I wasnt when I shattered my collarbone initially.  But have been every time my shoulder's separated when riding

Rootes

nope. i had nothing. no body armour no helmet no nothing.

i was seriously lucky.

here a list of what ive done.

separated collar bone (which means torn ligaments and ruptured muscle)
bruised ribs
bruised back
bruised knee
bruised elbow
grazed back
stiff jaw
bruised jaw muscle
concusion

basicaally i knew i was going over and i didnt want to snap my arm so i tried to land in a position where i could roll out of it.

unfortunately gravity had different plans. i landed on my shoulder which in turn popped my collar bone out of place. i then bounced my head off the floor aswell, then i came completely off the florr aain, kinda semi twisted mid air. landing back on the same shoulder and rolling and sliding along my back.

i impacted all of my right side and then landed kinda contourted so hit my lower back and shouler all in one which knocked the wind out of me mega style.

lucily the ground was soft so my head did more damage to it that it did to me.

basically you read people who say wear protective gear even if you dont intend on doing anything and think 'blah blah blah' well i know i used to, but i dont any more.

i could have turned out one hell of a lot worse.

because i effectivly fell maybe 4-5 ft at about 15mph

i weight just over 13 stone

thats alot of force.

now i went to the hospital for a follow up today. i have been told surgery is an option but given the nature or the injury it wont do much good.

as its not bones that are damaged its muscle and tendon.

it will move passivly (this means when i make my arm dead weight and someone else moves it, it will go everywhere it should, but if i try and move it, it is restricted by muscle and ligament damage)

ive got 3 weeks in a sling and then im back in for another check up.

and to jack read. make sure you dont bugger your shoulders/collars in any respect. the feeling initially is like having a hot poker shoved in the join and having it wiggled around.

its harsh, and the recovery aint much fun either.

it constantly aches, cant be moved much or hte ligaments will not repair properly and allow too much movement in future.

really not a fun thing to bugger up

but hey. to become old and wise you first need to be young and stupid.

i fit the last one to a tee

safe riding guys.

will keep you posted

Snap! Did exactly the same, nosed in off a drop and landed on my shoulder in the middle of a rock garden. Knew it was bad when i couldn't pick my bike up.

Stupidly, i took some ibuprofen and carried on riding for the rest of the day, the adrenaline must have kept the pain down as later that night and the next day it was hell!

Yeah, mine wasn't quite that bad! I just had massive skin loss to go with mine

yeah muscles and ligaments are a bugger to damage, as if you move it to much you tear the reapring stuff then you put yourself back a fair while. i would have prefered a clean snap to be honest. breaking arms are fine just avoid legs and avoid muscle damage there the things that take an age to sort.

and yeah, body armour is a good idea. i know im investing in some.

when im better that is.

may need a shoulder brace tho. might get one made up for me then that way it will hold my shoulder in the correct place whilst it heals coz if im honest this sling does sod all.

thom

cheers for that dude
now even tho my shoudler hasnt healed would that be suitable to hold everything in the correct place during healing?? coz if i dont hold my arm just so the collar bone is poking up. which means it wont heal it the same place. and the sling doesnt do a great job of keeping everything flush.

right then, good news. im fixed

so i can now go back on my bike again.

still a bit stiff and still a little sore but its all working now

lost a bit of movement in my arm but nothing major.

total of 4-5 weeks i think it was from injury to recovery.

and after 3 weeks i was doing manual labour at work.

so if this happens to any of you guys then dont worry. it should be fine