broken clavicle...surgery or not?

[moderman]

I'm going in for my 10 week post op today.. I do not feel strong enough to do a push up! thats for sure.... people talk about riding 6 weeks after a plate.. I think mine will take 5-6 months at this rate..

My ROM is not that great, dosent seem to be improving that much.. still very weak muscles.. Ill let you know what they tell me today!

 

[bsbs1876]

Hey All,

Glad to see everyone is shaping up from their surgery. I will be going in for mine this fall after waiting 3 years to have my malunion fixed. I never thought I'd see the day where I am actually kind of excited to have surgery done. My scapula has winged pretty bad apparently over the years and my shoulder is painful all around.

Please keep everyone up to date months/years down the road as I am an avid exerciser and weightlifter who is concerned with returning to 100%. I want to be able to do more push ups after than I can now (I usually have to stop because my left side gets weak and sore in the pec/trap/back). Your stories give me faith in a solid recovery! I am 25 years old so figure I should fix this while I'm young and enjoy the years ahead with a good shoulder. Worth the downtime and pain hopefully. Lucky I work a desk job!

All the best,
B

 

[ezcompany]

I'm 8 weeks post op and I just got back from my doctors. He said I don't need to see him again since my clavicle is healing just find and he can't see where it broke anymore. I asked him if I can do light jogging and he said it's find but no contact sport or weight lifting for another for months.

 

[lets see em]

wow this is kinda weird i seen my doc for my 10 week post op today he said its healing and i can work out and go back to work that it will be ok as long as i dont fall on it when i looked t the xrays i couldnt see a gap anymore but i could tell were it had been broken still i dont under stand why he said i can work out but some of you are not aloud too for another month hmm

 

[ezcompany]

Yeah man, just be very very careful. Go by how you are feeling, and don't rush into heavy weights. Just to be sure, you can wait another month or so before hitting the weights. Try working out with resistance bands for now, and do really light workout.

 

[willy81]

Originally Posted by bsbs1876 .

Hey All,

Glad to see everyone is shaping up from their surgery. I will be going in for mine this fall after waiting 3 years to have my malunion fixed. I never thought I'd see the day where I am actually kind of excited to have surgery done. My scapula has winged pretty bad apparently over the years and my shoulder is painful all around.

Please keep everyone up to date months/years down the road as I am an avid exerciser and weightlifter who is concerned with returning to 100%. I want to be able to do more push ups after than I can now (I usually have to stop because my left side gets weak and sore in the pec/trap/back). Your stories give me faith in a solid recovery! I am 25 years old so figure I should fix this while I'm young and enjoy the years ahead with a good shoulder. Worth the downtime and pain hopefully. Lucky I work a desk job!

All the best,
B

there is absolutely nothing to worry about, this kind of surgeries are rather routine for experienced Doctors.
You will feel a huge improvement even from the first couple of weeks, probably days after the surgery because your muscle system will return to its normal state.
Pay attention to your shoulder because the tendons all these 3 years have changed in size but they will get back to normal soon if you have some typical shoulder/rotator cuff exercises such as internal rotation, external rotation etc.

 

[willy81]

you can lift weights after the 10th week but carefully, it will take 4 months or more to lift heavy.

My opinion about those of us who get back to full training from the 6th week I can say that they risk to much.
I play it safe!

My muscles recover every day and I know I can't rush it. No contact for the time being but no fear that my CB will break with a small impact.

 

[bsbs1876]

Definitely not looking forward to not working out for 3 months from what I'm reading here. I'm gonna turn into a stick. How can I prevent this?

 

[willy81]

Originally Posted by bsbs1876 .

Definitely not looking forward to not working out for 3 months from what I'm reading here. I'm gonna turn into a stick. How can I prevent this?

if you have a desk job there is no problem, you will be able to do everything even the day after the operation but with some difficulty, i hope your boss is not an ass

 

[lets see em]

i went 2 1/2 months before i got the surgery then 10 weeks after surgery before i did my first workout that was something other then legs i did light back yesterday did some rows and some lat pull downs didnt hurt the collarbone but didnt feel "normal" i plan on jst ddoing really really light weight in my workouts until at least 20 weeks post op so iam hoping around the end of November i will be able to start doing heavyer weight right now i wouldnt even try to do a push up just chest press the 25 pound weights

 

[bsbs1876]

Originally Posted by willy81 .



if you have a desk job there is no problem, you will be able to do everything even the day after the operation but with some difficulty, i hope your boss is not an ass

Thanks for that info, *****, as I was also curious about that. But I was referring to working out. I'm not a big guy nor am I even a body builder but I enjoy using my Bowflex 4 times a week to keep in good shape and am a lean, toned 160 at 5'11. I am wondering how I can prevent dropping weight as a result of the surgery. I believe somebody stated earlier in the thread that they lost 20 lbs after surgery. If I did that I would look anorexic.

Early cardio post surgery and good diet? Leg exercises perhaps? Any supplements or anything? I'll also ask my doctor this but I'd love your opinions too.

Thanks,
B

 

[ezcompany]

Originally Posted by 67Rally .

Nine Weeks Post-Op (today)
Yesterday, I changed up my riding a bit and took a longer route (32 mi) with a load of hill climbs to really test out how my shoulder would handle the out of the saddle push/pull. I climbed better than I had all season leading up to the crash. My shoulder had ZERO issues and responded quite normally. The ride also included one of my least favorite environmental factors...wind...loads of it. Because of that, I spent nearly half of the ride down on the drops or on the aero bar. Just two weeks ago, the aero bar was out of the question...yesterday, it caused me absolutely no pain or discomfort.

After doing all of the exercises as directed by my PT last night before bed, I woke this morning feeling almost normal. It was eerie how good I felt. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

What kind of exercises are you doing and how to do them?

 

[willy81]

Originally Posted by bsbs1876 .

Thanks for that info, *****, as I was also curious about that. But I was referring to working out. I'm not a big guy nor am I even a body builder but I enjoy using my Bowflex 4 times a week to keep in good shape and am a lean, toned 160 at 5'11. I am wondering how I can prevent dropping weight as a result of the surgery. I believe somebody stated earlier in the thread that they lost 20 lbs after surgery. If I did that I would look anorexic.

Early cardio post surgery and good diet? Leg exercises perhaps? Any supplements or anything? I'll also ask my doctor this but I'd love your opinions too.

Thanks,
B

if you use weight lifting for fitness and not for bodybuilding then you will be able to start a moderate work out after 6 weeks.
I am 13 weeks post op and I can do Leg Squats with 45kg (barbell on back of shoulders).
For me it is good to regain strength.

People usually lose weight because they stop eating during the rehab period.
Leg curls will be fine. Leg squats is dangerous, the weight on your shoulders will break the plate easily, so stay away from Squats for at least 2 months.
You can try some kind of cardio but not running, you better try an indoor bicycle.

Generally it is not as difficult as it looks like and time passes by fast.

 

[screwed]

did you have problems with your hand in any way?

 

[screwed]

did you ever have problems with your hand in any way?

 

[willy81]

no, no problems at all until the crash where I broke my collar bone.
What about you?

 

[screwed]

yeah, bad problems, i cant use my hand. pins and needels, very painfull shooting pains that come and go every few hours, numness around for arm. docs say this sometimes happens and untill iv started physio its to soon to do anything.

quick summary: downhill mountain biker, big jump gone wrong, even though i had full body armer, i ended up with my right coller bone in 4 peaces and all over the place, surgery one week later, its now been 4 weeks 4 days. physio starts about november 10th.

 

[67Rally]

Originally Posted by ezcompany .

What kind of exercises are you doing and how to do them?

I am doing quite a range of varying exercises. Some with a PT pulley which is my warm-up. I do multiple sets of 4 position variations in an effort to stretch the muscles, tendons and ligaments opening up the RoM. I do some 8lb curls (both arms/shoulders), lifting a 20lb kettle weight with my shoulder more than my arm. I do some lunges with a super-duty elastic band (both hands, back to wall, extending both arms forward as I lunge), hand-wheel roll up and down the wall on three different axial directions. There's the hand-powered pedaling (think stationary bike for your hands) which I typically do a mile, changing rotational directions every 60 seconds.

There are others...but these come to mind as I type this.

I also ride my road bike 6 days/week. the longest ride being 35 miles to date since Sept. 11 which was my 6 week, post-op date. Most of my rides are 20-25 miles and now I have added in some substantial hill climbing with out of the saddle time to build stability during the ride. I also get down more on the aero bars quite a lot now.

I do many different types of arm lifts (no weight) at home as well as the pulley exercises. I have started working in some push ups (on my knees) as many as I can tolerate.

 

[67Rally]

Originally Posted by screwed .

yeah, bad problems, i cant use my hand. pins and needels, very painfull shooting pains that come and go every few hours, numness around for arm. docs say this sometimes happens and untill iv started physio its to soon to do anything.

quick summary: downhill mountain biker, big jump gone wrong, even though i had full body armer, i ended up with my right coller bone in 4 peaces and all over the place, surgery one week later, its now been 4 weeks 4 days. physio starts about november 10th.

Dude,

It sucks to go through this. There are certainly challenges with pain, numbness etc. I went through it and mine is diminishing by the day. In addition to my clav break, I separated the AC joint and suffered two grade III ruptures of the coracoclavicular ligaments requiring two separate surgical procedures (done back to back the same day). My injury was substantial - distal-end break (shattered into several pieces) and to believe that I am going to be close to 100% of normal was hard to imagine in the first few weeks following surgery. It is completely conceivable at this point. I just have to put in the work.

You will get there, too!

 

[bsbs1876]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. So how does the actual plate feel? I can't imagine it being much worse than the bumpy bone I've had sticking out of my shoulder for 3 years. Still awkward to throw anything over it. I am pretty skinny though so I could see myself having the second operation to remove it.