Printable View
I'll know next week when I have my follow up and see the x-rays. I just talked to my doc a short time in recovery and I was pretty out of it.
Pre op xray looked kinda like thishttps://www.tetongravity.com/images/...es__forum.jpegbut with bigger fragments between the two ends.
Holy fuck. Hope for a quick stitch. Meet up for some mellow touring up the T-way in May?
Yikes! That is a pretty crazy break. You'll be good as new in no time.
FWIW I followed this routine post op and thought it did wonders for me.
http://www.massgeneral.org/ortho/ser...cal_Repair.pdf
What I did that was really really fucking dumb (even though I read it didn't help) was to take calcium supplements. I ended up with a small kidney stone :redface: So yeah, don't do that :)
Amazing what not having jagged bone ends floating around stabbing you internally will do, eh? I felt great until about 4-5 hours after I got home, then whatever residual painkiller that had been in me from the anesthesia wore off and it hurt like a motherfucker for about 24 hours. Percs helped but I spent most of the night and the following day pacing around the house trying to distract myself from the pain. After that the pain subsided quickly.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronWright
4 weeks out from surgery today and I can almost raise my arm to full vertical. At my 2-week post op I could barely get to horizontal. I can wash my hair with both hands now which is nice, and as of Sunday I'm sleeping in bed again. Been riding a spin bike no-handed, lots of walking lunges, walking on a treadmill with the incline maxed and doing 1-arm planks to try and maintain what upper body strength I can.
^check out that Mass General post op stuff. The rubber band and stretch stuff is key.
Yeah, I saved that for future reading. I'll be seeing a PT at my 6-week post op too. They'll be giving me some similar literature and "homework" then. Still non-weight bearing for now and just trying to maintain some fitness and not lose my mind.
^don't wait. Get on it!
Phase One: 0 to 6 weeks after surgery
STRETCHING / PASSIVE MOTION
Days per Week: 7 Times per day: 4-5
Program:
Pendulum exercises
Supine External Rotation
Supine assisted arm elevation limit to 90 degrees weeks 1 to 3
120 degrees weeks 3 to 6
Isometric exercises: internal and external rotation at neutral
Elbow and forearm exercises
Ball squeeze exercise
Scapular retraction
Don't know how I missed this thread but it is highly relevant to my interests, and this piece really stuck out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
I'm now 12 weeks out from ORIF procedure, reconstructed left clavicle with plate and 13 screws. Injury was comminuted left clavicle (8 pieces) from a road bike crash. X-ray looked a lot like Aaron's train wreck picture above.
In hindsight Dantheman's flexibility this soon post-op is enviable. My surgeon was adamant about immobilization, fearing I would wrench things out of place I guess, so I was in the sling 24/7 except for showers, until around 6 or 7 weeks post-op. PT started at that point and my range of motion was about zero. Now at 12 weeks it's getting better not nearly where it should be - "frozen shoulder syndrome" is the current diagnosis and the PT remains unpleasant. Strengthening is fun, but ROM sucks. Getting a cortisone injection next week which I hope will loosen things up. (I have plenty of time to work on it though, because some of the fractures are not yet healed up.)
Bottom line, I still wouldn't fight the doctor's orders and do not doubt he had good reason to delay ROM. But if you get the green light to stretch, go for it and be grateful.
Holy shit, I can see why your surgeon was so conservative. I was told to stop using the sling more or less as soon as comfort allowed, but I also had minimal comminution and only 7 screws. Good luck man.Quote:
Originally Posted by ts01
I had my one week post op visit yesterday. Doc says everything looks good. Reiterated what a nasty fracture this was, said it was pretty high energy, I can confirm. My clavicle was too long and the largest butterfly fragment extended almost to the distal end so that's why they couldn't use one of the pre-contoured plates. The post op xray looked about like strawjack's including 2 inter-frag screws but the plate extended all the way to the sternum. He said the large butterfly was augered into my brachial plexus and I'm lucky I didn't have any nerve damage. Good thing I didn't try to ski down. Back to work and "normal" activity around February 10th.
6-week post-op yesterday. Tuesday is my ortho's day off so I just met with the PT. In his words I'm doing "exceptionally well" so I'm pretty psyched about that. Still no weight bearing, but got some more exercises to continue improving ROM. Meet with the ortho and PT again on 2/1 for x-rays and hopefully get cleared to start bearing some weight again.
Good job Dan. You said earlier that you broken your scapula too, what part did you break?
The body.
Me too, not this injury but before. Takes a bit to rehab all the rotator cuff muscles, they atrophy pretty fast.
8.5 week follow-up yesterday. I've pretty much regained 100% of my ROM at this point. Ortho and PT were very pleased with ROM and liked what they saw on the x-ray, but still want me pretty much non-weight bearing. Got bumped up to 10 pounds at my side and 5 pounds extended but no more than that. It's getting harder and harder to sit on the sidelines while the snow stacks up since I feel great, but I trust them when they say I cannot take a fall yet or overload the bone. At least we'll have a fat base when I get the green light.
So, I'm going back to work on 2/21, a day shy of 8 weeks post op. If I had a desk job I would have been back weeks ago but I do a fair amount of lifting 30-50# surgical trays and transferring patients. Doc said everything looked good last week, the fracture and hardware look great. I have almost full motion and have been doing light strength training. I've been skiing carefully on groomers for since 2/5. I feel great other than AC joint arthritis from years of abuse and accidents. I still have some numbness in my pec, but I had some before from my flail chest and incision for the chest tube so it's not that much different.
I'm surprised they've cleared you to lift that much weight at 8 weeks. I was given much more conservative limits at that point.
All of my orthopedist friends, I work in the OR, have pretty much said it would be okay to go back to "normal" activity at 8 weeks. They all know what a moron I am too from previous injuries.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
I guess it makes sense too since it's your livelihood. My ortho and PT know I'm a desk jockey most of the time and can make accommodations when I do field work.
Got out trail running yesterday. Shoulder felt great, legs not so much.
10 week post-surgery check up for me today. I broke the heck out of my collarbone road biking in December. Two plates and double-digit screws. I was immobilized for 6 weeks, so rehab from the frozen shoulder has been tough. I've been rowing lightly and biking on rollers for about two weeks, but only today was I cleared to bike outside. I still have a fair amount of pain and somewhat limited range of motion. This has been my least favorite injury.
Kid on my wrestling team (I coach) snapped his collarbone a few weeks back. He kept wrestling for 30 seconds after he broke it until the ref saw something was wrong. Kid is pretty tough.
That's interesting, I've worked in the OR for almost 30 years and have never seen two plates applied to a clavicle. Do you have a pic of the x-ray? I'd be really interested in seeing this.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Suit
sounds like he doesn't take after the coach! your team must be ranked up there w Blair academyQuote:
Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds!
12-week follow up yesterday. Re-reading this thread and the other clavicle thread it appears my ortho/PT are taking an ultra-conservative approach. Kinda/sorta gave me the OK to ski (I've been cautiously skiing groomers with my 6 y.o. for six weeks, but haven't really been "skiing"), told me no riding for at least another month, and still very minimal weight bearing ("You can do lat pulls with up to 20 lbs, or 1-arm rows with 10 lbs. Next time we'll get you started on wall pushups." Oh yeah, that sounds great, thanks :rolleyes:).
Drove back to the office and promptly did a 60-second plank, 5 chair pushups and hung from a bar for 10 seconds. Felt totally fine and still do today. Ten bucks says I'm doing pullups before I go back for my final visit and xrays in 3 weeks.
I don't have x-rays in electronic form, so I have to scan. I will try to remember to do that this weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronWright
this is all I've got:Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronWright
https://tower3.smugmug.com/Other/Ran...y-plates-M.jpg
Interesting, you must have split the distal(lateral) end of the clavicle.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Suit
All I know is I don't like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronWright
Yeah, I bet. I'm doing surprisingly well, no pain when skiing and my range of motion is great. This is kinda surprising given the severity of my fracture and it being the same side as the crush injury I had two years ago. I'm looking forward to see how I feel on the bike. My biggest problem now is mental. I'm fine in pow, corn, hardpack and groomers but when I get into some stiff windcrust I have a weird reaction. It's like I'm off my game, kinda like a ptsd thing maybe.
Hmmm, broke on Nov 5, surgery on 10th to insert metal (see profile pix). No lifting arm past parallel until after metal removed Feb 9. Pretty good RoM two days later but pain stretching arm across chest. Got on bike Feb 15, three days skiing Feb 21-23. Plenty of soreness, but no real pain. Popping ibuprofen at a good clip. Heading to SLC/Jackson later this week.
Broken collarbone really sux; avoid if possible.
That is funky looking. One on top and one under?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Suit
I'm just back here to say that having my plate removed is something I'm very happy about. Surgery was easy and essentially pain free post op. I took it relatively easy for six weeks, but nothing like post op after the initial surgery. Skinning last week with a pack felt great. Not feeling or seeing the screw heads under my skin is really nice also.
Final set of xrays was Tuesday (15 weeks). Looked good, you could still see some faint lines from the breaks but a lot more bone growth compared to 6 weeks ago. Dinked around at the skate park on the BMX bike last weekend and clearly wasn't ready for that. Pushups and pullups feel fine, but going to have to stick with suspended bikes for a while.
Quite a bit of time on the mountain bike the last two weeks, never noticed it riding. Did some very light deadlifting (135 lbs) last week and could feel that, so still not quite 100%.
Deadlifted 300# for a triple last week without issue. I can also finally do full-depth dips and muscle-ups without any discomfort. Seems reasonable to call it 100% now.
I'm pretty sure I broke my scapula again on Aug. 14 (19 days ago). Wrecked on the MTB and fell on the back of my shoulder. Similar location and type of pain to the previous break (below and behind my shoulder). Hurt like hell at first to the point that I could just barely operate my car's manual tranny, then improved enough in the first week that I thought maybe I had just bruised the piss out of it. But, now almost another two weeks out and I still get wincing pain from certain movements, such as brushing my teeth, which makes me think bone is involved.
Passive ROM is actually pretty good and there doesn't seem to be any indication that a break would be anywhere that surgery is commonly indicted (glenoid neck, acromion process). It feels like the same spot as before which was the scapular body. Would I be total idiot to not get this x-rayed? Body fractures are almost never operated on, and I haven't come close to hitting my insurance deductible for the year so x-rays and an evaluation will cost me a couple hundred dollars out of pocket. I'd really rather not incur that cost just to be told "Yep, scapular body fx, take it easy for 4-6 weeks."
Edit: Talked to my PT, he said that while he alway prefers to have images wait-and-see was a reasonable approach in this case based on symptoms.
Attachment 209833Attachment 209833
Long oblique fracture (plus scapula and first rib) from slow speed over the bars to rock. Carl Basamania invented this technique - cerclage wires and an IM nail. 7 weeks post-op today - off to Cham mountain biking in 2+ weeks. Or maybe road biking or hiking....I figure if I can't have fun doing something in Cham I'm doing it wrong!
Why all the hardware people? Mine was almost compound, right in the middle. Hit a tree, brutal wreck. Yes I have a funny, pointy lump. But no pain from hardware. I'm ten years out and it feels great. Let it knit itself. You are being played by overzealous hacks.
Great. Now go put a 40 pound backpack on your funny pointy lump and go hiking and climbing for 10 days.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
Let us know how it feels when you get back.
Feels fine
How's yer 'gina?
That was a quick 10 days. I guess lumpy collar bones don't affect you couch potatoes hiding in your mom's basement.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
My 'gina (AKA your mom) is fine, I'll send her home soon.