February 10. The fracture healing has gone very well. The doctor could even feel some hard callus. The took the arm and bent it at the fracture site. It didn't hurt, but it was a bit weird watching it--and it was quite rigid. Next visit will be in three weeks. He believed that that will be the day to remove the brace, which, at this time, only has a protective function, not supporting. In fact, I'm mostly out of brace when at home. If it weren't for the fact that I almost fell once, and got very nervous, I would only wear it at night (you never know what you can do in your sleep).
But now it was time for a referral to Physical Therapy. I got an appointment straight away. The PT was a little concerned, as his copy of the x-ray didn't show that much healing. But we started with the normal exercises I've been doing for some weeks already: leaning forward and make circles with the arm in both directions. He added pendulum exercises, raising the shoulders, and pulling the shoulders backwards. Especially the last two felt good. He also gave me some Play-Dooh-like jelly to squeeze with my hand. Definitely necessary: The power in my right hand was 80 pounds while it was only 40 in the left.
This will be a major time commitment, as he scheduled me for three appointments a week for six weeks.
6 comments:
I've got a displaced mid shaft fracture to my dominant arm. My 7 week review is this Friday. I'm fearing the worst as I can still feel the bones moving about and the previous xrays have shown little recovery. My arm clearly moves at the fracture site, so I keep the soft brace on for most of the time.
Thanks for kjeeping the blog open, it's very informative.
At my week 7 X-Ray the Consultant said that he could see some callus it was not as much as should be. Still painful at fracture site. Consultant wasn't concerned that my arm wouldn't straighten or that there appeared to be a lump of tissue or liquid in my elbow crease. Consultant said he was reluctant to say it was a non Union and said he would give me a further 4 weeks to see if it united and I was sent to physio with instruction to do small range of movement exercises. These consisted of the pendulum exercises, moving the wrist around completely and I was also advised to let arm hang down for periods of time. Wish I had been doing this from near the beginning as I believe this is why I cannot straighten my arm at the elbow.
Still no weight bearing or driving.
Upon feeling my own arm it felt lumpy and hard.
With threat of an operation I started to drink daily whey protein drinks, eat lots of protein, I also took vitamin C, iron, cod liver oil and osteocare tablets with contained calcium, magnesium and zinc.
Arm was painful when I tried to straighten it
i am at week 8 of a midshaft fracture...i was finally able to straighten my arm but now the problem is i cant bring it back up from the elbow, it seems my muscles are to tight..im wearing the sarmiento brace. does anyone else have this problem?
Hi
Thank you for writing this blog.It was really helpful.
I had my left humerus bone shaft fractured some 6 weeks now but I am not able to to lift my hand on its own.I have senses in my hand. So is it normal that we can't lift our hand on its own.
Thanks
Hello. How are you now? I broke mine mid January so I am at week 7.5. Please contact me if you’d like to chat about our experiences - sam214f@gmail.com
I also have a blog at https://medium.com/series/40cd495bbad0?source=linkShare-cc56bb288105-1520717273 if you want to read my story so far
Hello! Was hoping to hear how you got on after this? Hope it all healed up ok!
I have my 8 week check tomorrow so I’m apprehensive. Blog here if anyone is interested: http://steph214f.wordpress.com
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