Elbow injury recovery

Hi Ken, I broke both of my arms--all three bones were involved-- at the elbows (at the same time) and had to have them screwed and wired back together about 11 years ago. I had removable 'casts' and went into physical therapy 2 days out of surgery. The 'aggressive' PT, which was 3X a week, lasted a little bit longer than 6 months. I don't have full extension or flexion of either arm. One is worse than the other, but I've had folks tell me they would have never known if they had not seen the scars on my elbow. I was back to normal routine in about a month with some restrictions, like not lifting anything heaver than a pound, as if I could. When my PT finally tested me to see how much I could lift, I could do one pound, but not two. Many, many, many weeks of weight lifting followed. I swam as a kid, but had not gotten back into swimming before I broke my arms, so I don't have a really good feeling for the before and after. I do know I have a pretty short DPS because of my lack of extension. If I swim A LOT of free focusing on high elbow and catching with my forearm as I pull, my elbow joints get very sore. Water below 70 degrees makes them ache terribly, but I try not to complain because I know that other swimmers need the water cool. Hope your recovery is fast and complete. Lainey

I don't remember exactly how far along I was in rehab when I went on vacation to the beach. Was out in the water one morning and a huge wave caught my arm just right and extended it further than the PT. Hurt like all get out and I was scared I had reinjured it. Ached the rest of the day but by the next morning felt fine. When I went back to PT the next week I had a lot more extension in that arm. MY PT said the wave had done a manipulation which had actually broken up some of the scar tissue. Glad to hear your recovery is going well. Keep us up to date. Lainey

Wow! 1 arm was bad enough, but both arms at the same time....I give you a ton of credit. Recovery is going well and according to the surgeon, I should be able to make a full recovery. I got back in the water after 2 weeks just to kick and move the arm around a bit. It has really helpd to decrease the swelling and increase the mobility much quicker than just doing PT (which I'm at 2x / wk). Thanks for the feedback!

I couldn't imagine breaking both arms, but I broke and dislocated my left elbow a few years ago while mountain biking. I spent about 6 months in physical therapy trying to get my Range of Motion back which wouldn't get better than say 80 degrees bent and about 150 degrees extended. 180 being straight of course. And I couldn't rotate my wrist more than a few degrees in either direction. I ended up getting a second opinion and found that a piece of the radial head was free and blocking my motion. So off to surgery I went and with in a few weeks I had improved my range of motion to with in acceptable levels. I could completely straighten my arm and could also touch my shoulder with my thumb. Both with some effort. My wrist has improved a good deal too, but not as dramaticly. So as far as the impact to swimming. I found that I really had to take things slow when I started swimming again (which was a few years after the injury). I couldn't use paddles at all intitially or I would be very sore. I know I don't have near the power in my stroke that I used to. So while I was once a sprinter, my best times as a master have been in distance events. And like lainey, temperature and weather really effects my arm since it is arthritic. But by and large, I think swimming has been the best thing for my arm. My Doc told me my range of motion would continue to deteriorate as I get older. It will be a year in june since I started swimming again and so far I have been able to imrove my ROM. And prior to swimming my arm had atrophied to the point where I couldn't make a muscle in my tricep. Sad I know, but now muscle tone is the same in both arms. It also doesn't seem to bother me as much as it used to and feels pretty normal these days. Good luck and don't get discouraged if results don't come fast enough. Kevin