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

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