All about the 'C' words [17]

For anyone who has never broken their collarbone before, it is an odd thing to break. I don't know about you, but I've certainly never given my clavicle a second thought. To be honest, I'm not even sure I realised I had one, let alone two. If I had to stab a guess at it, I think I've said, heard and written the words 'clavicle' and 'collarbone' more than one billion times over the last 10 days. [In case you're wondering, the number in the square brackets above is the clavicle/collarbone word count for this blog post alone.]

As if that wasn't enough, an odder thing about breaking your collarbone is that it can't be immobilised completely. You just have to rest, limit any movement (by wearing a sling or, a brace) and to try not to displace the bone as it begins to heal. In the early days, however, this means that you can hear the bone ends rubbing as you move (a gross and superfluous detail I know, but perhaps of some comfort to readers coming to this with a fresh break themselves: "Thank goodness! This is normal!"). It's an off-putting clicking sound that, at best, makes you regret being able to hear.