Anyone ever broke thier collar bone?

[03 svtvenom]

I wreaked my brothers 4-wheeler this weekend and snapped my right clavicle into. Now I cant work out or drive the cobra. :fm:
I went to the ER and got put in a sling and 8-point brace. I will hopefully get to see an orthopediest tomorrow. Just wondering how long you guys were down and out of work? I know it depends on age too. I am 31 and in good shape and consider my self pretty healthy.
Hopefully I am not going to need surgery. Thanks, Ryan

 

[FL-Orange]

Sorry to hear man, that sux. I've never broken my collarbone but my buddy did sliding a kneeboard into a dock trying to spray a dog. He was strung up for less than a month. Took him a bit longer to try to spray the dog again.

 

[Uncle Meat]

I've broke my collar bones 3 times. Twice on the right, once on the left. Never broke any other bone in my body either. All three breaks were done on two-wheeled vehicles... I have/had a propensity when racing BMX or MX and crash to hit my collar bone on the handle bars...

You'll have decent mobility in a couple weeks, but don't try lifting or using your arm to support yourself. It'll take 6-8 weeks of wearing that figure-8 brace before it's healed.

U.M.

 

[BDF8]

^ what he said. I turned mine into an A frame doing some back yard football at a BBQ. Some advice is to go get some full button down shirts if you dont have them already or O' boy are you gonna be in some pain

 

[AF EOD]

My roommate just broke his collarbone a few months ago. He was out of commission for about a month. He was still able to do little things but it was painful to lift anything. The doc said there was nothing he could do for the break and it would have to heal on its own. A little over a month later he was able to start working out again and now his left shoulder sits a little lower than his right, barely noticeable though.

 

[03 svtvenom]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Its my first broken bone so im kind of paranoid.

 

[Sirhc7897]

Broke mine last April (flipped a ATV) and really knocked myself out. Ended up having to have surgery because I turned my right collarbone to powder. Grafted in a 6" piece of cadaver clavicle grafted in.

Had the surgery 2 weeks after breaking it, spent 1 month in a sling, another month out of the sling but with serious mobility restrictions & then a 3rd month with medium mobility restrictions....

So roughly 3 1/2 months before I was cleared to go back to normal activity. It's been right at a year and I still have some pain and not quite all my strength in it (I'd say it's about 95% now...)

Doctor told me it would be about 2 years total before the bone was truly 100%...

 

[Double"O"]

broke mine when i was in high school and my god that some pain!! (and i've broke a good number of bones)

 

[03 svtvenom]

Broke mine last April (flipped a ATV) and really knocked myself out. Ended up having to have surgery because I turned my right collarbone to powder. Grafted in a 6" piece of cadaver clavicle grafted in.

Had the surgery 2 weeks after breaking it, spent 1 month in a sling, another month out of the sling but with serious mobility restrictions & then a 3rd month with medium mobility restrictions....

So roughly 3 1/2 months before I was cleared to go back to normal activity. It's been right at a year and I still have some pain and not quite all my strength in it (I'd say it's about 95% now...)

Doctor told me it would be about 2 years total before the bone was truly 100%...

Ouch!! I feel lucky compared to you.

 

[03 svtvenom]

broke mine when i was in high school and my god that some pain!! (and i've broke a good number of bones)

Pain is hit or miss. Depends on how I move. Its a clean break but its pointing up sort of like a triangle poking into the top of my shoulder.

 

[Double"O"]

Pain is hit or miss. Depends on how I move. Its a clean break but its pointing up sort of like a triangle poking into the top of my shoulder.

mine was pretty sore for about week and then just sorta sore after that for 3 or so weeks

but the initial break OMG that hurt lol

 

[Blackness03]

my buddy broke his collar bone 2 weeks ago on a 4wheeler. we was drunk and decided to take it down the driveway

 

[jrock817]

just hope you broke it in a spot that doesnt need surgery, then you should be fine as long as you are careful and dont over do it. good luck man

 

[Sirhc7897]

mine was pretty sore for about week and then just sorta sore after that for 3 or so weeks

but the initial break OMG that hurt lol

My pain was real funny how it hit:

I flipped the quad next ot a highway and hopped right up and flipped it back over no problems (no pain at all). When I flipped it I realized the handlebars were crushed into the gas tank. I went to reach into my pocket with my right hand (broke the right clavicle) to grab my phone and get my buddy to bring his truck to load it and then holy hell the pain hit and I liked to black out.......I was OK as long as I wasn't moving it but when I was in the ER later and the X-Ray tech had me setting up for X-rays I liked to black out again. They were worried initially since they couldn't "find" a large chunk of my clavicle (since it turned out that I had turned it to powder so fine it wasn't showing up in the X-ray) that I was potentially at risk of having the "missing" part of my clavicle puncture my lung.......

Worst part of it all for me was sleeping:
-I couldn't lay down and sleep for the 1st 2 months so I had to sit up in the corner of the couch and "try" to sleep. Really meant I spent about 8 hours a night in pain without sleeping.....

But after that was the absolute worst part for me......I like to sleep on my stomach with my right arm up over my head and that was a no go for easily 6 months after I was cleared for normal activity due to the intense pain and pressure I felt trying to put my arm in that position.......Not sleeping good for about 7 months really begins to screw with your emotions..let me tell you.....

I did get back on the Quad after I was healed but never had the nerve to really hang it out like I used ot and ended up selling it to my buddy.....

Next toy I get for off road use will have a roll cage.....:beer:

 

[SVT03Chris]

Yup broke my left one playing football. Still today this today when people talk about breaking their collar bones or if I even read it I cringe up and get chills.

 

[kirks5oh]

figure 8 braces have not been shown to alter healing/outcomes after clavicle fractures---and they're uncomfortable to wear. if your orthopedist insists that you wear one, then see another orthopedist, as he is clearly not up to date on the new literature/studies. there's also been a move to operate on more clavicle fractures---

without seeing your x-rays, i can't give you any more advice than that. good luck.

usual treatment involves avoiding contact sports for at least 3 months, and no vigorous overhead activity for at least 6 weeks. other than that, you can pretty much do your normal daily activities within reason.

 

[03 svtvenom]

just hope you broke it in a spot that doesnt need surgery, then you should be fine as long as you are careful and dont over do it. good luck man

Its almost exactly in the middle. And thanks

 

[03 svtvenom]

mine was pretty sore for about week and then just sorta sore after that for 3 or so weeks

but the initial break OMG that hurt lol

Yes, it took me about 10 minutes to get my breathing regulated.

 

[03 svtvenom]

figure 8 braces have not been shown to alter healing/outcomes after clavicle fractures---and they're uncomfortable to wear. if your orthopedist insists that you wear one, then see another orthopedist, as he is clearly not up to date on the new literature/studies. there's also been a move to operate on more clavicle fractures---

without seeing your x-rays, i can't give you any more advice than that. good luck.

usual treatment involves avoiding contact sports for at least 3 months, and no vigorous overhead activity for at least 6 weeks. other than that, you can pretty much do your normal daily activities within reason.

I will have to wait and see what he says about the brace as this is all new to me. I have the x-rays on a disc they gave me but I cant save them to my computer or I would post them up.
I am just concerned about how much work I am going to have to miss. I work in a lab so I need alot of range of motion but dont lift much weight.

 

[Sirhc7897]

I will have to wait and see what he says about the brace as this is all new to me. I have the x-rays on a disc they gave me but I cant save them to my computer or I would post them up.
I am just concerned about how much work I am going to have to miss. I work in a lab so I need alot of range of motion but dont lift much weight.

If you can open them to view them you can use the "printscreen" function and then paste them inot paint and save as a image file.

My X-rays were the same way (some viewer program they provided) and that was the only way I could save them....