Another Collarbone Update

I got a follow up xray on my collarbone Monday. Then my doc called on Wednesday and said it wasn’t healing well so he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. I saw him today, and he said it does not look like the bone is going to knit together at the fracture site. It has actually pulled apart a bit more than the xray the day of the fracture showed.  He said my type of clavicle fracture often doesn’t knit back properly without surgery, but many people do fine leaving it as is! My body has bridged the gap with soft tissue that is almost acting like an extra joint next to the AC joint. I have good pain-free range of motion and the only limitations appear to be high up motions where the upper arm is above the shoulder joint. I guess my baseball pitching days are over, but I can still paddle and do strength training if I avoid the high movements. So we may just leave it this way. He is sending me for an MRI to see the soft-tissue status, and we’ll decide what to do after we get that result.

The good news is that I’m cleared to bike and all my other activities.

This is from emedscape: one of the indications for surgery is “Established symptomatic nonunion: Note that many nonunions are asymptomatic, and no treatment is needed.”. So I guess I have an asymptomatic nonunion.

So it’s off biking I go (carefully)!

This is actually good timing because I overdid hiking a bit while visiting my brother and irritated my achilles. I can give it a rest while biking with proper foot position on the pedal.