George, was your initial fracture due to a fall or other impact or did it just break with no real impact (a pathological fracture)? When I presented to A&E on Easter Sunday the X-ray showed no break. Without looking at me or the huge lump already evident in the middle section of my collar bone, he said they would just give me a collar and cuff and send me home to return in 6 weeks. Now I damn well knew something serious had happened so in my brash Australian way and despite being in excruciating pain, I whipped off my shirt and basically said "You have got to be kidding…look at this, I am not going home!" So he finally looked at the massive lump on my collar bone, called another doctor and within the hour I was in the Clinical Decision Unit, had been seen by an orthopaedic doctor, dosed up on oromorph and spent the night awaiting admission. That meant I was admitted on April Fool's Day -see myeloma already having the last laugh at my expense! Confession here …….there were a few tearstoo, mainly of frustration as we had been sat in A &E with no pain relief for more than an hour before any treatment.
The moral is don't be afraid to speak up, ask questions, shout or cry if you must, but without my loud mouth I would have been sat at home for 6 weeks waiting for a collar bone to heal, which never would have happened as it was being devoured by myeloma gremlins.
