Not sure if this really counts as a GQ, and if not my apologies to the mods.
Many years ago I broke my collarbone. I had to have it re-broken twice after the initial break and I am left with a somewhat extreme protrusion where the break occurred. As a consequence, my shoulder blade does not lie flat against my body when my arms are at my side and I have recently noticed that one of the vertebra in my neck seems to be a little off kilter as well.
Neither of these bother me a great deal, but I was hoping a medical doper or someone with similar experience could tell me if these kinds of things are normal following a clavicle fracture. Are there generally complications of this sort? When I broke it, the doctors gave me the impression that it was a minor event and once healed should cause no further problems. But then again I did go to an Army hospital :rolleyes: Are there any possible future problems I should keep an eye out for?
Any information would be appreciated.
Collarbone fractures are very common. I see a ton of them.
If the fracture is in the middle third of the clavicle, the fracture is no big deal. They heal well, even if the two ends of bone are fairly separated. You rarely need to yank on these to pull them in place.
If the fracture is close to the midline (breast bone = sternum), these are usually no big deal. A broken clavicle has the potential to lie across the windpipe, though, and if this happens needs to be pulled back into place urgently.
If the collarbone is broken in the third of the bone closest to the shoulder, this may disrupt the shoulder joint or the associated acromioclavicular (back of shoulder-collarbone) or coracoclavicular (front of shoulder-collarbone) joints. You say that the end of your colalrbone close to the shoulder sticks out. This is often a sign of ligament disruption in the shoulder, and is probably related to your previous fracture, particularly if there was separation between the two ends. Fractures of the distal third of the bone often need orthopedic intervention. Orthopods divide them into six different types.
The most common clavicle fracture complications would be brachial plexus injuries (soemtimes the clavicle needs to be fractured when delivering babies, this can cause problems with nerves of the arm) and “frozen shoulder”, elderly folks who lose the ability to make snow angels due to muscle rigidity.
I endo’d on my bicycle and broke my right clavicle. I was 19, in college, in the USA and had no insurance.
They could operate - push my clavicle (collar bone) down to where it was and put metal pins in. I’d be a normal boy.
Or we could just immobilize it and my body would manufacture some bone. There’d be a bump on me right shoulder – not too big though.
I stopped using toe-clips of any kind – and learned to become a better “faller”/“crasher” on my bike.