Humerus fracture recovery

Man I remember the pain when the nerve block worn off after surgery!! I was close to tears!!

Wait till the staples are removed, (I assume you have staples??) and then slowly start the ROM exercises.

Also Wookie, wait till you have the bandage off and staples out.....the first shower where you can move your arm is great!!

Cleaning your teeth is great, sleeping is sooooo much better!

So Im a little bummed today. I went for my 2 1/2 month follow up with Xrays and the Dr. says that there is some new bone growth but not as much as he wanted. He said that we'll wait another 4 weeks and they see how it looks. He said Surgery or Bone Stimulation. I dont want surgery. I feel so much better and have alot more movement its odd that the xrays shows different. The Dr. even tried to shift the bone and said its mores solid than what the xray is showing. So im hoping that more bone will show on the next xray. He said its ok to take calcium or that it wouldnt hurt rather. My elbow is stil swollen and my break was on 4/5/09. He states that the swelling can take 6months to a year to go down...this sucks!

unocrazyboy, that a pretty bad break is that the Xray at 2 1/2 months or the very beginning? my spiral break was at the similar place and trust me in a way we are lucky its not right at the elbow or the humerus head. Good luck buddy you will get there no matter what the situation is

Jay

Unocrzyboy - I'm sorry that you're having so many problems, but I was told that the new bone doesn't always show on the xray while it is still 'soft' so that fact that it feels better to you and that the Dr couldn't manipulate it is a good sign.  

Were you told why the swelling would take so long to reduce? I found my swelling disappeared as soon as I got some movement back and started doing some physio exercises after 4 weeks. Try and get as much movement to your shoulder and elbow as possible.
 
Although I was told that I only needed to make sure I had a balanced diet, I greatly increased my calcium intake and I am sure that helped me as my latest xrays look so much better.

I hope you start improving soon

Hello guys,
I broke my right humerus just a few inches above the elbow, it happened on May 23^rd almost a month  by now, I found this web site yesterday night. The bone is now in three pieces    ,  by reading some of the posts I realized I share many of your experiences. I had a heavy cast on for only three weeks, it was removed on Monday last week. The doctor told me to curl the arm all the way up and down before my next follow up a week from.  I think at this stage the bone is fusing and a soft sticky material surrounds the fractures  hopefully by curling the arm up and  down it will  straighten the bone, since at this stage seems a bit crocked. Lets be positive guys, my best wishes to you all-

Hello all,

Just writing an update. I broke mine on 13th November 2008. Last week I went for an X Ray and they told me it was doing fine and I didn't need to come back to them. I could still see a fracture line and they explained not to be doing any heavy weights or anything like a weights class. Doctor did say it was ok to lift small weights to build muscle.

I took a picture of my back and could see that around the shoulder blade (when comparing to the other arm) I'd lost muscle as well as obviously around the arm and shoulder. So I would advise people to keep on top of that. I had about 4/5 physio sessions and discharged a couple of months ago. ROM is all back, aside from lifting my arm straight up and then backwards, its a bit stiff but I plan on working on that.

The muscle is coming back and the arm is starting to fill out and look like it used to look, thankfully. I did get some stiffness and pain in the fore arm for a while after, but this was due to losing muscle there and not having strength. Now I have the strength, pain has gone. No more pain in the elbow or shoulder joints either.

So, I'd advise using the arm as much as you can once you've got yours casts/braces off. Not perhaps doing weight training but moving it up and down, left to right, keeping the muscles active. Flexibility stops the stiffness and eventually it dissapears. I feel and look like me again. It's summer too, so I can wear vests without feeling self concious that my arm look thin and unusually skinny.

So, I'm just using lighter weights, gentle exercise to get my strength back and also keep my body toned. I would like to work on my chest but the idea of doing push ups yet is nothing something I feel I'm ready for, just in case. Don't want any setbacks. It was a long process but it will reach an end.

Good luck to everyone.

Update-Its been 3 months since my break. Im currently doing the bone stimulation. All of my ROM is coming back the only I have trouble doing is getting my arm to go up. i.e.- touch your nose, brush your teeth...that upward movement I cannot do. Its like stuck. Anyone?????????

Hi Mastah
I broke my Right  humerus armwrestling 30 May 2009
How  long did it take you to go back to the gym after surgery? and how did u progress in lifting the  weight ie mass increament and how long did it take u to start  lifting ur normal weight u used to b4 the fracture

I recently fractured my left humerus spiral fracture right under the ball. As a result of a surgery due to suspicion  of a bone tumor it broke due to a simple fall 3 months after. They did surgery directly after i broke it because i lost feelings to my thumb. With 6 small incisions I now have a pin from the ball of my shoulder to my elbow inside the bone held in place with 7 screws . 5 weeks after the break i have very minimal muscle loss and about 30% ROM. I do basic movement exercises for rotator cuff injuries. Such exercises  as the pendulum swing and raising my arm with my other arm with help of a pulley. Not to mention the vitamins i take on a daily basis. As a result of all of the above i have no need for pain meds other then generic IBU 600s.

Hi everyone!  New to the site/forum.  Good to see there are others with the same problem... well, not "good" to see others were injured, but you know what I mean.  I've felt pretty isolated, cause there isn't anyone I personally know who broke their arm armwrestling.
 
Here's my question for anyone who wants to answer:
 
I broke my right arm arm wrestling, spiral fracture, plate and 9 screws to fix.  Surgery was done by Navy doc while I was in the Marines, stationed in Japan.  I had the surgery 7 years ago. 
 
I originally did not have any major complications from the surgery, or recovery.  I also did not start lifting weights again until just this year (seperated my right shoulder - class 3 bordering class4 - 2 years after breaking my arm).  So my right arm/shoulder has been out of commision for a while.
 
I did not have any problems whith lifting until last week.  While doing bench press (smith machine) I felt a "tweak" in my right elbow.  Didn't think much of it, and just stopped my set after I felt it.  No lingering pain, no aching.  About 2 days later my right tricep hurt like hell.  I feel tightness/pain when bending my arm and straightening my arm.  I do not feel tenderness in the tricep while static (doesn't feel like a surface level bruise I mean).  It feels like it's internal, but I honestly have no idea where the pain is generating from.
 
I am wondering if anyone has felt anything like this after recovery?
 
My initial thought was that possibly my tricep is rubbing on the plate internally and either causing pain due to abrasion of the muscle, or that the muscle has grown bigger than ever previously, and is now pressing on the plate when flexed, causing bone pain.
 
Please, anyone who has felt anything like this please help!  I was extremely pleased with the gains I had been getting, especially after such a long gap in trainging.  To have an old injury that stopped me intitially, come back to haunt me, is just plain debilitating and frustrating...
 
Thanks so much!
 
Also, if anyone has had the plate removed after full recovery, due to complications, please include your experiences and reasons for opting for the removal.  Let me know how you recovered from the plate removal.

As one additional note, I got tattooed in between the elbow "tweak" and the onset of tricep pain.  The tattoo is on my chest/stomach so it is a comepletely unrelated area of the body.  A buddy of mine just suggested that the pain may have been caused by me "tensing" under the stress of getting tattooed.  I was in the chair for 5 hours, so it is possible that I was flexing my tricep for 5 hours and didn't noticed it, possibly effectively giving myself a really bad charlie-horse.
 
The thing is though, this was the third 5 hour session of tattooing (very very large piece) and I didn't ever have onset pain in the tricep from the other sessions.
 
Wondering if anyone else has had an experience with "tensing" and getting localized pain in the area of the plate/screws.
 
Thanks again, and good luck to everyone with their recoveries.  It's uplifting to see so many people on here with exceptional recoveries and great gains.  Keep up the good work and good spirits!

Hello Everybody :)
 
First off I would like to say how much it has helped me to read everyone's experiences with this particular injury.
 
I am a 20 year old female and on 4/2/09 I was in a serious car accident on the interstate which left me with my jaw broken in 3 places and a mid shaft humerus fracture in my left arm (I am right handed). I had my jaw wired shut for 8 weeks and it is mostly back to normal. I do have numbness on my left jaw, lip, and chin which is most likely permenant due to a severed nerve.
 
When I was in the hospital I was given the option to also have my humerus operated on but chose the cast b/c I was advised I may suffer possible nerve damage. Because of the numbness in my face I was afraid of surgery. It has been 3 1/2 months and my humerus has shown calcification on the exterior of the bone but after recieving the results from a CT scan the interior of the bone has formed scar tissue rather than bone. This unfortunatly means that I am scheduled for surgery in a few days to recieve a bone graft from my hip to the humerus as well as a plate and 8 screws. Luckily the doctor I have is very experienced and confident that he can perform the surgery with no nerve damage. Of course the down side is that it is like practically starting over with the arm as far as healing.
 
After waiting almost 4 months with no improvement on this fracture you can imagine how anxious I am to get back to weight training. I have been able to do cardio for the past month but it does not even compare to my love for weight training.
 
For anyone that is contimplating surgery: The humerus fractures take much time to fully heal. If you really enjoy weight training and want to be back on your feet as soon as possible I would recommend the surgery from the start. By the time I am able to even start with light weights again it will be 8 months out from my car accident. This is not to say that the cast does not work but the surgery immediatly stablizes the arm from moving so healing is easier. As explained by my doctor a cast can only stablize a bone so much but there is always room for it to move. I know that the scar with be big but in time it will diminish. If any of you are worried about the scar as far as how it would look on stage in a contest...dont worry. Not only will the tan cover it up but it does not cause a loss of points from judges. :)
 
Good luck to anyone recovering from this type of injury or any injury!
 
 
 
 
 
 

As a follow up...  My arm is completely better.  I am now assuming it was just a terribly bad charlie-horse in my arm.  I've never had that happen before, and never heard of it either.  I think it was so painful because the muscle was contracted directly over the plate and screws.  I'm assuming the muscle was somewhat rubbing on the plate, causing additional tenderness and lengthening the recovery time.

I was out in the water surfing this week, with only mild pain.  By the end of the day it was gone all together.  Throughout the injury, I was periodically stretching and iceing the area.  I really didn't do any serious physical therapy for it, and I didn't wrap or isolate the movement of the area.  It just recovered on it's own.  I am going to the gym again this week.  If the pain returns, I'll post more about what happens.  Hopefully it was a fluke.  I hope noone else has this problem.  It definately felt like it was very much worse than it actually was, while it was hurt.  I honestly thought there was something seriously wrong.

Hi All,

I am back on this discussion board, I have a question and hopefully someone can answer me. I was successful in my spiral fracture and now it has been 33 weeks (around 8 months) since my break, I didnt get operated on, the usual 6 weeks in a hangin cast and then the normal therapy. Got I would say about 98% of ROM back. My question is and please if anyone has done this please let me know. My doctor says I couldn't play touch football for a year which would be in December but I want to play badly. My question is since in touch football its not tackle, but you do bumped into people sometimes and fall sometimes, do any of you think my humerus can break again that easy just by example bumping into someone?? as another example if someone puched me in the arm?? after 33 weeks I am thinking my humerus has to have some sort of strenght in it, this is the only thing I am afraid and am looking for advice. I mean I play golf 3 times a week and I impact with the ball quite hard, what do you guys think and tks?

It has been 3 months since my spiral fracture and I have just been discharged - not sure whether to be pleased or worried! I was told that, because I have full ROM, I don't have to come back unless I have any problems. The only thing that I sometimes get is a tight feeling where the healing bone is thickening.
 
Upto now, I hadn't done anything that would put a lot of body weight on the arm, but the consultant said to go ahead and do push ups and yoga poses. I have been fine doing them.
 
I also asked whether I could take up boxing and was given quite a vague response about 'building up to it gradually'. I wouldn't have thought that would take a year so not sure why you couldn't play football, Couscous. Would still be careful though.
 
Hope everyone is doing well.
 
 

Hello unocrzyboy,
My fracture looks a bit as yours, mine was just above the elbow but my humerus broke itself in three pieces.  When the orthopedist took the cast off I wasn’t able to get my arm up and down as you say, at first I wasnt  able to move it at all, that freaked me out.  
 
The doctor  asked me to move it up and down as much as possible, it was very hard at first, my elbow was very stiff, but through the motion that stiffness went away, its been two months and a week since my accident and I think I have about 91 % of my ROM back, I will get about 96 % max, mine wont be perfect anymore. I suggest you to do the exercise as your doctor or physiotherapist recommended as much as you can, I did it as  day and night, it feels weird at first but that sensation will go away.
I have my next follow up on August the 23^rd. I’ll put on some pics of my break that day.
Good luck.   

hello phyquelove2,
My sis had a car accident a while ago, thankfully she recovered completely after 6 months.
hows your recovering now a days?

Good luck

Tks Tiny Titan, I played 2 football games this past weekend and it went well I wore my hockey elbow pad that runs all the way up to where my break was and that made me happy, even fell on my left arm and everything was OK, not jinxing it though cause as anybody's arm could break at any time.

Cyrano happy to hear for your sis.

Questions for anyone when I broke my humerus I was snowboarding and lost my balance fell backwards with the left arm stretched out and thats how I broke it. Why I ask its because I obviously fell on my back too. It's been 34 weeks since my break and now every morning I wake up with a lower back pain, has anyone experienced this???

Its a back pain that is only after I sleep at night it even wakes me up but after 30- to an hour after I wake up I have no back pain at all its weird and I am wondering if this happened to anyone and if it could be linked to my accident. the pain is severe now in the morning and wasnt as bad in the past and get this...it started as soon as I went from sleeping sitting up (which we had to) for 6 weeks back to sleeping normally

let me know would really appreciate your experience ,I have an appointment in a couple of months, but freak when you live in Canada like me it takes months before getting an appointment.

tks.

8 weeks after my surgery i went back to see the Dr. and i got somewhat of bad news. Most likely i need to have another surgery to get the hardwear taken out and possibly have my arm rebroken and reset. Because of a peice of bone that sticks out from the re rest of my bone they said it could have adverse effect on my muscles and tendons in my shoulder. They told me it could be like a knife my question is do i absolutly need to have it rebroken and reset???? I am just looking for answers and i really dont want to have another surgery will it be ok or not????

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I was told today at the physical therapy offices that if u have a fall that is strong enough to break your arm it could throw the allignment out on your spine.. To be sure ask your Dr. to take X-Ray of your spine.

Hi there, my son just had right humerus surgery on sept 18/09, he was in a motorcyle accident April 28/09, and for 4 months he has tried everything he could to avoid surgery. Unfortunatly he has had severe damage to his arm because of the accident. I have a question to all of you who has had the humerus surgery, how long after was your shoulder and hand swollen for?
thanks

Hey guys,
I have been reading this thread since my own fracture and subsequent surgery 3 weeks ago. Mine was not a arm wrestling accident but just a simple trip in the kitchen....unfortunately for me I was 39 weeks pregnant at the time and instead of breaking my fall with my arm like a normal person would do, I placed my arm across my bump to protect my baby, then smacked the arm across the door frame and SNAP! I knew as soon as it happened that I had broken it because it bent in a very wrong place!!
Anyhoo to cut a long story short I had an emergancy c section to get my daughter out safely, then two days later I had a plate and screws fitted to fix the arm. Two major surgerys in two days not fun.
So it has been three weeks since the op and i have been using the arm to bottlefeed, change nappies, cuddle and stroke my wonderful new daughter....but not pick her up.
How long after the surgery should i be able to weight bear enough to be able to pick her up??? Also what is the worst thing that could happen if i do weight bear too soon?
Also in terms of ROM how long before i can attempt to externally rotate the arm?? for example put my own bra on!!
How is everyone else's recovery going?

First of all, what you have been thru is incredible!! I had surgery with a plate and pins Jan 09 and have about 90% of rom now. I had a couple of months of physio and continue to do the exercises at home on a fairly consistent basis. I wouldnt put weight on your arm until the doctors gives you the go ahead. My arm has slowly gotten stronger but it will ache if I am too strenuous.  Basically, it is a slow process and I wouldnt rush it.
 
Congratulations too.

hello people.

well i am new here, i found this forum while searching for humerous fracture surgery..
i had a car accident on 15th sep, my left humerous bone is broken in 2 places, so far am having a cast but after consulting dr's and reading reviews of people on this forum ive made up my mind for the surgery..
i wanted to ask how much does it hurt afterwards? i mean the fractured area, cuz at the moment i have almost no pain but can feel my bones knocking on one another and i get very uncomfortable about this feeling. so what do u guys think? does surgery help and afterward can u use ur arm like u used to , that is after u have healed ? i mean body building and stuff cuz i have a home guy and work out regularly untill now. also are there any medical problems afterwards? am 24 so i am hoping for fast recovery... what do u guys think ? and yeah am on good diet, like lots of milk and 1 tablet of multi-vitamins a day... let me know what u guys think...  

For me I was in excrusiating pain before the operation and none afterwards!! I don't know what other peoples experience is though! As far as I understand the bone will take a minimum of 6 weeks to be partially healed ie weight bear a cup of tea and pull your pants up ect but will take up to 12 weeks or longer to be fully healed. The main problem is muscular pain from resting the arm in a static position during the healing time. That is why physio is so importaint afterwards to ger your ROM back. Eventually the arm should be as good as new but that can take some time. Good luck if you go for the operation.

thanks for the reply emmerypemmery

so how is ur current condition of arm? and after surgery,when did u started physio and i think upper arm takes more loads compared to lower arm but i hope that i would be able to do all the thinks u mentioned in 3 weeks.
oh and congradulations,hope ur daughter is fine too...

Just been to see my consultant today and had an xray. It has been four weeks since the brea and just shy of that since the op. You can hardly see the join where I had the fracture so he was happy for me too loose the sling and start using the arm more...still not weight bear to much but I can start to weight bear more in another two weeks :)
The main problem is the lack of strength in my arm and shortening of my bicep (due to being held up for four weeks) I started physio at the begining of the week and am doing the excersises they gave me but by using the arm more I can feel it loosening already. THe arm aches a bit but I have been pain killer free for over 48 hrs now (previously on paracetamol and diclofenic)

Have you decided to get the surgery then Sherry??
All in all feeling postive at the moment and looking forward to getting my old arm back :)