Do you have any information regarding a clavicle fracture? I broke mine 7
weeks ago. My orthopaedist said I could do some running after about 3
weeks. Of course I probably ran too much, but I went in for an x-ray last
week and he told me that the bone wasn't healing - there was no callus
formation. I decided to give up all running and am now just sitting on the
stationery bike. I was wondering if eventually this thing will heal and
what I could I do to speed up the recovery time.
thanking you in advance for a response.
Helene,
Thanks for the question. The clavicle is the only bony attachment of the ertire upper extremity to the skeleton. Actually, the attachment is the sternoclavicular joint. So it stands to reason that if you run, and you wave your arms about (as you would if you ran hard), that the fracture might develop a non-union.
Usually it takes a fracture about 6 weeks to heal, but in the case of a non-union, they often use an implanted electrical stimulator to promote healing. Ask your orthopod about that. We recently had a young woman in our office who went for three months as a non-union before they used the electrical stimulator. She went on to heal, and is now lifting weights and running as before without restrictions. As far as you are concerned, the optimal stimulus for a bone to repair is intermittent compression (of the fracture line) modified according to pain. Thr biggest problem with the clavicle is the rotational motion ( it is shaed like a crank, so a little rotation at one end results in a lot of motion at the other end. Keepin your arm quiet while adding some weight bearing along the long axis of the bone is the key. A PT in your neck of the woods should be able to help!
Good luck
