Brian's Broken Collarbone

Making Lemonade

It's said that when life deals you a bunch of lemons, you should make lemonade. I've recently broken my collarbone, and found a lot of useful information in various places. This blog is to share my experience and hopefully help you with yours. If you're impatient--like I am--the bolded items below are the tidbits of advice that I have learned that you might find helpful.

It All Started...

On Father's Day--which is the 3rd Sunday in June in the USA--2012, I was playing baseball with the team I've played with for about ten years. It was a beautiful sunny day, I was playing center field. Left handed power hitter at the plate, I shifted towards right field expecting him to pull the ball. The pitch, the swing, the ball hit to the gap in right field. My friend Barry was playing right field that day. Barry's a decent player, but like a lot of guys our age (I'm 47), Barry's wheels aren't that good--he's not very fast. I, on the other hand, still have good knees, and good speed, which is why I'm in center field.

I remember seeing the ball hit, thinking "Barry's in right field, he's never going to get close to this one," and racing as fast as I could to the spot where the ball was headed. I didn't call for the ball--I was sure there was no way Barry would even be in the same zip code. Run, run, run, catch while falling down--CRASH. There was Barry. On the way down after catching the ball, I went full speed into Barry with the right side of my face and my right shoulder. I laid on the ground for a moment to collect my self. I remember laying on my stomach, kicking the ground in a mix of anger and shooting pain. My teammates had gathered round, and someone said, "Where's the ball?" I held my glove up as proof that I had made the catch and held the ball, the batter was out. The joy from that lasted about two seconds as I tried to push myself up with my right hand (I'm right handed) and all I could feel was everything in my shoulder sliding around. I immediately said, "I think I broke my clavicle." (I remember hearing someone say, "What's a clavicle?" Oy...).

I'm usually the guy who continues to play through anything. I once severely sprained my ankle in a game and found I could continue to play if I batted left handed. I'd never batted left handed but went 2 for 3 that day. Yeah, I'm that guy.

To the Hospital

The wife of one of my team mates was kind enough to drive me to the emergency room. I rode with no seat belt and just kept my left hand over my shoulder area to stabilize it--every step, every bump just caused everything in my shoulder to slide around. This was easily the most pain I've ever been in. The wait in the ER was not bad, within about 20 minutes I went to see the triage nurse. There they take your vitals, and evaluate you. She took my temperature, blood pressure and pulse. Then she took hold of my right arm to see how far it would move. I grabbed her wrist and said "Please don't." She told me they had to see...and I just said no. In hindsight, the only thing she needed to do was to ask me to move it if I could, but the fact was that an x-ray was going to be what was needed to "see" anything.

After what seemed like forever, I had my x-ray (below) and sure enough, broken collarbone. The doctor who saw me in the ER that day gave me a sling to wear to "immobilize" it. It was helpful, but still, every step, every bump, sliding and grinding, so I knew this was hardly immobile. They gave me a prescription for ibuprofen and Percocet (oxycodone plus Tylenol).

Home

A friend drove me home where I propped myself up in my recliner sofa. This is pretty much where I would spend the next two weeks. Being extremely right handed and without the use of my right hand presented me with a level of incompetence that I was not prepared for. Brushing my teeth, shaving--everything that has to do with the bathroom (use your imagination) was like learning to do it all over again.

My wife and I watched a ton of movies over those weeks. I got to see some TV shows that I'd never seen before. Within about a day and a half I was tired of "just sitting" and suggested we go to the mall to walk around. Big mistake. We got about five stores in to the mall and I realized that I now hurt like I hadn't hurt in a day in a half. Back home, back to the couch.

Every little thing required what felt like a humiliating amount of help. My wife was awesome about it, but I'm always more at ease giving than receiving help. Showering the first week I needed help to wash under my arms, and drying off. Getting dressed was definitely a two-person chore. Button-down shirts became part of my "style" very quickly--pulling polos or t-shirts overhead was just too much.

Orthopedist

On Tuesday, we saw the orthopedist, as directed by the ER doctor. He looked at the x-ray, and told me, just keep doing what you're doing and pretty much, "If it hurts when you do something, don't do it. Otherwise, it's going to be a while." He wanted to see me in a week for a follow up x-ray.

A week later, we went back to see him and get another x-ray (below).

Looks pretty much like the first x-ray, though this one was shot from shoulder height were the x-ray at the ER was shot from below (about waist height). I was still feeling a lot of instability in the shoulder. I went in there convinced that I was going to demand surgery so that I could get on with my life. The orthopedist looked me in the eye and said, look, I get paid to perform surgery. I'm telling you, if this was my shoulder, I'd wait and see. That was enough for me. I made an appointment for three weeks out. He said that even though the bone sections were displaced, a ball of "callus" will form around the two pieces and pull them together, like scar tissue does when you cut your skin. It sounded pretty unbelievable to me.

Three Weeks Waiting to Heal

Over the next week or so, I started feeling a soreness in the area of the break, like a lump was forming there. Huh, maybe the doctor's right. I was now showering myself--I bought one of those sponge-on-a-stick thingees from the local Target so I could wash under my arms myself. While in the shower, I started letting very warm water run on my shoulder while I did some gentle range of motion exercises--basically raising my arm in front of me, to the side, and behind me. I would move as far as I could comfortably, but never beyond 60 degrees or so--if the bone was healing, I didn't want to slide it out of place. At first I was moving about 30 degrees. In a couple of days I was up to 45 degrees and then about 60 degrees. For me, I found that raising my arm behind my back was completely pain free.

I also found a lot   of people   on the web   who've written about their experiences. Some good advice out there (a little more practical than "if it hurts when you do that, don't do that").

Two weeks after the injury, I went back to work. It was a stretch, I had to keep the computer keyboard in my lap to type comfortably at first. I found that when driving, it was best to keep my right arm tucked inside the seatbelt. This was the most comfortable position, and would keep me from reflexively trying to grab the wheel should something unexpected happen in front of me. Once while I was recovering at home, I knocked a glass off the counter and instinctively tried to grab it with my right arm and, well, ouch. Every day after work, I would go home and ice my shoulder for as long as I could stand it. Ice is your friend!

Three weeks after the injury, I started feeling less pain every day. There were days that, as long as I was careful, I was completely pain free.

Second Visit

Today was my second visit with the Orthopedist--just about four weeks post-injury. They took an x-ray, which I saw and thought, hmm, pretty good progress. The orthopedist said he was surprised at the slow rate of healing.

He asked how much movement I had and I showed him my amazing 60 degrees in all directions. He was not happy about that either. It's a little frustrating because at my last visit, he didn't give me any direction about moving it. So now, it's 5 weeks of physical therapy, 2-3 times per week. Should be fun.

Physical Therapy

After one week of PT all I can say is WOW, and I should've started this sooner. It has at times been strenuous and difficult, but every day I have more range of motion, less pain. I'm now shampooing my hair with two hands! Amazing.