Did I break my collar bone?

[MEC]

OY. OK, so has anyone perusing this ever broken their collar bone? I slipped coming down the stairs this morning, (I've been having a problem with vertigo since December, so I'm rather clutzy for the time being) and in order to keep from jackknifing my neck into a deadly or paralyzing kind of position, I took a the hit with my right shoulder on a 120 year old barn beam. There was a really sharp pain, but since I hadn't had any coffee yet, and I drank a bit too much red wine at the bbq last night, my brain really wasn't functioning and I didn't think much of it until a couple of hours later when I realized that I couldn't put my truck into park when I pulled into the lot at work. I actually had to use my left hand to put the truck in park cause I couldn't pick up my arm. It hurts a LOT to move my arm forward or upward. The pain is right on the pointy part of my collar bone, and the bruise is coming in really well now. I took two Advil, and the pain is tolerable now, so I'm thinking/hoping it's just a bad bruise. Any thoughts people? I have health insurance, but the ER co-pay is $50, which I don't have. Should I wait a day or two and if it's still impossible to put my truck in park, go get an X-Ray then?

I cracked my ankle once a few years ago in Switzerland, (doing that crazy sledding down the alps at night with a head lamp on after drinking a lot of hot wine and eating too much fondue) and since I had only been there a few days and didn't want to miss out on all of the riding that I had planned, I just grinned and bore the pain until 10 days later when I got home. Then I had an x-ray and ended up in a boot for a while. Those Swiss pharmicists are great! They hooked me up with some sort of gel (that you can't get here in the states) that got the ankle swelling down enough so I could get my snowboard boot on and I was golden for the rest of the trip. Anyway, my doc in the USA said no further damage was done by waiting 10 days to get treatment, since it was such a small crack.

Do you think I'll be OK to wait a few days on the collar bone? It's not like there is bone sticking out of my shoulder or anything... Any doctors or nurses around with advice? Help, please. :o I get paid on Friday, so I could go get the x-ray then, if necessary. I would truly appreciate any advice from the masses.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Could very well be a broken collarbone. It's been 30 years since I broke mine but it was a similar experience. Fell upside down at the skatepark onto my head and shoulder (helmets, yay) and didn't think too much of it but then I couldn't open the car door with that hand. So similar symptoms - shoulder injury, not too horribly painful without movement, but can't use the arm with any force.

Had the family doc look at it that night and she didn't think it was broken so slept on it and x-rayed the next morning. Turned out to be broken with no displacement. If yours is the same as mine, they will likely immobilize it with a figure 8 thing around your shoulders and make you wear a sling for a few weeks.

Bottom line - I think you should have it looked at.

[boarderboy]

Somebody please advise this good boarder!

I have no specific experience with this kind of injury, but having done plenty of bad things to my hand, wrists, feet, and ankles, my impression is that it's better to have possible breaks looked at sooner rather than later.

MEC, I know, well, your 'pain' about delaying, or forgoing needed mind/body treatment for monetary reasons, both for myself and for loved ones. That just plain sucks!!

Will take my 'take' on that off-forum.

Take good care, and I hope someone well-qualified can help you with your pain and healing PDQ.

Cheers and good vibes

BB

[MEC]

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to get an xray tomorrow. I just tried to change my shirt, and it was pretty painful when I had my arm up, and then there was some kind of small snapping noise from the shoulder and a LOT of pain for a few seconds. F$%K!!! Needless to say, I didn't get my shirt changed, so I'll be wearing the work shirt home.

If I wait till tomorrow and go see my regular doctor, it will only be the $30 office visit copay. Lance is back on his bike already, so I guess if it is broken it will hopefully mean just a few weeks of no biking? He took only 3 weeks off, right? Anyway, I appreciate your input. Neil, my symptoms sound too much like yours for me to ignore it this time.

[Dan]

I tend to fall into the "don't want to shell out $$$ for a doctor" group too, but in the end, it's really worth getting checked out.

I had a relatively minor fall a few years ago that doubled me up pretty forcefully. It hurt to bend over for a few weeks - tying my shoes was a struggle - but I was walking etc. without any problems, so I toughed it out. Apparently what happened was that I separated some of the cartilage holding my ribs in place, and one rib has healed slightly out of alignment. Now I have a minor but irritating poking from one of my ribs whenever I lie on my stomach, do certain exercises (crunches), or ride in the drops on my road bike.

My current GP is also a chiropractor, and at one point I asked him about it. He agreed that one rib is more prominent and clearly not where it should be. When I told him what happened, he said it was too late to do anything about it, because it had already healed out of place. The fix? It would have been to wrap my ribcage with athletic tape for a few weeks to hold the rib in place while the cartilage healed.

So, because I didn't see an MD when I had the original accident, I'm going to have this nagging injury for the rest of my life - crappy.

All of which is to say, if you know that you're going to see a doctor sooner or later, might as well go sooner. And I know that bills can look expensive, but if you think about spending the rest of your life living with something that heals wrong and maybe doesn't work quite right, they start to look a lot more reasonable.

Sounds like you came to the same conclusion. Good luck - let us know how the x-rays come out.

[dantheman0177]

I agree with Neil.

I broke mine years ago playing football (Aussie Rules). I was flat on my back and knew I'd broken it, but the school nurse was a useless, stupid [insert extremely rude word here] and got a couple of guys to lift me up off the ground by putting their hands under my armpits. It went from rather painful to excruciating (sp?) and I called her lots of very bad names.

The extra pain was actually because when I was lying on my back, everything was still essentially where it was meant to be. But when they tried to lift me up (and when I screamed, they dropped me, so that didn't help either) the bones got displaced.

Ever since (18 years) I have had issues with that shoulder because of the displacement.

So as I said, I agree with Neil, because if it is fractured but not displaced, they cam imobilise it and it will heal pretty well. But if you keep using it and happen to displace it, quite apart from the immediate pain, it won't heal well and you'll have problems for a lot longer.

[Sinecure]

Well, you obviously aren't dead yet, so at least you know you didn't have a mid-shaft break that descended and cut your brachial artery - yes, this can happen and can be quickly fatal. Sounds like if its broken, it is near one end or the other. And yes, it sounds broken to me. I've broken mine and seen a few others. Don't wait more than a week to get it looked at. Otherwise it will start to mend itself together in the wrong position. Either the docs will put you in some sort of brace/splint/bandage that essentially crucifies you and will give you great posture. Or they'll want to operate and put some titanium in there. The surgery option will get you back bike riding and other stuff faster, and may be necessary depending on the nature of the break. The non-surgical option will just align the bones so they mend back themselves over the course of 5-8 weeks.

Go to a doctor. I'm not one and even if I'd stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night, you'd be a fool to accept my diagnosis.

FYI, you don't need to go to the ER. Just call your doc and ask him/her to refer you to an ortho.

[MEC]

OK, so I called my GP this morning and got a noon apopintment with the Nurse Assistant, since he was booked. (I actually have a shoulder ortho here, but he was on vacation, so I went the GP route.) Anyway, the nurse sent me over to the hospital for an x-ray, and thankfully (I think) it's not fractured. That being said, the nurse said that there is definitely something wrong in there (duh!) and she thinks I tore something in my rotator cuff. This sounds worse to me. I mean, I've had small breaks before, and in a matter of 6 weeks all is fine. A torn something sounds surgical, which I really want to avoid. (My freaking hospital deductible is $1,000.) She said to keep icing it & taking ibruprofin for a few more days and to call by the end of the week to let them know if it is better or worse.

Does anybody have any thoughts on torn shoulders? My shoulder ortho has worked for the US Ski Team, so I do like him a lot, but he's a non-surgical guy. I guess I could go see him next week when he is back.

Any more useful input from this group? I'm assuming that many of you have messed up your shoulders at some point or another.

[Neil Gendzwill]

If it's a rotator cuff injury, sometimes you can get away with vitamin I and exercising it back to health. They usually have you do these rubber band exercises where you hold your elbow to your side and then pull on the band across your body both ways. I haven't had a tear, but I did have tendonitis there and a month of the exercises fixed it up. I know others who have had tears and also fixed it with exercise but if it's really buggered then you may need surgery.

BTW the weakness in specific directions is consistent with the symptoms I had with my rotator cuff injury. For example, if I held a dumbell at my side and tried to do a straight lateral raise, I couldn't even get 5 lbs to horizontal with the bad arm, but easily swung 25 up on the good side.

Good luck!

[MEC]

OK, so I'm at work today, and Bill Knowles (a local sports injury rehab guy) comes in to work with a patient. He sees my sling and offers to take a peek since I still had not been seen by a doctor. He said there is a lot of movement in one of the shoulder joints, a good amount of swelling, and that in his opinion I most likely have an AC joint tear/sprain, aka a separated shoulder. The good news is that he thinks it isn't a really bad one that would require surgery, it probably just will need rest, ice and ibuprofen for a few weeks. Bill actually works out of Vermont Orthopedic Clinic, where my vacationing shoulder doc is, and since they work together he said he'd pull some stringies for me to get in on Monday to see him when he is back. (Gotta love small towns.) VT Ortho Clinic just called and I'm set up for Monday at 9:15 to get a real diagnosis from Doc Gammons. Anyway, I'm much less upset about it now since I hopefully/most likely/probably won't need surgery. :)

Thanks for all of your help and advice everyone. I really appreciate it.

[boarderboy]

Good Healing, and Good Luck!!

BB

[k2slopesurfer]

I have broken both clavicles, rt one as a child, and rt and left as an adult, both with serious separation of the broken ends. Torn rotator cuff in rt shoulder along with ruptured bursa, stretched labrum, and huge freaking bone spur. surgically repaired. left shoulder separated 2x and dislocated once.

As the proud owner of 2 screwed up shoulders, I can definitely say that an a/c separation of type 1(minor) is the least painful injury that I've had, and the easiest rehab I've experienced. I wish on you a type 1 at most.

[Petrol]

...and she thinks I tore something in my rotator cuff. This sounds worse to me. I mean, I've had small breaks before, and in a matter of 6 weeks all is fine. A torn something sounds surgical

I've had both (a broken "collar" bone and recently "Rotator-Cuff" surgery)

For me the broken bone was worse because although I didn't require surgery, it was displaced and I contantely worried that it wouldn't heal right (it kinda didn't, got a extra lump, but she's good to go now) and worried that it would displace in my sleep and pierce something important (thankfully it didn't)

Where as with the torn rotator cuff was actually more painful at the time it occured, and there after whenever I attempted as much as putting my hand in my pocket for the first 2 weeks. After that, the pain kinda subsided so long as I wasn't trying to, uh, rotate it.

My arthoscopicsurgery was 8 weeks ago today and went Very Well (I was able to complete a 2.5 hr mountain bike ride over some moderately rooty-rocky-bumpity trails last night with no problems... with my Doctor's Blessing), although quite expensive as I'm just over $4k outta pocket (yea, my insurance sux!)

btw, My Doc wasn't to hip to jump in right a way with the surgery at first either. After 6 weeks of sling, we did a week of pt that made it much worse. So we did a MRI that lead to the artho