Angela Allen5 said:I broke my collarbone five days ago—fractured right down the middle—and they slapped me in an 8-wrap. To make matters worse, the second I got home, everything felt like it popped out of place again. Two days later, I had to head back to the hospital (the pain was absolutely unbearable while they were resetting it), and they reapplied the 8-wrap. Fast forward to today—day five—and things have gone sideways again. It looks like I'm headed for surgery at this point. I haven't been able to sleep at all; lying down feels impossible, like my spine is just falling apart, not to mention anything else... so, yeah, surgery is probably on the horizon. :// 😠
Total disaster. :/
So, I finally got my brace off about a month ago after rocking it for a month and a half. I went in for three different checkups, but every single time they just tightened the damn thing. At the last appointment—which was like a month after the break—they took some X-rays. Everything looked like it was healing perfectly fine, but they still insisted on leaving the brace on "just in case" we could get even better results. I was supposed to head back in for one more follow-up in two weeks, but life happened. First, I was buried under college finals, and then, because my luck is just stellar, I came down with a massive sinus infection. It spiraled so hard I actually had to go get my lungs scanned. While I was at the clinic getting all that sorted, I just... slipped out of the brace myself. I slid it right back onto my shoulders, finished up with the doctor, headed home, took the thing off, and tossed it straight in the trash. Done with it. 😁
Look, maybe it’s not exactly responsible, but if I can just move it back and forth myself, what’s even the point of having it? Anyway, the bone seems fine now. At least it isn't crooked anymore—it used to be all twisted, like one side was vertical and the other was horizontal if you looked down at it from above. My range of motion is finally coming back. I still get this nagging ache when I bend my arm inward toward my body, or if I sleep on that side too long during the night, or if I suddenly jerk my arm after holding it in one position for a while. But the pain is fading, so I’m not losing any sleep over it. I’ve actually been carrying some heavier stuff lately, but I always lean on my left side just enough to give this side a little extra support while it strengthens up.