Broken Collarbone Update

If anyone remembers about seven weeks ago I laid my bicycle down on a paved county road and fractured my collarbone. Last week I had a follow up x-ray and Thrusday my Doctor called to tell me that it has not healed to her satisfaction. While it doesn't hurt when probed and I have decent range of motion it does feel slightly "off" at times. I have been good and not lifted anything heavier than a six pack with that arm /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

When I return from Vacation Thanksgiving week an Orthopedic representative should be stopping by my shop (no appointment necessary) and fit me with a bark collar looking thing. I assume it is a magnetic resonance device. Or it is one of those Thrall submission collars from Star Trek. At least I am pretty sure that is the device since the only other thing the company (Orthofix) makes are those traction bar devices that screw into the bones and that wouldn't be delivered to my door and installed.

Vets have been using the technology for a few years here and I knew that in Euorpe it was used on people for a while before the FDA approved it.

I have given notice at work that no metal is to be tossed at me to make it stick to my shoulder /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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Pellidon said:
I have given notice at work that no metal is to be tossed at me to make it stick to my shoulder /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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A new way to carry flashlights, perhaps? Just kidding, hope you heal soon /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Unfortunately it would have to be a strong magnet to attract the battery through the aluminum or poly carbonate body. Wait, if the polarity is right my EternaLite would stick. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/clap.gif

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your injury. When your doctor says" that it has not healed to her satisfaction" What does she mean? Is it twisted or misaligned or something else?

Sorry to hear that. If it makes you feel any better I almost wear a foam neck collar full time away and at home. I take it off every now and then to let the skin get some fresh air and when I sleep. I also wear those wrists braces for my wrist pain and not to mention the wheelchair I use full time.

After what I have experience, I do not mind braces, I dont want ot break anything ever again.

Seriously sorry to hear of your injury, but today's technology is great (though personally I think "they" are going to use it as a "tracking" device! Probably map your every move, purchase, conversation, and the like...then do a data burst transmission to the satellite orbiting above and then passed on back to "them" for what reasons we may never know!).

Pellidon, do you mind if I ask how the accident occured? PM me if you prefer not to give the details to everyone. I am a cyclist too and was wondering how it happened.

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Pellidon said:
At least I am pretty sure that is the device since the only other thing the company (Orthofix) makes are those traction bar devices that screw into the bones and that wouldn't be delivered to my door and installed.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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If they show up with the rep and a big guy (to hold you down), run!

Been gone on vacation.

I broke it falling off a bicycle Sept. 25th. I turned from a cross wind into a tail wind and was starting to pick up speed (20 mph or so for me, blazing). A momentary lapse of concentration let my wheel slip off the edge of the road and flop! Just like the tricycle guy in Laugh In. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Fortunately it was a group ride that I like for just such emergency response reasons.

It has healed up at the end near the neck but it was a lengthwise compression split/fracture like a long splintering of a baseball bat if you can imagine that instead of a snap. My shoulder impacted the ground and pressed the collarbone lengthwise. The outer end must not have grown shut just yet.

No pain but It is not my dominant arm so I don't use/abuse it that much to begin with. It does get fatigued with my heavy jacket when I don't wear the restraint. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick.gif

I haven't been fitted with the "bark collar" yet. The Insurance company wants to wait until 90 days (Dec. 25th) before authorizing it? They like to wait 90 days to see if bones heal or need more work? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I usually wear a tinfoil hat to block EMF radiation and have a microwave leakage sensor around my neck to detect irradation incidences so I should be safe from surveillance /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Sorry to hear about your collarbone.

I cycle a lot too, we casually will do 50 miles. Will throw in a 100 miler just for grins.

I'm always wary of cars..

I got fitted for the device. I have to wear it three hours per day until my Doctor states otherwise. It seems that anything beyond lifting a couple of brewskis can cause the day's bone knitting to undo it'sself. So I will have to curtail the power lifting, boxing and other things I was doing as therapy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I don't get a follow up x-ray for seven weeks so I am on IR until then. It doesn't look too bulky or dorky and has three cool led's on it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Good luck in your healing. Anything you can do now to properly heal and mend the fracture will be such a good thing for later. If this device improves healing and bone mending, what a positive effect it will have for you for the rest of your life.
I broke my right-side collarbone when I went off over the handlebars of a motorcycle, when I hit a small ditch that was hidden in weeds and the front wheel dropped into the ditch, and I kept going when the motorcycle came to an immediate stop. I woke up in the ER, and missed all of the fun riding in the ambulance, etc. I am a firm believer in helmets, and if I hadn't been wearing one, I might not have ever woken up.
This was in 1976, and the extent of the Orthopedist's care was to have me wear a figure-8 fabric brace that pulled back the shoulders to try to get the now overlapping ends of the bones to fuse together. The ends were never set, and I can feel the lump in the middle of my collarbone, and I still have problems with my shoulder. I work as a Photographer for a TV station and it can be challenging at times due to the 28 pound camera I lug around.