Humerus fracture recovery

well i met my dr 2 dys back , he took the xrays , although the bone pieces have not yet been joined but they are aligned, he said that for now lets just wait for another 2 weeks and try to let it heal by it self, acording to him natural healing is the best although takes longer .  may be hes right cuz hes the dr . he changed my cast and tightened a bit,after tightening i was feeling much better but now its getting loose again but lets see how things end up, u would be quite happy to move ur arm now , i am waiting for mine to get better the feeling of moving ur arm would be great ...

so hows your daughter doing , i hope u'll hug her in both arms soon...

hello all,
I had my appointment today and I've been set free ... Its been 4 moths since the snap... I took a picture of the last x-ray .. its blurry (I'll post it today anyhow)... I will order the x-rays to be burn onto a CD ... 30 bucks will do the job ...  there is a still a small gap around the fracture but the doctor said it will heal, and that I can do all my activities now, in fact I got back abour 96% of my ROM .. my break was pretty bad and I had no surgery.  I still have to keep on exercising everyday, hopefully I can get back another 1% of my ROM that would be awesome :D  ... I got somehow a frozen shoulder and had to do physio the last month... I'll post new pictures as soon as I get the CD from the hospital.
 
 
Emmerypamery, you are brave. Your daughter is luck to have you as her mom….
 
To you all guys reading this threads, don’t give up .. it shall pass .. it will take some time but will pass… and not only the bone will heal also your mind and from the break a stronger person will come out.
 
Good luck to you all

^ good to hear about ur recovery...
well i wanted to ask , do u guys used to go to work everyday before the recovery cuz i stayed home for around 10 days after the accident afterwards i couldnt pass time at home so started going back to work, now am working 9-5 but i have a long journey around 50miles from home to work, and while on road i can fel my bones moving is that all ok should i be doing all this? let me guys..

Just been reading this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218927/Plumber-shattered-arm-left-horrifically-bent-shape-operation-cancelled-times.html

Poor guy!!

damn is he still like this ? i am now very thankful am not in this position. my god

I posted a message on this forum on 10/11/09 but can not find it here. It must not have gone thru.  anyway. I fractured the left humereus head into a zillion pieces on 2/14/09 and had surgery on 2/26/09. had to let heal and finally was ok'd for therapy on july 1st. have been going 3 times a week. the pain is awful as you all know, when does the pain stop. I now have 140% passive active rom and 125% active rom. the rotation is coming along, with a lot of pain there.  My question is, when you finally get to where there can be no more stretching, when does the pain stop. I get up in the mornings and can reach over my head, after about 15 minutes I can't hardly lift my arm until I do some stretching of the muscles and then it still doesn't let me lift my arm without either hurting or stopping halfway. I can be sitting still and it hurts. My big question is  WHEN DOES THE PAIN STOP? I might have to live with the fact that my arm will never be the same as the other one, but I would think that the pain would stop at some point. it has been 9 months. Any thoughts? thanks

Hello Carolusa, I think it all depends on the severity of the fracture. My friend had a severe fracture and he told me it took him about a year to feel like before. On my side  its gonna be 5 months on Oct 23 rd since I snapped my humerus. I got a frozen shoulder and had to put lots of energy getting it back on track, physiotherapy is painful . I still have to stretch my arm and do my exercises as recommended. All I can say is that by stretching and exercising my arm the pain has reduced and the more I do the less it hurts now.  So try exercising your arm as much as you can.
This site will show you the stages of recovery of a guy who broke is arm and is now very advanced in his recovery (he is in week 34), it helped me a lot when I found that site, may be you can send him your question.
http://fracturedhumerus.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
 
 
Good luck

cyrano:  thanks you so much. The link was very enllighting and very uplifting. I really hate that others have been hurt, but as they say, misery loves company. I go to OT three times a week and for the past 6 times we have been working on the rotation, OUCH!!!  Today I actually got my hand into my back pocket and took out 5 pennies, one at a time. Friday I get to try and touch my other hand behind my back.  My rom is 140 degrees passive and 130 degrees active so after seeing a lot of the posts it looks like I am ahead of some. My OT is super, he is from India and does not use any machines, just hands on stretching and movement and very encouraging and says I have all 3 of the things needed to get to be the best I can be, desire to get better, hight tolerance for pain and no drugs.  Hope you do well and again thanks for the advice and for the support. will keep reading your updates. thanks again, just what the doctor ordered.

Just an update:

Posted here back in May because I was having trouble lifting heavier weights and was having intense pain sometimes when I rotated my arm in certain positions (possibly nerve damage). This was due to a surgery I had where a metal bar was inserted in my humerus and held in with screws. Also my break was due to a car accident in 07.

Well I began lifting again about 2 months ago and I've been making a lot of progress. I no longer hit a "wall" in my training where my arm just refuses to lift. I also no longer have the pain I once had in my shoulder area (where the incision was made) and I can swim just fine. Thanks all of you for your help and I hope this helps with those deciding on surgery or not. One negative aspect of the surgery is obviously the scars. The only really noticeable one is at the tip of my shoulder which seems to bubble out due to its location and moving so much.

Good luck to everyone with their healing!

Update and a question for bodybuilders

Hi Folks,

I haven't posted for quite a while but as a quick review, I had a chondrosarcoma (malignant bone tumor) removed from my right proximal humerus with bone graft October 29, 2008.  I did well and was in light weight bearing PT 8 weeks out.  Then I was walking a horse out of the barn and when he got a little jiggy I popped the lead rope to quiet him and fractured the humerus at the graft site completely in two.  This was December 24, 2009 I was immobilized with a clam shell brace for 6 weeks  with pt starting 3 weeks into that.  I have recovered quite well and am almost back to normal, about 97% range of motion back (the bra stuff is still a bit tough). So I am doing very well.

My question is this: I have noticed in the mirror that my trapezius muscles on the top of my shoulder, next to my neck are all but missing on the right side,  the left side looks good. When I flex my arms "Popeye" style I can see a huge difference.  Can you give me some exercises that will address the rebuilding of this particular muscle area.  I believe that shrugs with weights as well as the upward rowing with weights are two exercises that will help.  Any other suggestions would be great. I am not a body builder but live on a farm and my physical strength is very important.

Thanks to all suggestions and for those of you just starting the journey to healing from this injury I say hang in there.  It can be very frustrating but follow your doctors orders, don't push too soon, let nature heal you so you don't have to repeat the healing process a second time....believe me I've been through it.

Good luck to all of you!