Anyone recovered from a broken elbow(radius)?

[helston90]

8 weeks is nothing in bone healing time- I broke my elbow (although the piece of bone stayed in place when it broke so wasn't very complicated) and my collarbone at the same time in March last year and they still occasionally give me jip/ ache if I catch them wrong.
If it starts getting better then suddenly gets painful again go and see someone- the last thing you want is it healing wrong and them having to operate to 'mend' it again.

 

[fossyant]

My OH found out that what the medical profession and us more active people consider as exercise is 2 totally different things.

My experience also. They are not geared up to fit folk. I have a colleague who was a triathlete, but has been very ill recently with restricted airways - she was still up and about in work despite being seriously ill. Some of the stories she has - ended up with her apendix out - went in complaining of pain, doc realised she was still training every morning, sent her away. It almost ruptured.

 

[summerdays]

My OH found out that what the medical profession and us more active people consider as exercise is 2 totally different things.

When I asked I was told I could get back on the bike whenever I felt like it - hence 2 days - not sure whether they meant that soon or not! Mr Summerdays was impressed especially as I couldn't actually hold the handlebars properly but I wanted to see.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

When I asked I was told I could get back on the bike whenever I felt like it - hence 2 days - not sure whether they meant that soon or not! Mr Summerdays was impressed especially as I couldn't actually hold the handlebars properly but I wanted to see.

I suspect the OP doing a +100 mile bike ride the other night and several other +100km rides, might not be what they were thinking of at the time (sorry OP)

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

When I asked I was told I could get back on the bike whenever I felt like it - hence 2 days - not sure whether they meant that soon or not! Mr Summerdays was impressed especially as I couldn't actually hold the handlebars properly but I wanted to see.

Hehe that's what I did, I just propped my left hand on the bars gingerly, after about 4 weeks, iirc, I managed to hold on ever so lightly.

Thanks for the replies guys, it's been a big help....

 

[vickster]

Not a break, but I had tennis elbow surgery at the start of November (tendon detatched, hole drilled, tendon reattached to a bone screw). I started strengthening after 3 months, I have ridden a little bit in the last 10 days. Since starting the tendon loading (with a theraband and now a 1kg weight), my arm is now more sore again

My surgeon was clear that there should be no cycling for 3 months - as he pointed out I could find myself descending a hill and discovering I actually had no strength to brake hard!

Happy healing - it'll take much longer than you think. I am hopeful for a return to strength at 6 months

 

[briantrumpet]

Very minor radial head fracture 18 months ago for me, no action taken, but it did take a few months really to get back to normal, and changing gear with the two little fingers caused some pain for quite a while (the Tiagra shifter with a longer but gentler push were much more comfortable than the Ultegra one). I still hear slight scrunching noises when I do press-ups, but no pain. But the x-ray showed only a minor longitudinal fracture.

 

[Dante256]

I fractured my RIGHT olecranon (elbow) 8 weeks ago. I'm hoping that I'll be allowed to ride this week, but I think I might be told k have to wait until 12 weeks.

I've detailed the physio and the treatments I've needed on www.titaniumgeek.com

 

[Drago]

8 years on from a broken olecranon it still causes me problems, and may see me retired early this year.

 

[summerdays]

About 6 years on and it still aches sometimes and I can't straighten that arm (well over extend) it as far as I used to. And there is one annoying point that means when I carry something heavy and try to set it down, there is one point in the arc where it stops. I have to set the thing down by bending myself down then repick it up with the arm moved beyond that point.

 

[TheJDog]

I'm about 12 years on from a radial head fracture, and it gives me all sorts of grief. Main problem is not the pain or the noise, though both are alarming, but the lack of range of movement (and the pain at the extremity of movement is quite severe with rotation) - carrying shopping with a canted wrist gets very painful, or riding with one very bent arm probably causes me more back pain than it used to, even something as simple as putting a tie on and fixing my collar is a kerfuffle..

My specialist decided that chopping off my radial head and replacing it with a bit of metal might help, IF YOURS SUGGESTS THIS TELL HIM TO TAKE A RUNNING JUMP. Mine has been slightly worse at best since that happened. His next suggestion was to chop off the head entirely and leave a floating joint. At this point I think I wised up and told him no thank you. I've had a couple of sanding treatments to get gunk out of the joint, which the last time looked ghastly on the picture. If I win the lottery, maybe it would get sorted, but as it is I am just putting up with the pain.

 

[ushills]

I broke both of mine as a school kid, attempting a judo roll on tarmac and slamming both elbows onto tarmac. I agree the pain was terrible but subsided after about a month, then the physio was about 2 year to get full range of movement, for about 6 months they wouldn't go much straighter than 120 degrees then it got better each month.

 

[ushills]

PS I have a bit of bone floating in my right elbow after my last off, generally causes no bother unless I catch it on the desk.

 

[Mr Celine]

I fell off my bike and hurt my arm on the way to get my Sunday paper nearly 4 weeks ago. I finally got round to arranging a GP's appointment and saw him today, he sent to me to the hospital for an x ray and I've just discovered I have a radial head fracture. They told me that if I'd gone to A and E straight away (it wasn't that sore at the time) I'd have been given a collar and cuff for two weeks, so I could probably have had two weeks off work. I've no idea what the long term prognosis is, I've to wait for an appointment at the fracture clinic.
At the moment I can't fully bend or straighten it and it seems to stiffen up when cycling to the point that I can't get a water bottle to my mouth with that arm.

 

[TheJDog]

Make sure you start some physio ASAP. I mean today, ideally. I'm sure the lack of meaningful movement on mine (I was told to keep it immobile for two weeks) was part of the reason it's so knackered now. When I turned up for my first physio appt he was grumbling about why I'd waited so long to see him. The NHS, eh? Can't live with it, can't live without it :S