My first serious cycle injury - broken collarbone!

[bernieUK]

I hit a pot hole last night and fell right on my left shoulder. It happened so quickly too! No chance to put my hands out. Luckily I have a witness - a policeman! He was great too. Helped me inside, called the ambulance and locked my bike inside the police station offices. He even said it was a badly filled pot hole too and advised me to get picture of it before the council fill it in. I am tempted to pursue a claim.

Bloody 4 hours at the hospital and was sent home in a sling with an appointment for the fracture clinic in a week. A week FFS. It hurts a fair bit. Old bones (52y) will not heal like young bones. I must admit I am not sure I ever want to cycle again. I am probably being a big wuss but I would not enjoy commuting by public transport again.

Ah well at least I will get a few weeks off work I suppose.

 

[Simon_m]

 

[DrSquirrel]

Hope you get well soon.

And i'm sure after a few weeks you will be missing the bike and wanting to get back on it!



Generally councils will "get away with it", if it has a proper maintenance scheduled and has not been reported previous. It might be worth going onto fillthathole and fixmystreet to see if there is already a pending report on it (and how old it is).

 

[marvin]

Wipe your eyes wet pants - a broken collar bone! I lost both my legs and arms and was back on the bike within days!!

Not really but that's the level of sympathy I got recently when I took a tumble. I feel for you and hope you get better soon. I'm sure it wont be long before you are back on the bike.

 

[fossyant]

You'll be fine. All part of the fun. Deffo get out there with the camera and the policeman's details. You may or may not be successful - a bad repair though is a danger.

Get riding as soon as.

 

[brokenbetty]

Oh you poor thing

I wouldn't worry too much about whether you will or won't start cycling again just now. Straight after an injury I always find my emotions are a bit all over the place so it's best to let things wash over you for a day or two.

You can't get on the bike right now anyway so no rush to make a decision.

 

[numbnuts]

OUCH hope it all goes well for you, bit late now, but take care

 

[661-Pete]

Oh dear! Ouch GWS! But collarbones do heal up, even for us oldies. And look at it this way, you're not really one of the 110%-committed cyclists until you've been 'blooded'. Look upon it as 'rite of passage'. You'll be back on the bike!

But don't any of the rest of you get ideas! Potholes are not nice!

Take care anyway.

 

[postman]

contact the highways dept of your council .Then the CTC if you are in it .Then slam a claim in .Normally i would just take this as a bit of bad luck .But too many councils are ignoring this large problem .One day it's going to be a fatal accident .

 

[Jezston]

I hope I make it to 52 without breaking a bone!

 

[Simba]

I feel for you, still not fully recovered from my broken collar bone that happened in August, I have a claim ongoing.

 

[Mark_Robson]

I broke my collar bone last March ( aged 44 ) in similar circumstances. You are going to have a few sore weeks but it will heal within 3 months or so.

Here's a breakdown of what the NHS did for me, ( I would imagine that you will go through the same procedure )
Ambulanced my bike and myself to hospital. Hospital staff chained my bike up in a store room for me. Found me a bed and gave me some morphine before sending me (in bed) down to X Ray. Brought me back onto the ward and gave me tea and a sandwich while they arranged an appointment for the next mornings fracture clinic and then it was just a matter of waiting for the consultant to give me the all clear to leave.
Next day I attended the fracture clinic and was fitted with a support / restraint. I had to wear this for three weeks before having another X Ray. The consultant checked the X Ray told me that I didn't need the restraint any more and that I could get away with wearing a normal collar and cuff sling. A Physio appointment was made for the next day and I attended Physio for six weeks before seeing the consultant again to be discharged.

My advice would be to rest up and let nature take it's course. I would imagine that you are going to see some serious bruising within the next few days and you will notice injuries that you didn't realise that you had. If you haven't been prescribed Codeine then I would suggest that you ring your GP and ask for some. They will be able to offer you advice on the best way to manage the pain.

The accident seriously dented my confidence and it was probably for the best that I had an enforced break away from cycling but I was back on the bike within five weeks and after ten minutes of nerves it felt great. I hope that you end up feeling the same way. Good luck with the recovery.

 

[Arfcollins]

I hit a pot hole last night and fell right on my left shoulder. It happened so quickly too! No chance to put my hands out. Luckily I have a witness - a policeman! He was great too. Helped me inside, called the ambulance and locked my bike inside the police station offices. He even said it was a badly filled pot hole too and advised me to get picture of it before the council fill it in. I am tempted to pursue a claim.

Bloody 4 hours at the hospital and was sent home in a sling with an appointment for the fracture clinic in a week. A week FFS. It hurts a fair bit. Old bones (52y) will not heal like young bones. I must admit I am not sure I ever want to cycle again. I am probably being a big wuss but I would not enjoy commuting by public transport again.

Ah well at least I will get a few weeks off work I suppose.

My experience on Jan 13 was similar, except the hospital gave me 2 paracetamol while I was waiting - luxury! Three weeks later my old bone (58) is knitted together though still sore. It gets better every day but I'm making sure I put as little strain on that shoulder as possible. Washing my left armpit with my left hand is an interesting challenge. I now know why those shoes aimed at the senior generation have velcro straps, as tying shoe laces is certainly impossible at the moment.

If you have been given just a triangular bandage or one of those figure of 8 loops as a sling, make a fuss at the fracture clinic. The former presses right across the collar bone, the latter doesn't give enough support. This is what you want. The strap goes around the back to the elbow, and it is very adjustable. BTW I returned to the hospital twice apart from the fracture clinic appointment as I was getting severe pains in my shoulder and back. It turned out that I had a broken rib too, near the bottom of my shoulder blade, which was a relief as I'd assumed I had a break somewhere in the shoulder and I was worried this might heal badly.

 

[Mark_Robson]

That blue thingy was similar to what I had, except that mine clamped my arm to my chest. After three weeks I hated wearing it but it was very good at what it was designed for.

 

[addictfreak]

Club run just over a week ago, one of our lads came off and broke his collar bone (right). He knew instantly it was broken. Anyway a trip to hospital confirmed it, but at his follow up trip to the fracture clinic the next day it was found that he had also broken his left wrist!

So right arm in a sling, left wrist in plaster.