Uh Oh...Broken Clavical?

[swillis]

Ok, my very active 11 year old son was playing with his sister, and fell off her shoulders, and broke his left clavical.

They said 6-8 weeks for it to completely heal. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've hear it's a very common bone to break. I'm hoping he will be 100% for my surprise trip to Disney in June.

 

[CantWaitToGo2007]

Ok, my very active 11 year old son was playing with his sister, and fell off her shoulders, and broke his left clavical.

They said 6-8 weeks for it to completely heal. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've hear it's a very common bone to break. I'm hoping he will be 100% for my surprise trip to Disney in June.

Hi. I'm an x-ray tech for a group of orthopaedic surgeons. Kids are amazing healers. As one of the doctors I work for says "if the bones are in the same room a kid will heal". As we get older we aren't so lucky though. I'm guessing that he will be sore for a few weeks but by the time the 6 weeks goes by he'll be back to, or close to his normal activity level.

Hope that helps some

 

[minnierocks]

My DS broke his clavicle 3 days before Christmas...playing basketball (while at wrestling practice...go figure! )

He broke the same one that I broke when I was a senior in high school! So I have lots of experience with that one!

While it is extremely painful when it happens, he will feel better in about a week. The danger in "feeling better" with an 11 year old is that they "think" they are "fine"

We were told by our orthopedic dr. that the clavicle has the highest percentage of rebreakage among boys of this age group, because they think they are fine, so they do things that they aren't supposed to be doing. So make sure that your son knows that he is definitely NOT fine, and that he needs to take it easy. As long as he follows the doc's instructions, he'll be fine by your trip.

Our son's sling was off in 7 weeks, but the bone will take another two months before it is strong (doc called it a "soft heal") enough for all activity. Right now, he can run and do most things...just was told to avoid a hard fall. That means no winter sports or diving for a basketball.
I know this was long, but was trying to help...

Good luck!
And take it easy!

 

[swillis]

Those answers were exactly what I was looking for! Love the comment about kids and how fast their bones heal!!

Thanks for the support...we'll need it. You all are right...once the pain is gone, it's going to be tough to keep him down.

 

[Darcy03231]

DS broke his while rollerblading (he decided to rollerblade over the stick rather than pick it up or go around it). He was completely healed within 6 weeks.

 

[seashoreCM]

Here's a challenge for you:

Can you afford to let him take things more easily so he is not apt to take his arm out of the sling? Some activities like sports will admittedly be off limits and we can't help that. But don't make him spend more time so that things he could do easily with both hands still get finished, like vacuuming his room.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[rebecca314]

I thought of this post today while reading the paper (I had read it earlier this week.). Anyway, a 70 y.o. US tourist snapped the clavical of a would-be mugger in San Jose, Costa Rica yesterday and killed him. YIKES! That's a strong dude!

 

[newholidayx2]

Back in the mid 60s my brother broke his collarbone when he fell out of his crib. I put a big teddy bear in with him that he stood on and then fell out - Hey I was only 7/8 - I had no idea!
anyways I remember he had a cast on around his upper torso, one arm was out, the other was inside the cast w/just his hand sticking out from the middle of the front
nowadays i believe the docs just put on a sling?

 

[MoSoccerMom]

My son broke his a few months ago. He had it in a sling, and it had healed in 6 weeks. Our doctor mentioned something a previous poster did-kids heal amazingly fast! I would think that your son would be fine by June.

 

[swillis]

Thanks everyone! Even after just a few days, he is in a lot less pain, so I am hopeful that he will be just fine for our trip.

 

[lovehoney]

When I was 21 and starting in the workforce I had a full physical at my new company with X-rays. They told me I had broken my left clavicle at some time in my life. I still have no idea when it happened. I had a lot of falls off of horses as a teen so it could have happened then.

Now that I'm in my forties I do have pain on that side when it is about to rain.

 

[mericletwins]

Those answers were exactly what I was looking for! Love the comment about kids and how fast their bones heal!!

Thanks for the support...we'll need it. You all are right...once the pain is gone, it's going to be tough to keep him down.

My DH had his, same one, broken twice, when he was younger. The funny thing was it was broken by the same kid. Once being tackled in football and then the next year they were in a wrestling tournament and he was wrestling the same kid and it broke again.

My son was born with a broken collarbone and thwere really wasn't anything we could do. They just told us to put his arm through the sleeves ina certain order when dressing him.

 

[rhiannonwales]

My DS was BORN with a broken clavicle! They didnt even do any thing for it - they just said that swaddling him up tight should be fine.He never felt any pain (at least as far as i know, he never cried or screamed).He had another X-ray in 5 weeks and it was good as new.

 

[shelli132]

Hi...our dd9 broke her clavical tumbling less than a week before we were to celebrate her bday at disney. Needless to say we were broken hearted. After a lot of thought we decided to still go on vacation and I'm so glad we did. She was still able to enjoy most of the rides and was even able to "play" in the resort pool. The trip really lifted her spirits. Our ortho kept her on restricted activities for about 12 weeks, no running or anything that could result in a fall. When the 12 weeks were up she was released and went back to competitive tumbling with no problems! Kids are amazing, our doc said if I would have had the same break it would have required surgery and several months of down time. Go figure. Hope you have a great trip!