Please share your broken collarbone stories…
As I'm sure many of you can understand, the worst part about being injured involves sitting still. here is very little I can do, until I connect with an orthopod on Monday. That said, I plan on remaining pretty active: just got done mowing the lawn. 
Bottom line is that will not know about surgery for a few days. I am currently planning on doing some long walks (yes, on the beach, of course!). I would also like to get on the bike. Not sure if I can handle the road bike on the trainer, or if I should head to the Y and spend some time on their bikes.
I am also curious to hear how long it took you to get back to running. I'm not talking intervals, but just regular running.
Thanks again in advance for your help!
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Seriously - For him as far as surgery goes, his Doctor said it was optional and the bone would heal itself. He did not get the surgery and he has a large lump where the two bones don't quite meet. He knew about the lump when he opt'd out of the surgery. Being only a cyclist and not a triathlete this (perfect collarbone alignment) was not important to him (no swimming, running). He's completely fine now, took roughly 6 weeks to heal. He's a commercial pilot so he was unable to work and was on leave until he was all healed. Which incidentally gave him a lot of free time to use all of my Advil.
Patrick,
I've broken my left clavicle twice so I have some experience.
Unless the fracture is "simple" with no dispacement I'd recommend getting a plate (surgery). Your return to activity will be much quicker and pain much less. (Had the plate removed after my first fx and then reinserted after my 2nd fx and after 3 years I still have the plate in place).
I was on the elliptical and trainer the first week after my surgery,running after the second week and swimming after 6 weeks. Ran a 5k 6 weeks after the fracture + surgery. There is virtually no pain after surgery. In terms of activity you've got to be most careful about swimming. Do the PT likes it's your job and you'll be good to go.
Best of luck.
http://dinosarti.com/blog/2013/1/7/my-2013-season-began-with-a-bang
Funny thing is that I actually rode by the place where it happened today. So dumb. I basically crashed myself while trying to sprint for the city limit sign with wet hands in a heavy fog and mist.
I had a clean break in the middle. No surgery tho. A lot of guys with good insurance are going that way these days however. I spoke with three Ortho guys and all of them said they make their money doing surgeries. They also said, while my dad was in the room (he is chief of medical staff at the hospital where I did my consults), that they could not predict a better out come with surgery versus just letting it heal.
As a result, I passed on surgery, was on the trainer at the end of the third week and ran a little 1/2 marathon not far from my house at 8 weeks. That was 12/8/12. Today I have full range of motion, no pain, no strength issues and only the smallest bump.
Cheer up~ It is crazy how fast you get better once the mending gets going.
How about those showers? The wife helping soap you up? I miss those three weeks....
As you know 12 days ago I crashed and broke my collar bone in 2 places , surgery was 6 days later, or 6 days ago.... pain was pretty high pre-surgery with alot of it being in my hip flexor area obviously not related to shoulder , difficulty sleeping on my back since I'm a stomach sleeper , lots of percoset , after surgery pain was more localized along the clavicle, 1 percoset every 4 hrs was necessary for 2 days with relief almost immediately , then 1 day of tylenol w/codeine, 3rd day after surgery NO more pain killers.... Just taking 1 advil PM per night to sleep on my back... Very optimistic going forward from here.... Surgery was an absolute no brainer...
Activity , None , zero , zip , pre-surgery except maybe 1/4 mile dog walks , I found it difficult to walk for quite a few days with hip , ankle and knee swollen as well as having some loose bones in the shoulder...4th day after surgery I started walking for an hour and riding my bike on trainer for an hour at a time around .50-.60 so far.... And I have started the minimal clavicle/rotator cuff surgery PT movements on the shoulder.... My follow up is this friday with PT right after... Confident to be near 100% for IMFL and at least present in KONA!
Good Luck tomorrow!
Sept 2001: doing some early morning very hard riding with some friends, basically racing on a bike path. Got out of the saddle to sprint to the top of a little rise, came unclipped at about 31mph. Crashed, sat up and said yep, it's broken. Friends rode up the path to a lifeguard station (path goes across a dam = lake = lifeguards). Ambulance came out on the path and scooped me up to a local hospital. X-rays, a figure 8 sling and a bottle of baby aspirin, I think. Ortho said no surgery. Bought a Computrainer about 4 days later and was riding intervals in the garage within about 6 days. Ran a 10k 30 days after the accident. Doc let me outside to ride on the bike about 8wks after the accident but I was VERY sketched out.
Since then pretty much everyone I know locally has broken their clavicle. I've referred everyone to the same ortho and I joke that I should get my own parking space