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I guess I was an unwitting trial in this new pathology, when I shattered my collarbone (which involves a lot of soft tissue damage). The doctors deliberated qui
by ehnto 4y ago
I guess I was an unwitting trial in this new pathology, when I shattered my collarbone (which involves a lot of soft tissue damage). The doctors deliberated quite a lot over whether or not it needed surgery, traditionally it would have as it was shattered and displaced, but they wanted to try the new approach of just kindof hoping for the best. They moved it into place in a loose sling, and said "Just hold it generally there" and so I did. That was the entire health plan. No medication, no anti-inflammatories, no suggestions on over-the-counter stuff either.
It can be quite difficult to use pain as a guide for those of us lucky enough to have endured chronic pain, as you build up a bunch of subconscious coping mechanisms and you are expected to experience pain when getting the broken bits moving again. So how much is too much? I have no idea. I definitely agree that pain management meds and anti-inflammatories are counter-productive though.
It's all a bit ambiguous I guess, I'd rather get updates via x-rays even if we are doing the "HOPES" and "DREAMS" approach to healing. Sorry, I mean PEACE and LOVE. I do believe in this approach to healing, I want to make that clear, there's just some rough edges in the User Experience of the approach in the doctors office I think.
- zdragnar 4y agoA doctor tried that with my wife's broken arm. It was very much the wrong call. She ended up getting surgery anyway, but is worse off for having waited a long time before she went to a different doctor.
- chis 4y agoDid that work? I approve of the trend towards letting the body heal itself when possible. But I thought displaced bones generally need to be set, otherwise they can heal with incorrect angles and lose functionality, range of motion, etc.
- skykooler 4y agoThey did the same when I broke my collarbone. The bone healed mis-aligned and needed surgery anyway to re-break it so it could be aligned properly.
- ehnto 4y agoIt did work, the doctor said he would have had a similar outcome from surgery. You van definitely feel where it fused, there is a bump there. I think because it was specifically the collarbone, they were able to set it with the surrounding musculature by just moving the arm and shoulder into place until it all lined up again. I was a pretty model patient though, I was terrified of moving the arm and so it likely did sit where it needed to the whole time. I imagine others may struggle with such a direction.
- thefaux 4y agoYes, I had a similar experience with a clavicle fracture 15 years ago. I saw a surgeon but somewhat surprisingly, she wanted to let it heal on its own if it could. Today my left shoulder is an inch shorter than the right and I have a knob where the two halves fused back together but it doesn't hinder me in any noticeable way.