That’s right folks, that plate is outta there. as i type one-handed, it sits here in a little hospital bag, looking unassuming and surprisingly small. Hard to image such a small thing caused so much pain and managed to help me heal.
Here’s an in-hand picture of it for you, to give you a little sense of size and scale.
So the surgery went well, and after getting a good look with is own eyes the doc says my bone is healed quite significantly. He did a small excision of my clavicle, to remove some “spiked” that had developed from the break/non-union. He also removed some arthritic tissue that was developing near my a/c joint, and he speculates that when i originally broke it, the fracture actually went INTO the a/c joint, hence my miss-mash of conflicting pain and symptoms.
So it’s 3 weeks in a sling “for comfort” and small range of motion “pendulum” exercises to keep it from getting stiff. After that it’s on to rehab and hopefully I’ll be back to jamming on drums in a few months or so.
The picture below is from the doctor removing my “pain pump” and redressing the wound. Appetizing, ain’t it?
Matthew,
I too have had mulitple shoulder surgeries due to a fall at work last year. Will have an excision of my distal clavicle soon. So tired of hurting. Maybe this will be my last surgery.
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Matthew,
I have the plate and nine screws in my collar bone. The doc wont take them out and they are killing me. Did you feel better once the plate was gone? I had the surgery Dec.23 2004 to put the stuff in.
Bobbi,
YES! Immediately upon waking up my neck and hand felt noticeably better. The numbness/tingling was gone in my hand as well.
Over the last year i have progressed to what i would consider about 90% with my shoulder, although i have residual pain/uncomfortableness in my back and shoulderblade.
It was well worth it, even tho the year mine was in was a living hell, taking it out made all the difference.
Matthew-
I just broke my clavicle snowboarding and found your page really useful. Do you have any recommendations on what we newbies (new to the broken clavicle world) should be asking/telling our doctirs we want…
Nigel
Damn. You’ve healed since this was taken… some things take longer than others.
Take care of yourself.