Broken collar bone

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Mr Punch

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Broke my collar bone yesterday.

Horse hit me head on at flat out gallop when he escaped. Got thrown up in the air. Don't know if it broke as he hit me or when I came back down. Is broken into 3 pieces and waiting on going to the fracture clinic next week.

Does anyone know how long the recovery time is and when I should be back to riding again ?

X
 
Ouch! Are they operating on it or just leaving you in a sling? I took 4 weels off work when i broker mine and think I possbly started riding again after the 4 week work as it was very sore and snapped clean in half with one biut sticking up so I didn't want to risk doing any more damage to it. It was quite sore for probably 6 weeks I would say.
What a silly horse running in to you though!!!
 
I did mine a couple of years ago, my horse tripped and fell and the horse behind him stood on me - snapped clean in two and has left a lovely lump there now where the ends fused on top of each other rather than the ends iykwim.
Bloody painful but gets better quite quickly (much quicker than when I broke my leg, that's for sure!)
Can't remember exact time but pretty sure I was back gently hacking after a month or two or so. Remember struggling with the girth though!
 
mine healed quite quickly but healed wrong so had re broken and set again. seemed to take longer the second time. mine was a clean brake though, think brokem in 3 places
 
Ouch! And I found out how ouch it really us last august. Mine broke when I landed shoulder first and then flipped over:eek: mine was pinned three days after it got broken. It was four weeks before I could drive and I got back to riding after 8 weeks ( gentle hacks) and lessons after 12. Mine is now back to normal apart from a metal plate and 8 screws lol.

Sleeping sitting up is a pain as is not being able to get dressed in anything other than loose, washing hair and just generally all the things we take for granted. AND whatever you do DON'T sneeze!

No lifting or carrying allowed or even possible and start the physio exercises you're given ASAP.

Good luck with the operation. Once that's done it won't feel so awful. Hugs and get well soon.
 
Thank you. One is a clean break but then other parts are jagged with little bits of bone fractured. It's not too bad at the minute unless have to move my arm and can feel the bones moving then its sore.

Had to get my 9 year old to help me get dressed this morning said it was the worst day of his life ! Ha ha

Can't believe he did it. Thought he's going to stop and didn't have time to jump out of the way !
 
Mr Punch, I'm going to say your age will come into the recovery time. I broke mine last year. Doctor said it takes 12 weeks for bones to heal. People I asked said they were back riding after about 6 weeks. Last year, I was 49 and I was not back riding in 6 weeks. It was still far too painful. I could not raise my arm high enough to tack up and leading was not easy either due to restricted movement range. Holding a proper contact on the reins was absolutely not an option after 6 weeks. It was a good 10 weeks before I sat on a horse again. My shoulder was sore for at least 6 months, but I was able to do everything.

So if you are younger, then your recovery time should be a faster than mine, but 4 weeks is very unrealistic. Don't even think of riding before 6 weeks if you are young and longer than that if you are older.
 
If you have it operated on 8 weeks before riding as 8-12weeks before lifting to allow it to mend correctly if you do to early the screws can move or loosen. If no op and heals well again i would wait 6-8 weeks depending on pain and follow up x rays go with your consultant opinion tho they know best.
If its any help my brother broke his into 3 all jagged and not straight on a diagonal he didn't have op and it healed well just with noticeable lump.
 
I sympathise, did mine a few years ago. After being told by weekend locum doctor it would heal itself with a sling I had to have an operation 10 days later to have plates and screws fitted as consultant said it was 'shattered'. Told best not to ride until I had them removed as more severe damage could be caused by another fall as plates would be too strong to break. 10 months later I had metalwork removed and now everything ok apart from visual lumpy bits and occasional itching. Good luck.
 
I snapped mine in half and the ends if the bone overlapped by 1". I had it plated a week later and it felt so much better the next weekend I decided to dig out a year's deep litter - bad move!

I rode after 3 weeks, hunted at 4 weeks and never went back to have the plate and screws removed.
 
Snapped mine landing shoulder first from the biggest, twistingest buck ever, when I was about 15. I only knew it was broken when I sat up, reached out to retrieve my hat which had somehow come off, and my arm swung round helplessly while the bones grated around up top:eek: THEN it started to hurt!

I was strapped up for 4 weeks, and seem to remember I was riding fairly soon after the strapping came off. I can still feel the sharp end of the bone now, nearly 40 years later, as it didn't set straight.
 
Ouch, Mine took about 6-8 weeks to heal properly, but as my fracture was the result of a car crash I also had to deal with whiplash too.
I was out of action for about 12 weeks and then his issues beacuse I would hold myself funny to compensate for it.
 
I did mine out hunting, horse jumped and he buckled on landing rolling over me, I knew instantly what I'd done- first time ever in hospital from falling off in 14years of riding- mine had displaced and was sitting on top of each other, they decided to leave and see if it healed so 6weeks later I went back, still in pain and it hadn't healed at all so now have a plate in it, surgery was meant to be a day and ended up in there for 3 days! :( another 6 weeks after that I was able to take off sling and start building up my movement! It felt like forever and I just couldn't do hardly anything!
I do hope you heal much quicker than me anyway!:) get well soon!
I ended up buying shirts and leggings to wear as much easier to get on!
 
Mr Punch said:
Wasn't too bad yesterday but sore this morning after struggling to get out of bed. Dreading trying to get dressed :-s
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I remember that feeling! But it was warm weather when I broke mine so I just lived in baggy T shirts and bottoms I could pull on one handed. My 20 year old son had to drive me to my first appointments and I learnt to dread speed bumps ..ouch. I had to get him to tie my hair back one day and the result was very funny and had to wait until my daughter came to visit before having a bath and getting my hair washed.

How long before you get it fixed? The first doc who looked at mine said they were going to leave it to mend but luckily he checked with mr consultant who said it needed pinning. The op will set you back a bit because of the amount of disruption to tissue but once it's done it will start to mend more quickly. A friend of mine had his broken like your's and it was left to mend on it's own. A year later and he's having to go for surgery because it's not healed straight and is restricting him movement and still painful. My scar is quite long but it's really neat and just five months on it's now just a thin White line. Xx
 
Ha ha yeah same here having to wear a headband because cant do my hair. Just managed to get in shower and get dressed somehow :-s

Hopefully will know once been to fracture clinic tomorrow if they are going to pin it or just leave it x
 
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