Hello all:

I suffered a bad fall about 10 months ago and fractured my humerus badly. I had surgery where a plate was installed along with 8 screws. The fracture healed in about 12 weeks, but, I came out with a very stiff elbow and lingering fluid/inflammation in the elbow and the arm. My surgeon told me my elbow wasn't injured in the fall, just the humerus. The stiffness and fluid/inflammation has improved somewhat through physical therapy and doggedly doing my exercises daily, but, I have been told by some that once you hit the 1 year mark, you cannot expect anymore improvement. This bothers me as I have no where near the strength nor the ROM in my elbow that I am going to need going forward to lead the active life style that I love. I am wondering if there is anyone out their that has suffered a similar injury and saw improvement past the 1 year mark. Please let me know as my physical therapy has ended and I need some advise going forward.

In 2009 I fell awkwardly on my hand while descending. It hurt a bit and was stiff, but I figured it would pass. The pain went away quickly, but the stiffness didn't. Two months or so later a couple of my fingers still had quite limited strength and I still couldn't bend them very well at all, couldn't make a proper fist, so I went to see a doctor.

X-rays showed no broken bones, so that's different from your case, but the injury to the joints in my fingers seems similar. To get my fingers back in shape, I got PT for a couple months. She regularly massaged my fingers to loosen the scar tissue in the joints, and gave me exercises to do at home to improve flexibility and strength. Both helped to some extent. After a few months I could bend my fingers a lot more and had some strength back. To be precise, she declared the flexibility to be more or less normal, which was fine for everyday use, even though they used to be a lot more flexible than normal before the accident. But I didn't think it would be a big problem for future climbing trips. However, my finger strength still left a whole lot to be desired.

The therapist said she couldn't do anything to improve things anymore, but while she predicted that the flexibility probably wouldn't get any better, my fingers should get stronger very, very slowly. She was wrong about the first point but right about the second. I now have the strength in my fingers back again, but it was very, very slow indeed, years in fact. In the mean time I didn't really pay any attention to it, but after a couple of years I at some point I realized my fingers had in fact regained most of their previous flexibility too.

If you adapt, even with an injury there is still a lot to do in the great outdoors. You don't need your elbow much when you go hiking and camping. I was mountaineering again before a year had passed, but with respect to my fingers I didn't do any serious rock climbing, just scrambling. But it still felt great to be back out again. Eventually it took the better part of three years before I felt confident enough to get back on the rocks, but after that it didn't take long before I was climbing at the same level as before. I realize I'm just one single case, but this shows there is still hope after one year. Therefore my advice is to keep exercising diligently, and keep up your spirits.

You'll know of course that the elbow itself doesn't have muscles, so when you write you have nowhere near the strength, I gather it's your arm you're talking about. However, tendons connect your arm muscles to the bones in your elbow, and the lack of strength could mean that these tendons are not healed yet. Since the blood flow in tendons is low, this can take a long time. I assume your therapist has given you a bunch of exercises to do. In addition to strengthening your muscles, the exercise also improves blood flow and therefore helps with the healing process. If you're interested in learning more exercises, here are some for biceps, triceps and forearms.

Good luck on your recovery.

Hello:

Thank you so much for your very informative reply! Although our injuries are different, the concept for recovery is very similar. It is simply awesome to hear that the body continues to improve with time, even beyond a solid year. You have given me hope and I will continue to march forward and do my P.T. on my own. Your absolutely right on the second point as well, I need to get back in the great outdoors and do whatever I can and enjoy. Thank you so much again for your reply!

Did you mix Viagara in with your Ibuprofen by mistake?