bugg3r

andi1363

Came into a tunnel too fast and hit the door mirrorof an x5 with my shoulder. Summer is over already

Mikey23

Ouch, that doesnt look good!

chris_bass

the bone doesnt look good, neither does the half of a ruler someone has inserted into the top of your left shoulder

motogull

Get well soon matey.

Old_Timer

Ouch, looks like its plate and screws time for you :shock: . That one sucks. Heal up and take things easy in the mean time. Ugggh

Monty Dog

Some people do crazy stuff to get a titanium fix ;-)

andi1363

The Doctor I saw in A+E said he would leave the fracture to heal but no riding for 10 - 12 weeks due to the severity of the injury :? . Fortunately, a clubmate and friend is also a consultant ortho surgeon and He's seeing me today. I am hoping he will plate the fracture.

When I crashed, I also gashed my knee down to the bone.

I ended up back in hospital last night. All day I had been getting a whiff of something nasty! I thought the cat had bad wind. When I got into a bath, the smell became stronger and it was apparent it was my knee!

The dressing had filled with blood. Xray and bloods to assess the infection then IV antibiotics.

keef66

Well that's put my broken spoke into perspective :shock:

You seriously saying they'd leave a collarbone break like that to mend on it's own without any surgical intervention? Surely that'd leave you looking like Quasimodo??

Take all the painkillers on offer and have a speedy recovery.

Colinthecop

Respect for remembering to take pics... 8)

Old_Timer

That looks nasty where your knee has become infected. Good for you on getting back for the proper antibiotics, bad infections can wreck you entire day :shock: , trust me on this one. Its shocking that the A&E doc said to just let that degree of bone separation just heal up, your club mate should plate that one so it will heal and be joined up correctly. Stay frosty 8) and heal up, losing more than a summer isn't really productive for your cycling and for staying alive. :roll:

andi1363

Getting a plate now 8) . A week Monday providing the knee infection is better. It would be tomorrow if it wasn'tfor the knee!

term1te

I'm no medic, but you appear to have a tiny hand on one of your ribs.

I hope it all heals up well and soon.

homers_double

Andi,

Looks exactly like my knee did several years ago, apparently there was no way of stitching it so I was prescribed Iodosorb, a special zombi cream that eats away the dead flesh leaving the new stuff to grow back.

The downside being that I smelt like an old bin for a few weeks.

photonic69

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Very nasty looking break. I had very similar fracture about 8 weeks ago. Had to have op and plated. Only just out of sling yesterday.

Here's my fracture for comparison.


The two red lines are where the bone should join. Bloody hurts doesn't it?! Make sure you get lots of Tramadol for the pain. Good luck with the op.

janesy

not much point in posting,

I shattered my collarbone on the 31st May. Titanium hardware installed on the 10th June.
That's the worst bit, WAITING. Take all painkillers. You need to. I Was on; tramadol, co codimol, oramorph parcetemol and I brufen. So much pain was a nightmare.

I'm now 4 weeks post op (Tuesday) and I've been out of the sling full time for 1.5 weeks. No real lifting but want to tell you it does get easier!! I've also been on my turbo everyday since 1 week post op. Things are looking up. Start driving this weekend and riding on the road after my5 weeks. 1 more week... Can not wait so excited. No doubt it's gonna hurt like hell. Good thing I still have some tramadol

In a nut shell - it hurts, it gets better.

-

jameses

Old_Timer wrote:

Its shocking that the A&E doc said to just let that degree of bone separation just heal up

FWIW, the image looks like the x-ray tube was angled up to exaggerate the extent of the separation of the bone fragments on the image. They're probably not as far apart as it looks, and usually they will only plate a fracture if they feel it won't heal by itself given time (NHS funding issues and all that).

Still nasty, though. Take good care of that knee, it could give you worse long term problems than the clavicle if it doesn't heal up properly. Hope the road to recovery isn't too long!

southdownswolf

Hows the bike? :shock:

CStar

You just all want to be Cav really don't you?!

Get well soon.

cougie

Jeez poor sod.

When you say you hit the wing mirror - was that an oncoming car or one you'd caught up ?

andi1363

cougie wrote:

Jeez poor sod.

When you say you hit the wing mirror - was that an oncoming car or one you'd caught up ?

Oncoming car but she had pretty much stopped.

andi1363

southdownswolf wrote:

Hows the bike? :shock:

I am unable to really check it thoroughly but it looks OK. A mate collected it from a local who agreed to store it, and they thnk its ok!

neil.s

It's not just me then?

I got taken out by some stupid bint on a roundabout on Monday night. Thankfully my clavicle is ok, turns out it's just my scapula and ribs that have broken. Oh yes, and my wrist on the other side.........

Thankfully the wife has been off work to help with washing/shaving/pissing (no shitting yet due to the amount of morphine I've needed!).

She's going back to work tomorrow (probably because she's had enough!).

Apart from a couple of minor scratches and a buckled front wheel the bike's survived. Same can't be said of my Rapha shorts and Gabba jersey that they cut off in A&E......


Hope you have a speedy recovery dude

Mikey23

A year on from plated clavicle and two bust ribs here. Pretty much back to normal and riding more than ever. Slight lack of confidence particularly on fast descents where i tend to be hanging on the brakes more than i used to but otherwise no worries

janesy

A year on? I'm hoping to be riding full tilt by 6 weeks post op. I'm 4.5 now.

photonic69

I'll be lucky if I'm riding anything decent a year after my crash. I had massive nerve damage to my right arm/hand
I'm just getting feeling/movement back after nearly 3 months!

andi1363

andi1363 wrote:

southdownswolf wrote:

Hows the bike? :shock:

I am unable to really check it thoroughly but it looks OK. A mate collected it from a local who agreed to store it, and they thnk its ok!

Quick look today. Both wheels are buckled and won't spin. Look DIYable but the wheels do have alloy nipples :roll:

Rest of the bike looks ok but I am not mobile or strong enough to certain.

Sleep comes in 1 - 2 hour bites and the last hour of the tour usually sends me off :oops:

keef66

"Both wheels are buckled and won't spin. Look DIYable but the wheels do have alloy nipples"

Don't assume the worst. I'm replacing a spoke in a 7 year old RS10 and the (alloy) nipple unscrewed with minimal effort and no sign of corrosion. I was pleasantly surprised!

Old_Timer

JamesEs wrote:

Old_Timer wrote:

Its shocking that the A&E doc said to just let that degree of bone separation just heal up

FWIW, the image looks like the x-ray tube was angled up to exaggerate the extent of the separation of the bone fragments on the image. They're probably not as far apart as it looks, and usually they will only plate a fracture if they feel it won't heal by itself given time (NHS funding issues and all that).

Still nasty, though. Take good care of that knee, it could give you worse long term problems than the clavicle if it doesn't heal up properly. Hope the road to recovery isn't too long!

Alright, hadn't thought of that angle for the imaging. Still, the ends not together is asking to have it stay separated and not rejoin the ends. Hopefully the OP will be fine, I'd hate for him to suffer needlessly.

photonic69

I now know quite a bit about clavicle fractures - both myself (see above x-ray) and my son have both suffered this. He being a young kid with more bendy bones got of lightly.
When a total fracture occurs as in this case the body geometry is thrown out. The body itself will try to correct this as best it can and naturally the action of the muscles and ligaments in that area will try to straighten the bone and it will start to fuse in an approximate position. No, it wont be perfect, and yes, it will be lumpy, but in most cases the shoulder will function in a perfectly normal manner with a good range of movements. They will usually allow 2 weeks to see if the body is aligning itself to a satisfactory geometry and shape. They will x-ray the area again to see what movement there has been before deciding if intervention is necessary or advisable. Surgery is not a thing to be taken lightly. There are a whole host of risks associated with surgery under general anesthetic and the surgery itself runs very close to some big arteries running into the arm. It is quite easy to nick one with the scarple and this is not good. Also in a percentage of cases the bone wont heal as the body will reject the plate. Surgery is not the panacea that all of you call for with a clavicle fracture. It can also lead to discomfort years later with carrying backpacks etc and further operations to remove.
In my case surgery was necessary as after two weeks there was no movement at all, leaving my shoulder over an inch shorter on my RHS which would cause mechanical problems with the shoulder. I also have massive nerve damage by the fracture impinging on the Brachial Plexus nerve branch.

I have had surgery 7 weeks ago and I'm glad I did for the above reasons. The bone is healing well and I can start proper physio on my shoulder. The nerve damage will take many more months to get better. Maybe years. Who knows? But it is making progress and I can wiggle my fingers again albeit slowly.

Hope you get a great surgeon too. I was lucky and he was a perfectionist. An eccentric, but very good. I've seen x-rays of clavicle plates that look like they were done by 'cowboy builders'

Before:


After:

janesy

That does look good, Im waiting to see mine when I visit the specialist at my 6 week appointment.
Reading these stories, it does seem I got off quite lightly even though my break was a bad one. only nerve damage is a 2cm patch above my armpit. I havnt even thought about it.

I hope the OP goes well and heal fast!

thegibdog

PhotoNic69 wrote:

Surgery is not a thing to be taken lightly. There are a whole host of risks associated with surgery under general anesthetic and the surgery itself runs very close to some big arteries running into the arm. It is quite easy to nick one with the scarple and this is not good. Also in a percentage of cases the bone wont heal as the body will reject the plate. Surgery is not the panacea that all of you call for with a clavicle fracture. It can also lead to discomfort years later with carrying backpacks etc and further operations to remove.

What he said. Not plating every fracture isn't just money saving by the NHS, if the bone can heal itself it's usually preferable in the long term. I had to have mine done as I'd also broken my scapula, giving me a floating shoulder, but the surgery resulted in a pneumothorax, nerve damage/numbness and ongoing soreness. (I have to say that my metalwork didn't look anywhere near as neat as yours Nic.)

Hope you heal up well OP.