Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Week 15

April 8. My PT increases the weights quite significantly (15 pounds in one-arm rows and eight pounds curls, for example), but I still can't lift my arm over my head. It's getting slightly annoying.

Last night I woke up sitting and having arm pain. I had a nightmare and got up using both arms. I'm glad this didn't happen two months ago.

April 10. It was supposed to be one of my regular measuring sessions with the gentle PT. He too knew some some torturous tricks: when stretching he didn't give in for my agony, but kept going. He increased my passive range from 130 degrees to 150 in five minutes, and laughed when I replied 9 to the question: "what was the pain like, 1-10"?). 10 was the day of the accident.

Then he increased the rows weight to 20 pounds, so in a week I went from 8 to 20. This had no direct impact on my range of motion standing up, which is still the achilles heal. But now I can easily reach above 110 degrees with straight arm standing and above 90 degrees with two pounds. The one pound weight is not in use any more, and the two-pound one, only while standing up. The rest is 4 pound minimum. Lying down on the side lifting the arm 90 degrees with the 4-pound weight is still very hard, but it's getting easier.

My doc has been right in everything he predicted several weeks in advance: the day of removing the sling, the removal of the brace, and the week when I would be able to lift my arm higher. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi bro, glad to see you are getting more fans everyday, by the way, in those last x-rays your arm looks great, I hope mine to reach that good phase. Sorry to have left the posts for a long time but I had not real results, so I had nothing to comunicate. Well bro, to remember something. I am not american, my first language is Spanish so forgive the lousy English. I am 22, I broke on february 7th, and I got a cast, it was terrible, I could do nothing by myself, I was about to choose the surgery. In all the time I had the cast I felt no improvement, it made me really sad, I thought my arm would never healed. I broke my left radius some years ago but it healed in no time, but now, with this new right humerus fracture, I felt completely the opposite, like never healing since my bone moved inside a lot, and there was no movement of my arm at all. But it all changed on March 10th. I GOT MY MARVELOUS BRACE, oh God!!! I could get full showers with no fear of watering the cast, could use all my clothes again and the best, it weighs nothing, my cast weighed like 1 Ton. Oh god, since I got the brace I was not even able to put my arm straight cause all the time I had the cast it covered all my arm and forearm to my wrist and I carried it with a sling but with the time it got right. The best part is that it seems like the arm heals with more movement, to this point I can do a lots of movements and I even can lift relatively heavy things, knowing that at the beginning I could not even lift a glass full of water, though in some directions is a bit bothering. Everyday I feel better. Right now I am typing with both hands, ah what a relief. Bro I feel like almost healed, but sure It'll take some time to regain my resistance in the arm, I can do many movements but anyway it feels weak, I mean, compared to a fully healed arm, especially when I remove the brace, but it is ok, the brace doesn't bother me at all. The doctor told me he was shocked how good I was doing, I am expected to see him next wednesday, he has not even sent me to PT. Bro, I really want to thank you cause I started following the blog since I had the cast, through all the process till now. Your case was really similar to mine so It gave me lots of hope seeing your progress through the healing. I'll keep you posted bro, thanks man. See you

P.d: I already can lift my arm over my head, jaja

See you bro

Per said...

Thanks for the update! I'm happy you're recovering so quickly. It's slower for me since I wasn't that strong to begin with; I was in to jogging and biking but not weight lifting and I had an physically easy job. I'm also in my mid-40s, not that young any more.

It's absolutely true that bone healing increases with motion, the body realizes that it has to keep working on healing the bone and the increased blood flow is good.

I feel quite well today, and completely functional except for raising my arm straight above my head, but I can raise it with my elbow bent. I could change a ceiling light bulb if the ladder was high enough.

Keep me updated! It's wonderful to hear about a success story.