[DH Diva]

I know what your all thinking and no it wasn't me this time! But I just got that dreaded call every spouse of an active person fears. I've done it to him many times so I guess he's just returning the favor. Anyways, he apparently dismounted his dirt bike at 35mph and broke his scapula in half. I don't know how bad and I haven't seen xrays yet, because he's 10 hours away in Boise. He described it as a longitudinal fracture starting at the top going down and slightly over, breaking it in two not quite equal halves. The doctors sounded like idiots though so I'm having his xrays faxed to me so I can take them to our ortho in the morning while he's on his way home.

Anyone have any experience with this? Any pointers, tips, things to look out for??

 

[HenryTheHammer]

Yup, nothing you can do about it. Just time in a sling for it to fix itself. One of those injuries that is going to be with him the rest of his life. Luckily the bone is small (thin) enough it heals real quickly. And usually it breaks pretty cleanly.

 

[brungeman]

Yup, nothing you can do about it. Just time in a sling for it to fix itself. One of those injuries that is going to be with him the rest of his life. Luckily the bone is small (thin) enough it heals real quickly. And usually it breaks pretty cleanly.

yeah but they said "we don't do anything with a broken collarbone" before looking at my X-rays!

an hour and a half of surgery, 7 screws and a ti-plate later, I am just getting my range of motion back.

DH Diva, to answer your question, I had a friend in HS that broke his falling out of a tree... they didn't do anything about it then, but who knows. How is he feeling?

 

[DH Diva]

Unfortunately, after getting more info from him, the fracture originates in the joint of the shoulder (right up next to the humeral head), there is a gap, and the slightest arm movement is torture. Looks like there is a chance more than just time is going to be needed to fix this one. Suck!

He's incredibly uncomfortable. Apparently max dose of percocet just barely takes the edge off. I'm looking into getting him into an ortho by Monday, and hopefully some better drugs for the weekend. He has a 10 hour drive home and the ER wouldn't give him anything stronger than 2 percocet!!!

 

[jonKranked]

wow that sucks! scapula is not exactly an easy bone to break either, and this sounds like a sh!tty one. Best wishes going out for a full recov.

 

[DH Diva]

wow that sucks! scapula is not exactly an easy bone to break either, and this sounds like a sh!tty one. Best wishes going out for a full recov.

Well, he made a split decision to let the bike go and take his chances with a high speed dismount (about 35 mph or so). They were coming through some type of wash or old creek bed, there was more of a lip on the way out than the way in and the front end of the bike came up and started to come over top of him backwards.

I'm glad he took his chances with letting go. I can't imagine getting tangled up in his bike at that speed would have yielded better results, specially since he most likely would have landed on his back while still on the bike!!! Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

 

[deadatbirth]

i broke my clavicle and know how bad it can be when trying to move you arm around. the scapula is a worse bone to break.
percocets are weak, there are plenty of other drugs out there that they can give him. just tell them that he is alergic to it and they should prescribe something more better

 

[DH Diva]

i broke my clavicle and know how bad it can be when trying to move you arm around. the scapula is a worse bone to break.
percocets are weak, there are plenty of other drugs out there that they can give him. just tell them that he is alergic to it and they should prescribe something more better

The ER he went to were a bunch of clowns. They told him Percocet was the strongest drug they could prescribe. WTF?? How about Diludid? Anything in the Morphine, Morphone category? Oxycotin? There are a lot of drugs stronger than percocet that would still be appropriate. And they didn't even give him enough to make through the weekend. They also didn't have an ortho consult on his xrays? I've gone to the most Podunk hospitals and had an ortho there to look at me. They also couldn't even figure out how to put his sling on! It took two nurses and finally the doctor coming in to put in on right. They kept mixing things up and one person would tell him one thing, another something totally different. Frustrating. He's on his way home now so he can get some real medical attention.

 

[gonefirefightin]

yep, broke it good, broke it real good

 

[DH Diva]

yep, broke it good, broke it real good

Did you have to have surgery or was just a let it heal type situation?

 

[brungeman]

The ER he went to were a bunch of clowns. They told him Percocet was the strongest drug they could prescribe. WTF?? How about Diludid? Anything in the Morphine, Morphone category? Oxycotin? There are a lot of drugs stronger than percocet that would still be appropriate. And they didn't even give him enough to make through the weekend. They also didn't have an ortho consult on his xrays? I've gone to the most Podunk hospitals and had an ortho there to look at me. They also couldn't even figure out how to put his sling on! It took two nurses and finally the doctor coming in to put in on right. They kept mixing things up and one person would tell him one thing, another something totally different. Frustrating. He's on his way home now so he can get some real medical attention.

that is why I refused medical treatment at the resort and the local hospital and drove 1hour 45minutes to go to a real hospital... I am sorry he is in pain... good luck keep us posted.

 

[Reactor]

Shoulder injuries suck! If it involves the joint get him to an real Ortho doc as quickly as you can. It may turn out there is really nothing they can so, but any injury involving the joint is nothing to fool with and be pretty debilitating.

 

[gonefirefightin]

Did you have to have surgery or was just a let it heal type situation?

surgery with lots of hard ware and wimpering like a woman.

 

[DH Diva]

surgery with lots of hard ware and wimpering like a woman.

Where was the fracture on the blade??

So I went in to my Ortho and they are going to look at his xrays on monday and see if it's an injury they can deal with. It they can't deal with it, he's most likely headed to OHSU in portland to see a specialist. I just talked to my PT and she is going to take a look at his xrays for me tomorrow just to make sure there isn't reason for more urgent attention. I told her I thought the break was in the joint and she indicated that could be pretty serious. All I can say right now is I'm really glad we bought supplemental accident/disability insurance!

 

[jaydee]

I cracked mine completely in half like a cheap dinner plate bailing on to a sharp rock. It hurt like hell, but the ER doc told me it wasn't broken so I went to work the next day. My buddy was a radiologist at the the hospital where I was working and he called me in the next day to look at the films and showed me the fracture. He said I should be in agony, but no brain no pain I guess. I didn't even miss a day's work as a physio; I just favored the arm for a couple of weeks and slept sitting up. It hasn't bothered me at all since. The glenoid fossa wasn't involved, so it didn't have any long-term effect on the shoulder joint. Lucky me.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Jeezus.

Good luck to your ol' man.

 

[Silver]

Ouch. I had a bone bruise on my right scapula and it hurt like hell.

Time to stock up on the happy pills...hope he gets well soon.

 

[DHS]

yup. right scapula. 4 seperate cracks. also fractured my shoulder cup. hit big drop on hardtail. slammed into tree. the force flipped me up over the bars. then my back hit the tree. upside down.

THEN. the 2 peeps watch said i rotated in mid air twice, before slamming into the ground

the 8 firemen carrying me out was the best part. just under a mile to get me out of there.

right anyway.

arm in sling for a couple of months. then SLOWLY. and i mean SLOWLY. work out with the medical rubber bands.

my father went thru this same thing. just not as bad as a crash as me. but he was 49 when he dislocated and fractured his shoulder. guess thats what happens when he followed me down a steep trail.

 

[Lady Gravity]

ouch! healing vibes to your guy dh diva. drugs are good mmmkay

buddy of mine just broke his collarbone in 3 places though.

 

[TreeSaw]

Ouch!!! Definitely get him to a real Dr. and get it sorted out! Healing vibes comin' your way!

 

[deadatbirth]

The ER he went to were a bunch of clowns. They told him Percocet was the strongest drug they could prescribe. WTF?? How about Diludid? Anything in the Morphine, Morphone category? Oxycotin? There are a lot of drugs stronger than percocet that would still be appropriate. And they didn't even give him enough to make through the weekend. They also didn't have an ortho consult on his xrays? I've gone to the most Podunk hospitals and had an ortho there to look at me. They also couldn't even figure out how to put his sling on! It took two nurses and finally the doctor coming in to put in on right. They kept mixing things up and one person would tell him one thing, another something totally different. Frustrating. He's on his way home now so he can get some real medical attention.

its bullocks they didnt even know how to put a damn sling on. like others have said, ive driven distances just to go to a real hospital.
ask them if they can give him meperidine. its similar to morphine and it helped me through lots of broken bones. i think they still are prescribing it, so ask your docs for him