Dcv

so i got hit by a car 2-1/2 months (10 weeks) ago, broke my collarbone in 3 pieces. I got back on the bike 6 weeks after the accident and have been riding since. It feels fine now, doctor said no restrictions and i'm even playing golf again.

thing is i just went for follow up / xray and my collarbone is still in 3 pieces. Dr said it could take as long as 6 months for it to grow back together. he said i'm on the fence between surgery / no surgery. i don't get why it's still in pieces and doesn't hurt. i have full range of motion - even more than my other shoulder that had surgery from another bike crash 7 years ago (i really don't crash that much)

i know a few of you guys here have also broken your collarbones, did it take that long to heal? is this unusual?

longjohns

mine took about 8 months to completely heal. at 6 it was fused back together but was still sensitive to direct hits.

Jaytron

I was back on the bike in about 6 weeks also. I definitely don't feel mine is at 100%, I broke mine back in May.

TejanoTrackie 

I've broken mine 3 times. Once on the right side and twice on the left side. The last time it took about 6 months to completely heal and I had occasional flareups of pain. The best thing you can do is constantly move your arm with windmills and such to break down the scar tissue formation that has a lot to do with discomfort.

longjohns

when i first broke mine, my coach (i was playing football) told me it was just dislocated and had me do windmills to pop it back in. didnt work.

jimmytango

+1

kyttyra

My broken collarbone developed a pseudoarthrosis. It needed a surgery in which a bone implant was taken from my hip and the whole mess was bolted together with some pieces of ti. Those had to be removed in another surgery - before due time because I had another accident in which half of the bolts which kept the pieces of bone together were ripped free. Fortunately the collarbone was already ossified when that happened and did not break again. The whole thing took almost two years to heal completely, and now all that remains are a scar in my shoulder and some dead nerves where the bone implant was taken.

Fortunately the public health care in Finland was/is mostly free.

Dcv

Wow that sucks, 2 yrs is a long time.

Thanks all for the responses, sounds like it will just take more time to heal. Guess the biggest risk is crashing again while it's still healing.

Muffin Man

I broke mine mid july, and im completely back to normal. I march with a sousaphone on that shoulder almost every day too...

qmsdc15

In my experience if you don't see a callous forming yet, it's probably not going to heal without surgery. I've broken collarbone three times that I can remember but doctor saw evidence of a previous fracture on the left one so maybe 4 times. I have one non-union.

merlin55

single break in my clavicle, it didn't heal....after a couple of months I'm told the broken ends have healed shut and are unlikely to fuse together. Had surgery at 4 months, they jab the healed ends of the bone, smear a little bone epoxy (removed from inside your hip bone) and then line up the pieces and screw it together with 7 dry wall screws and small metal plate. After a month I was back on the bike and it was good as new. Next time I will have the surgery ASAP.

Kinkikowboi

Broke mine during football at the beginning of finals week. Took 3 months of summer and a month of the next school year to heal completely. Bones fused together, if you look at my shoulder, it looks pointed haha.

jerknextdoor

broke mine back in february. I was back on my bike about 5 or 6 weeks later, seemed okay at the time. but I wonder if that's why I had problems for a few more months. I reinjured it at the end of July, bad news. It's stiff, not really painful anymore. I don't have 100% motion, but I think it's slowly coming back.