain... I consulted three different surgeons and had mine operated on since there was very little chance of it healing to near normal on its own.
My surgeon has told me that it will be a solid year for it to heal fully, or to heal as much as it will. At this point most of the bone healing is complete but because of the extent of the damage, tendons need to reform, and I've been told this takes longer. He also told me that the muscles in the area were affected, and will now have to work differently to accomplish the same tasks, but I haven't really noticed anything like this - to me it just felt like one side was weaker (which it was).
It took three months after surgery before I got the OK to start PT. I went to 15 PT sessions and followed their regimen religiously. I've been out of PT for about two months now and have been continuing some of the PT exercises and doing strength training at the gym 3 times per week. I have seen TONS of improvement in the last three months. I had lots of weird pains early on when doing even basic exercises, but as the muscles around the area got stronger these have gradually gone away. I won't say I'm back to 100% - I still get some unsettling clicks from around the shoulder joint and weird numbness if I sleep on that side, but I can now ride DH again without any pain whatsoever. I am still a little throttle-shy though - it was a painful ordeal and it'll be a while before I can forget about it.
Good luck with your recovery!
Long answer: I shattered my collarbone last November (12+ pieces), so I feel your pain... I consulted three different surgeons and had mine operated on since there was very little chance of it healing to near normal on its own.
My surgeon has told me that it will be a solid year for it to heal fully, or to heal as much as it will. At this point most of the bone healing is complete but because of the extent of the damage, tendons need to reform, and I've been told this takes longer. He also told me that the muscles in the area were affected, and will now have to work differently to accomplish the same tasks, but I haven't really noticed anything like this - to me it just felt like one side was weaker (which it was).
It took three months after surgery before I got the OK to start PT. I went to 15 PT sessions and followed their regimen religiously. I've been out of PT for about two months now and have been continuing some of the PT exercises and doing strength training at the gym 3 times per week. I have seen TONS of improvement in the last three months. I had lots of weird pains early on when doing even basic exercises, but as the muscles around the area got stronger these have gradually gone away. I won't say I'm back to 100% - I still get some unsettling clicks from around the shoulder joint and weird numbness if I sleep on that side, but I can now ride DH again without any pain whatsoever. I am still a little throttle-shy though - it was a painful ordeal and it'll be a while before I can forget about it.
Good luck with your recovery!
Add some yoga to the mix. Find an instructor that is focused on shoulder issues.
Could it be due to the new 'ergonomics' that your body now has? Is there a possibility that the shortened bone is creating an uneven strain on your shoulder, thus causing the pain?
Dont try to hug a boulder at 40 mile an hour???
It was a tree stump, not a boulder.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it. Hearing (again) that it may well just be that the muscles and tendons take longer to adapt is reassuring.
Edit: have broken some other stuff and was back to normal faster, but previous things healed in place better without the same kind of changes to the bone structure that this did.
I think my favorite part of this picture is that it appears to be painted on a cinder block wall.
I've broken both of mine and have two shoulders that are a bit shorter than the should be, the first one I fell on my side with my arm tucked in and landed on my shoulder forcing the bone in and it seems to have stayed there.
The second one I fell and put my elbow out which forced my should sort of up and back, with the second collarbone I did some ligament damage. I did it in Feb and it still isn't much good I am seeing a physio semi regularly which is helping but it's still bad enough to force me to change trades.
The second one I fell and put my elbow out which forced my should sort of up and back, with the second collarbone I did some ligament damage. I did it in Feb and it still isn't much good I am seeing a physio semi regularly which is helping but it's still bad enough to force me to change trades.
the only lasting effects I have had from a broken collarbone was free drinks in the bar and tons of sympathy from the ladies