I appreciate all of the feedback provided, Sufferlandrians!
There’s been significant daily progress since I originally started this thread. While there is still regular discomfort and pain, these unpleasant periods take longer to start (as in when walking, standing still, etc), are of shorter duration, and are less intense. Sleep is still pretty iffy, but it’s getting better.
I’ve more mobility in my left arm, and use it for simple no-muscular-effort tasks. I continue to try to loosen the shoulder/arm with the physio exercises, self-massages, and general mobility exercises.
I did a 20 minute session on the trainer this morning (active recovery effort), sitting up on my saddle, with my left arm in the sling (which I regularly repositioned for comfort) and my right arm hanging down. It went well. It’ll take at least another week before I can reach the handlebars without pain or discomfort.
The session went well enough, and I’ll try to slowly increase the duration…
We have a trolley here. Unfortunately there have been some serious injuries and at least one fatality (not caused by the trolley, the person was down and was hit by an automobile). There are warning signs and markings everywhere.
What I wanted to do was to ride between the trolley tracks so that I could make a left turn at the bottom of a hill. I do remember waiting until there was no car nearby. As a result there was no car nearby to hit me when the bicycle’s front wheel got caught in the trolley tracks.
Glad there were none. Ours runs through several high traffic areas. I also hope your collarbone and shoulders are healed. Mine’s still acting up. Every once in a while the sternum end feels like it popped out of place and I get a stabbing in the neck feeling.
Fortunately, it is as if it never happened. It was a clean break, and both shoulder and rotator cuff healed naturally. Sorry to hear about your occasional pain, I imagine it can be quite annoying/scary when it sort of appears out of nowhere.
Happened today when I pulled my hand up to signal an object in the road. Not quite a left turn signal, but ouch. Everyone be aware and even if you aren’t injured, work through full range of motion. Flexibility prevents injuries.
I would say regular physiotherapy / exercise routine for a lifetime, not just for a few months, to improve/maintain as good a range of movement as possible. I have seen very good results with this approach.
Could not agree more. And I can speak from experience, having broken both of my collar bones, 20 years apart. I had this conversation with my Orthopedic surgeon about a year ago, I have broken 29 bones in my life, all over the age of 30.
After I broke my first collar bone, I had an audible click in it for over a year. A lot of therapy and swimming and it finally went away. Over the years there have been times when I let the exercise go and simple things became much harder than they should have been. When I exercise I feel better, move better and life overall is better.
Most of my friends my age complain about the high cost of all the drugs they have to take for all their ailments. I don’t take any prescription drugs and plan to keep it that way for as long as possible. I would rather spend that money on a new bike or an entry fee for a century ride or a triathlon. A hell of a lot more fun than trying to remember if I took my medications today!
I wish. I have 2 chronic diseases (the first diagnosed in my mid 30s) that require daily meds. When I stopped out of irritation and desire to be drug free a few years after diagnosis, my Crohn’s disease flared and I ended up needing surgery. I did manage to avoid adding blood pressure meds to my regimen by radically changing my diet and increasing exercise time from 3 to 8+ hours per week (SYSTM helped with that).
Bottom line: people can’t always choose their medication regime.
I get that. My daughter is a Type 1 Diabetic. She takes insulin every day or she dies. Many people can’t choose, but many can.
I was really referencing people my age (late 60’s) who are on blood pressure and cholesterol medications in staggeringly high numbers to name just two. A larger % of those could be off those meds with a more active life style.
Because my daughter is diabetic, we have been very active with the ADA. So I am pretty well read on the topic. A Cornell study published in 2020 found that with the proper diet and exercise program, 61% of the participants no longer had Type 2 diabetes as clinically defined, in just one year. This mirrors other studies that showed similar results.
For those who don’t know, Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes are completely different diseases. Type 1’s like my daughter just stop producing insulin, hence the need to take insulin every day. It is an autoimmune disease and they still don’t know the cause, 100 years after the first human received an insulin injection in Jan 1922.
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the body does not properly regulate insulin. Proper diet and exercise can go a long to managing the disease and getting people off of medications. It’s the resulting weight loss and general better health that also gets many off of other related medications like BP and cholesterol meds.
69 here and fortunate not to have any diagnosed conditions or be on any medications…yet. I attribute it entirely to dumb luck. I did break my collar bone in a crit ~10 years ago. Did not have surgery and was back on the bike 10 days later. I’ve had no lasting problems.
All the hackneyed platitudes about aging well are nice, but I had a very good friend who was much fitter, more active, and more health savvy than I ever was who died at age 61 from a heart attack during a mountain bike ride. I have other friends younger than me on statins, beta blockers, rheumatoid arthritis meds, had cancer… As you get older, stuff inevitably starts going south, faster and worse for some than for others. You do what you can, but luck plays a huge roll.
I have a T1D family member. You might want to look into what JDRF is doing on the short and long term side of things. Closed loop monitoring is now a reality thanks to them. Longer term are embedable beta cell devices and restoration of beta cells and full suppression of the autoimmune response. BTW, she is over 85 years old and was diagnosed at 13.
You know what they say…“You’re not a real cyclist until you break your collarbone.”.
I broke mine around age 62 - didn’t hurt very much but maybe that’s because other injuries hurt more. No surgery and now I have a big lump - looks gross to me and I can’t touch it because it creeps me out.
While healing it was recommended to use a bone stimulation machine - my medical plan covered the cost so I got one and used it. Hard to know if it did anything though. About 6 weeks and then the Dr. was happy with it.
