They seriously kept you in the hospital for 5 days over a broken collarbone? We must have some really different medical guidelines.
For me it happened on a Sunday, took a trip to the ER with the waaaambulance, sat in the ER holding area for 45 min before a doc finally showed up (I was the only one in there), took a couple xrays of the collarbone and pelvis area, they gave me some meds, told me to wear this weird shoulder harness thing for a few weeks, and released me.
So yeah with the crappy level of care I got there I wasn't going to take his word for it. Monday morning went to my local Orthopedics center, took some more xrays, and pretty much the first words of the doctors mouth (after seeing the xrays) was "Wow, yeah you're going to need surgery to correct this". I guess I had a 2 cm displacement/gap and the only way to make sure that I didn't have issues down the road was to put a plate in.
With the shoulder specialist being on vacation I had to deal with a broken collarbone until the following Tuesday. Surgery went smooth (was only there for a morning), took the rest of the week off, iced the crap out of it, removed the first bandage that Sunday, went to work the next day (Monday), didn't really use my sling except for going to the doctor (so he doesn't bitch) or if I was in a public place (so people don't bump me). Started physical therapy 2 weeks post op and did that twice a week for about a month. Never really did any of the home exercises, just never really wore my sling (that was my PT).
Surgery was July 6th and I think I was doing some light riding by late October/early November, just in time to go to the Cali ride and make a fool of myself on the bike.
I believe I wasn't 100% cleared until that next January/February.
In hindsight I would've done somethings differently but the hit to the head kept me from thinking straight. Instead of taking the ambulance ride I should've just loaded everything up and driven to my local hospital where they have on call orthopedic surgeons. Get the surgery done that night and be done with it, could've gone back to work a week early. Heck a buddy broke his ankle and was in surgery a little over a hour after he took his dirt nap.