I had a broken collar bone last year in Bucharest and I moved back to my hometown because of it. I had to check in after a week or two to see how it's healing but was lazy about it so I went to the hospital after 3 weeks and was told there's a waiting list 10 days long and go to a private clinic. At the private clinic the doctor didn't even look at me, or the x-rays I just took and just told me to go into surgery back in Bucharest. Luckily when my mother heard she found a surgeon through a friend of a friend that looked at my x-rays on whatsapp and told me it's fine but just to be sure to visit him in Bucharest feel it in person, which the private care doctor never did.

So after 4 weeks I went to this last guy in a public hospital, told me I'm fine and can take off my brace, wait a week or two and go into physical therapy. Also told me in 20 years he only had to once or twice do a collar bone surgery so it's almost never the answer.

It's amazing that just being told I'm fine I could relax and all my muscle aches literally were gone 1 hour after that meeting so my advice in general is, be very careful what doctor you choose because medical hexing really is a thing. We put doctors on this pedestal and if God forbid you catch them in a bad mood they can fuck you up worse than before you saw them.

I shattered my collarbone - and I do mean shattered, ~8 pieces - in a mountain bike crash September 2023. I went over the bars after the back wheel of my hardtail caught a berm. Landed on my head and shoulder and compressed it laterally inwards by about 2 inches.

Even with this mess, it was hotly debated for around two weeks whether I needed surgery. A good chunk of my collarbone was trying to push through my skin and the other half was fusing to my scapular and was starting to compromise nerve function. Even then, because the non-surgical route is now considered the standard, I was meeting resistance to have an ORIF. It seems that the about turn from surgical intervention has been so strong that getting ANY surgical intervention is a battle.

I eventually came across a surgeon who took one look at me (never mind the imaging) and scheduled me for surgery. ~18 months later I’m now on a waiting list to have the plate removed, and strangely have gone off cycling… Surfing has happily taken its place.

I've still never heard a satisfactory explanation for how in the hell two parts of a bone, broken such that they aren't even touching, can find their way back to each other and heal. My son broke his collar bone, and the hospital sent him home in a sling. When I looked at the x-ray, I couldn't believe that's the correct treatment. But a month or two later and he was good as new. Absolutely blows my mind every time I think of it.

Apropos of nothing in particular, when I first started mountain biking, a guy I was riding with told me: "You can divide all mountain bikers into two groups: the ones who have broken their collarbone, and the ones who are about to break their collarbone."

Knock on wood, 20 years later I still haven't broken a collarbone, but I've had plenty of scrapes, bruises, cuts, etc, a couple of concussions, a torn rotator cuff, and quite probably a broken neck (never went to the doctor to have it diagnosed, but I landed on my head hard enough to crack my helmet and knock me unconscious for a few minutes and my neck hurt for like 6 months afterwards).

Still, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Nothing like being out in the woods, on a bike.

Given the amount of injuries related to mountain biking, is there some specific insurance needed for it? It seems one of those "net-negative for the society activities", like trampolines.

My wife is a physiotherapist in Europe, and even ten years ago she would tell you to start exercising it (with guided exercises) as soon as possible.

Also broke my collar bone and no surgery, shoulder is less large by 2cm, I had no issues in the short term, but now after 10+ years it's cracking more, it doesn't age well

I asked if it was possible to do a surgery now, so they'd have to break and restore a longer collar bone, more straight, but surgeons don't seem positive for this

A personal philosophy in medical decisions: - unless there is a severe risk I might die from lack of intervention (on any reasonable timeline besides life), I avoid intervention.

In some cases (my messed up jaw and a whole 9 wisdom teeth), I broke this rule. But generally, it has served me well.

You must have broken yours around the same time my dad broke his. They didn't operate and apparently some of the people who saw the x-rays were quite surprised how well the natural healing process handled pulling the bone pieces back together.

I had a clean break on mine. If I had not had surgery I believe my shoulder would have been a centimeter or two lower. So I got a plate and 7 screws.

Am I right to understand that had I not gotten the surgery my shoulder would’ve likely returned to the normal position?

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When I was a kid (not in the U.S), I remember village elders diagnosing all kinds of illnesses simply from checking one's pulse, without asking any questions or even talking. These are people with minimum education, minimum or zero exposure to science or labs or modern medicine.

Now we have all kinds of powerful, fancy machines and drugs and procedures and today's doctors still misdiagnose, mistreat even relatively simple issues.

I don't know if it is because we as humans have lost touch with nature, our own bodies or we have way more illnesses today than I was a kid 4 decades ago or what else is the reason. It is kinda depressing and mind boggling at the same time.