Olecranon Fracture: Part Three

Time for a short update. At the physio just before Christmas I had good news: I lacked 35° in extension (30° when assisted), and I could flex to a whopping 105°, an improvement of 15° in 12 days. I left on a high. 

I trained three times a day over Christmas, but knew I wasn't doing it as thoroughly as I did at home (or at work for that matter), and by the time we were home I felt as if I'd hit a wall. My arm was sore, extremely stiff, and this morning it caught up with me and I cried while making my son lunch. Woe is me. I went to the physio again the day after we got back, but we couldn't really work much on flexing my arm as it was too stiff. That made me worry that I'd reached full flex, which only made me worry about the rest of me. I can reach my head, and I can feed myself, but I have to bend my wrist at such an impossible angle it hurts. My shoulder pushes forward too, which is very tiring after a short while. I worry about the future, not only of my elbow, but also of my shoulder, wrist and forearm. Am I going to screw those up too? Will this make my entire right arm a real pain in the arse when I'm much older? Am I more susceptible to arthritis now? Christ, I hate this. I absolutely hate this. 

I bought some wrist weights when we got back, thanks to a tip from someone who had a much worse break than me, and who was kind enough to share some thoughts on her experience. I can't tell you how much it means hearing from people who've gone through a similar thing. I'm so surprised by it, but it helps immeasurably. Hence these posts. Maybe someone will stumble across them, and maybe they will help them in some way. 

Anyway. I thought I'd provide some photos. These were taken this morning, post exercises. For the record, it's two months and nine days since the accident, and one month 23 days since the cast came off.

Here is my arm fully extended

Here is my arm fully flexed. Not a very straight upper arm but there you go

This afternoon I went to the physio again. I had a different guy work on me, and he was good. He massaged my elbow a lot which both felt incredible and hurt like hell. He explained things to me, which I really appreciate. I hate not knowing what's going on or why things are like they are. The bad news is that my skin is becoming too used to not stretching so I have to manipulate both the skin around my scar and the skin in the inside of my elbow. My forearm muscles are far too used to not doing much and have shortened as a result, so I have to work on stretching them too. The good news is that extension is up to 26° (not assisted!), and flex up to 111°! So there is some improvement. Thank God. 

He reminded me, as everyone does, that it's a slow, slow road. Perseverance, patience, and positive thinking. My mantra from now on.