UKH

Grade 3. At the shoulder end. 
Advice is physio, conservative treatment and strengthening.

Is life as as I once knew it now over for good? It feels very vulnerable.

A search for ‘shoulder separation’ and ‘ac separation’ should pull up a couple of threads. I only know because I contributed to them. In short, no surgery, permanent chip on my shoulder, have climbed French 8 since. All the best with your recovery.

Grade 3 on the Tossi or Rockwood scale? Could be quite different, but either way the end outcome should be good. I work with a lot of cyclists and rugby players where it’s quite a common injury. 

My cousin did that about 2 hours into his first snowboarding trip!

No surgery, just physio. He's not a climber, but I'm not aware it's stopped him doing anything else - he plays football, rides bikes and skis.

I had a similar injury (sternum end instead of shoulder) and had similar advice and experience. Felt like I would never be able to climb again at first and felt constant pain and soreness, but with rest it healed surprisingly quickly.

Obviously this won't necessarily be the case for everyone. Take the advice you are given and I don't see why you wouldn't get back to the level you were at before.

Condolences if it’s your tossi arm Birdie

What, contract it out to a relative, tell it to stop whining, blame it on a foreigner and declare it fit for work?

I thought that birds didn't have clavicles, or if you broke the equivalent it was very lucky!

 Is life as as I once knew it now over for good? It feels very vulnerable. . .

     . . . it will for a time. I did the same years ago (bike fall) and I stopped climbing for some months - it seemed that if I pulled on it, then it would just come apart again. It didn't. More recently it's been the same with a shoulder (the other one!) dislocation - lots of exercises and annoyance until I bit the bullet - climbed and pulled up on it (it's a faith thing) scared of the overhanging - better at it now - just looking forward to getting back on warm rock!

I did mine 30 years ago. Really painful for a few days, but after a bit no problem and I've never noticed it since.......unless I look in the mirror. A friends son did the same and has a very noticeable step but carries on as a tree surgeon regardless. 

I'm a bird with a broken wing.

Thanks to all for the replies to this. At the moment it feels super vulnerable. Not a great thing to do on Christmas Day. It's going to be a difficult thing to get back on the bike with the shoulder bone disconnected from the arm bone (as the old song goes)

I had a grade 4 ACJ dislocation about 10 years ago from a bike crash.  Ended up having surgery about 10 months later but in retrospect it’s probably not any better than if I hadn’t have had the surgery (though I’ll never really know I suppose).  Getting back on the bike (pre surgery - probably about 3 weeks after the accident) for me was the easiest thing - it doesn’t affect your ability to handle a bike. Although it was a cycling injury it did way more damage to climbing than anything else.  I ended up doing a lot of cycling because I couldn’t climb for ages.

That said mine was a car crash on a road bike.  If it had have been an MTB crash I imagine I’d have been a lot more conscious of getting back on as I guess crashes are more regular.

MY EXPERIENCE.

Did my AC joint coming off my bike at the end of Aug 23 (skidded going down a wet road).

Grade 3. Adv Conservative rx. Said I wanted to see a shoulder Sx to discuss. Got a pretty quick call from Sx. When he'd had a look he said that when he saw my x-rays he was sure it would need fixing but on seeing me wasn't so sure. Had a long chat about pros and cons and decided to go for no sx. (Poss slightly better outcome, with risks of sx and similar if not longer rehab). Sx must either be early (under 10d or so or late). (All NHS).

Had a good physio who saw quite a few such injuries in young people keen to continue sport. Think having an Sx and physio who get what you want is essential.

First month no lifting arm above head. 12 weeks before attempting body weight on arm. It is quite slow (and one of the risks is getting a frozen shoulder on top of the injury). Everyone really pushed taking it slowly and lots of shoulder exercises with bands etc.

Now have an odd shaped shoulder. Just getting back to gentle climbing. Coped with hanging rebelays caving and splitting wood.

Look odd (and always will) but function seems pretty good. Press ups seem difficult but otherwise pretty pleased. Occasional ache.