So I'm now 9 months after my spinal, rib, clavicle fractures.
6 weeks in a BOB brace and sling.
3 months off work.
7 months of back pain.
I always thought spinal fractures would take 6 weeks to heal (one unit of orthopaedic time), turns out I was wrong. They take a shit load longer. I pretty much stopped all pain relief before the brace came off, except for occasional paracetamol at the end of a long day. I got to the point that I just accepted it was going to ache, and thought this would be a long term thing. Things were gradually improving, but plateaued from the 3 month to 6 month mark, but things have slowly improved since then.
I'm pretty much pain free now, except after a long day on my feet, or strangely when the weather is cold.
I was allowed back on the bike at 4 months, but it was mostly on the road. It wasn't until about 6 months that I hit the dirt again. I'm back riding XC style stuff, but I always liked giving it the beans on the downhills. I had my first crash since the accident on my last ride in a rock garden on "Trav's Diamond" at You Yangs. Clean over the bars after my front wheel got hung up. Was a bit shaken afterwards, but it is almost a relief to have had a decent sized crash and walked away with just cuts and grazes.
Anyways, heal well fellow farkers. Take you time with recovery, it'll be frustratingly slow but you'll get back riding in the end. As my wife says, "you can't fix stupid, but you can buy him a helmet".