Went down hard. Broke ribs and clavicle. Any suggestions?

[TimD]

From painful experience, lots of good advice here. As for pain management: You're a cyclist, you like pain, no?

That said, I don't see a lot on mental strategies for dealing with injury and optimizing recovery. There's a fair amount out there, read up on it. One common theme is that injury is often part of the deal with active sports and should be treated as such.

Hope you are back on the bike soon!

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by pdxharth

I’m wondering how long it will take before I can move around easier and get back to work. As a teacher, every day I miss can be a wasted day for my students. Right now, I am thinking I will take tomorrow off and try to get back on Wednesday but I don’t know if that’s realistic.

In my case (high speed crash resulting in 6 broken ribs and a broken scapula) I crashed on Thursday, and went back to work part-time (5-6 hour days) the following Monday...and that was a really foolish mistake. I should have taken the entire week off.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

In my case (high speed crash resulting in 6 broken ribs and a broken scapula) I crashed on Thursday, and went back to work part-time (5-6 hour days) the following Monday...and that was a really foolish mistake. I should have taken the entire week off.

Concur. My last crash wasn't even broken ribs, just badly strained intercostals and a week was too soon. I prolonged my recovery by going back to work too soon.

[CaptStash]

Originally Posted by pdxharth

So much good advice here, thank you all for taking the time.

I was already told by the ER doc that surgery wouldn’t be necessary. But it seems from a lot of experience here but it may be a good idea to look into. I

YES! Go see a sports orthopod ASAP. They told me the same thing in the emergency room, and I would have been pretty messed-up if I had taken their advice. According to the orthopedic surgeon I saw when I got back to Seattle (I crashed in California), surgery was a necessity and not an option (mostly because of the broken scapula). Remember that in the emergency room their most important job is to get you stable, safe and then out of there.

Best of luck on your rehab. I am a few years older than you and went pretty quickly for me.

CaptStash....

[earlfoss]

From what I understand, there's a push these days to avoid surgery for broken clavicles. When I broke mine, the ends were pretty far apart and yet everyone but the surgeon said that I should let it heal on its own. That's the boilerplate they give sedentary people.

Had I not gotten surgery the healing time was projected to be 6+ months, and with the way it was broken I was definitely looking at functional issues down the road. Having surgery put my collarbone on a reasonable healing schedule (6 weeks) and the geometry of everything in there is much closer to what it was before the accident than if I had let it heal on its own.

[John H.]

+1 on this.

Go see and ortho- sometimes you do not get the best and fastest healing advice in the ER. You only get "what we need to do now to stabilize you".

My collarbone healed lumpy, crooked, and shorter than the other-

Originally Posted by CaptStash

YES! Go see a sports orthopod ASAP. They told me the same thing in the emergency room, and I would have been pretty messed-up if I had taken their advice. According to the orthopedic surgeon I saw when I got back to Seattle (I crashed in California), surgery was a necessity and not an option (mostly because of the broken scapula). Remember that in the emergency room their most important job is to get you stable, safe and then out of there.

Best of luck on your rehab. I am a few years older than you and went pretty quickly for me.

CaptStash....

[Chris]

I crashed June 5th. Broke my clavicle in multiple pieced. Required a plate and 7 screws. Fractured my scapula in 3 places, broke 3 ribs and punctured my lung. Had to have a chest tube and was in the hospital for 3 days. Like the poster above, I went back to work the following Monday (crash was on a Tuesday) which was way too soon. I'm still not near back to normal. Lots of dysfunction in my shoulder; weakness and impingement pain which my PT tells me is from the scapula problems and muscle atrophy. It's going to be a long road back to normal. Good luck with your recovery.

[thunderworks]

Nothing to add medically, but when I broke my collarbone last year I made the mistake of lying around looking at bike magazines. I ended up ordering a bike I didn't need.

Boredom can be expensive.

[Patb095]

Originally Posted by pdxharth

Went down hard. Broke ribs and clavicle. Any suggestions?



For those who know Portland, I was near the bottom of Northwest Lovejoy in the S curves. It was wet. I slowed and the first curve was fine but the second was completely slick. My front tire went right out from under me like it was on ice. I landed on my shoulder and head, got the wind knocked out of me pretty good. My head was OK, as my new helmet did it’s job well. Thankfully, no cars were involved. I broke three ribs and my clavicle. Needless to say, I’m feeling pretty banged up today. They’ve got me on Percocet, Which works ok but not great, though I did sleep surprisingly well.



I’m sure many of you have been in similar situations, this is the first time I’ve ever broken a bone, and I’m 52 years old. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.



PS – the voice to text function on the iPad is pretty cool.

I’ve been down that road and the biggest challenge I faced was to built up my confidence back to my front tire and my front brake.

It took me 2 year to overcome this and I succeed by learning cornering technics.

1*- just remember front brake is your best friend on dry
2- lowering your center of gravity
3- use your body and your bike as a full suspension system : weight on external pedal , hands on drop , weight off your seat, relax and let the bike do the work.
4 do not steer, lean the bike.

Good luck !




Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

[verbs4us]

Sorry to hear, but glad to hear you're well enough to post. A few years ago I went down on black ice and broke a scapula and rib (and bruised my ego). The orthopedic surgeon said: "No NSAIDs. Just Tylenol for pain for first 3 weeks." Yikes! His reasoning is that NSAIDs inhibit inflammation and weaken bone healing. He is a man of few words, and said: "Inflammation is how the body heals. If you turn off inflammation, bones don't heal as strongly or as fast." Hard to tell if he was right. I did heal fast (for an old guy) but it was pretty bad for a few weeks. As I told my wife, it hurt only when I breathed.

[pdxharth]

I really appreciate hearing all the stories and advice. It helps to know this is a common thing and all will be well.

Today is surgery. 2pm. Tonight, the healing begins.

I’ll post more on the Wabi Woolens Facebook page if anyone is interested. But truly, I would love to hear all your stories, especially those of you who are currently in similar recovery situations.

Keep the rubber side down!

[ripvanrando]

Hold the broken ribs when you have to cough or sneeze. Takes a little of the pain away. Broke a lot of ribs myself and am just recovered from some broken ribs. It just takes time for them to heal. Also, stay out of the hills until they are almost healed. or until given the ok by Doc

[bironi]

Good luck with the recovery Harth. Be patient, wait for your body to tell you it's time.
Byron

[oldpotatoe]

Haven't read all the posts but for this,

They’ve got me on Percocet

Be careful. When I got hit they have me 45 days of Vicadin, a HUGE bottle of this stuff...and geez, I started taking it 'in case my back hurt(broke L1, L3, C-5(cracked)'....Be careful, start taking a non opiod as soon as spossible..

Heal quickly too, glad you are able to yak on this forum.

[Patb095]

Originally Posted by ripvanrando

Hold the broken ribs when you have to cough or sneeze. Takes a little of the pain away. Broke a lot of ribs myself and am just recovered from some broken ribs. It just takes time for them to heal. Also, stay out of the hills until they are almost healed. or until given the ok by Doc

....and avoid laughing .... oops sorry !


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk