About Hamilton's fracture

In article said:

Since there was some discussion about it in this forum:

According to a journalist I heard yesterday on a TOUR dF TV program, Hamilton has a "green stick
fracture". My wife, who works in a hospital, explained the details of it to me and I quickly forgot
most of it rather fast :-)

It seems to happen mostly to children and is compared to a twig that you break with your hands: the
parts don't get seperated.

Maybe someone else is better informed about this fracture than I am?

Well I am only informed in the sense that I have had a green-stick fracture. It doesn't require
setting and mine was splinted instead of cast. It's the kind of break that often goes untreated
since you may not be aware that it's an actual break.

For Tyler, aside from dealing with the pain, I think his main problem is risk of falling again
before it's healed, which could be a real disaster and would make him look like a fool for
racing on it.

--Paul

Quoted message said:

From: [email hidden] (Paul Southworth)

Quoted message said:

For Tyler, aside from dealing with the pain, I think his main problem is risk of falling again
before it's healed, which could be a real disaster (snip)

I might have read it wrong but that seems to be the gist of the Roche sentiment, that Tyler is
taking a serious risk he shouldn't be taking. --Tom Paterson

A greenstick fracture is generally reserved for children whose bones are still hardening. Thus their bones can (with sufficient force) bend like a green piece of wood and get cracked but not all the way through the width of the bone.

Tyler had a double hairline fracture in an inverted 'V' shape. As the pieces of bone were not displaced at all, his clavicle was not unstable. Thus it was possible for him to ride but with a lot of pain. Yes he's taking painkillers but they won't help too much and all the strongest ones are banned for professional sportspeople. He is one tough (or crazy?) cyclist.

Tom Paterson said:

I might have read it wrong but that seems to be the gist of the Roche sentiment, that Tyler is
taking a serious risk he shouldn't be taking.

If Hamilton ends up on the podium in Paris, I doubt that he will have thought the risk was
too great.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front _`\(,_ | of enough
typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of (_)/ (_) | them would reproduce the
collected works of Shakespeare. The internet has proven this not to be the case.

Paul Southworth said:

Well I am only informed in the sense that I have had a green-stick fracture.

That makes you an expert in my eyes. How painful was it?

I am riding with a broken toe at the moment. It is extremely painful when I bump into something, but
I don't feel it while cycling.....

Greets, Derk

[email hidden] (Paul Southworth) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

For Tyler, aside from dealing with the pain, I think his main problem is risk of falling again
before it's healed, which could be a real disaster and would make him look like a fool for
racing on it.

Why? What could he possibly do worse than break it? A broken collarbone is hardly a
career-threatening injury, as countless cyclists have shown.

James

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Paul Southworth) wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

For Tyler, aside from dealing with the pain, I think his main problem is risk of falling again
before it's healed, which could be a real disaster and would make him look like a fool for
racing on it.

Why? What could he possibly do worse than break it? A broken collarbone is hardly a
career-threatening injury, as countless cyclists have shown.

Because you and Tyler have some very important and large vessels and nerves running diretly beneath
the clavicle. A fall on an already compromised bone might cause it to break and and possibly damage
any of those structures.

--
Robin Hubert <[email hidden]

"patch70" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A greenstick fracture is generally reserved for children whose bones

are

Quoted message said:

still hardening. Thus their bones can (with sufficient force) bend

like

Quoted message said:

a green piece of wood and get cracked but not all the way through the width of the bone.

Tyler had a double hairline fracture in an inverted 'V' shape. As the pieces of bone were not
displaced at all, his clavicle was not

unstable.

Quoted message said:

Thus it was possible for him to ride but with a lot of pain. Yes he's taking painkillers but they
won't help too much and all the strongest ones are banned for professional sportspeople. He is one
tough (or crazy?) cyclist.

I was thinking that it could be more of a problem for other riders because pain pills tend to slow
your reflexes and dull your attention -- at least the opioids I have taken had that effect. Not a
good thing in a tight pack or on a twisting descent. -- Jay Beattie.

patch70 <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

A greenstick fracture is generally reserved for children whose bones are still hardening. Thus
their bones can (with sufficient force) bend like a green piece of wood and get cracked but not
all the way through the width of the bone.

This was what the doctor told us after examining the x-rays of our three-year-old son, who is the
Tyler Hamilton of stairways. My son was back on the bike-- and on the stairway-- very quickly and
the injury was painful for a while, but only required time to heal and no actual treatment.

--Keven.

In article said:

Paul Southworth said:

Well I am only informed in the sense that I have had a green-stick fracture.

That makes you an expert in my eyes. How painful was it?

Well I don't know how painful it would be in a collarbone, mine was an arm. It felt like a broken
bone. I fell off a ladder landed with my arm under my chest, yes it hurt a lot. Didn't try doing a
3-week tour with it that way though.

In article <[email hidden]>, James Annan

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Paul Southworth) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

For Tyler, aside from dealing with the pain, I think his main problem is risk of falling again
before it's healed, which could be a real disaster and would make him look like a fool for
racing on it.

Why? What could he possibly do worse than break it? A broken collarbone is hardly a
career-threatening injury, as countless cyclists have shown.

From what I've heard, his collarbone is not separated and not broken through, only cracked. If he
fell on it, there's a good chance it would separate and he might be having it screwed together.
Furthermore sometimes people break a collarbone and find that it doesn't knit back together easily
or quickly. In his current condition I predict he will heal up easily without surgery or other
complications - no guarantee of that if he falls again.

I agree it is not a career-threatening injury, and I'm not calling him stupid for riding the tour,
just pointing out that if he really bashed it good he'd probably regret the decision.

I read in the evening paper that the French Tour doctor (dr G. Porte) said the clavicula had 2
cracks: 1 from last years Giro and 1 from his fall this year.

Speaking about falls: I read Armstrong's TREK's chainstay broke when he fell. That didn't look like
a serious enough fall to break a carbon chainstay I would say. Strange.....

Greets, Derk

Derk said:

I read in the evening paper that the French Tour doctor (dr G. Porte) said the clavicula had 2
cracks: 1 from last years Giro and 1 from his fall this year.

Speaking about falls: I read Armstrong's TREK's chainstay broke when he fell. That didn't look
like a serious enough fall to break a carbon chainstay I would say. Strange.....

Greets, Derk

Iban Mayo rode over the back of LANCE's bike while falling.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

Paul Southworth said:

From what I've heard, his collarbone is not separated and not broken through, only cracked. If he
fell on it, there's a good chance it would separate and he might be having it screwed together.
Furthermore sometimes people break a collarbone and find that it doesn't knit back together easily
or quickly. In his current condition I predict he will heal up easily without surgery or other
complications - no guarantee of that if he falls again.

I agree it is not a career-threatening injury, and I'm not calling him stupid for riding the tour,
just pointing out that if he really bashed it good he'd probably regret the decision.

So there seems to be a small risk that by continuing riding, he might end up with a worse injury
that would take a few months rather than weeks to heal. If the tour is the most important event to
him, then I still don't see how that makes it sensible to give up on this major event, just to
slightly reduce the risk of missing out on some more minor stuff over the next couple of months.

James

In article said:

So there seems to be a small risk that by continuing riding, he might end up with a worse injury
that would take a few months rather than weeks to heal. If the tour is the most important event to
him, then I still don't see how that makes it sensible to give up on this major event, just to
slightly reduce the risk of missing out on some more minor stuff over the next couple of months.

What's better for him, 5th or 6th in the Tour or 1st in the Vuelta?

But it's his life, this is just his choice, he wants to ride.

--Paul

Heres a pic of Tylers xray - just in case no one has posted it.

cervelo.comcervelo.comOpen ↗

take care Liz

Hey! Look what [email hidden] (Paul Southworth) wrote :

Quoted message said:

In article said:

So there seems to be a small risk that by continuing riding, he might end up with a worse injury
that would take a few months rather than weeks to heal. If the tour is the most important event to
him, then I still don't see how that makes it sensible to give up on this major event, just to
slightly reduce the risk of missing out on some more minor stuff over the next couple of months.

What's better for him, 5th or 6th in the Tour or 1st in the Vuelta?

But it's his life, this is just his choice, he wants to ride.

--Paul