week 10

Time for another update - after another fortnight of moving forward.

The big news is I am allowed to drive now!! I have my work car back, and feel this was a huge milestone to feeling "normal" again - I no longer have to rely on others to get me from place to place.



xray at 9 weeks

I wasn't easy to do though - the physio at the hospital said his hands were tied, that it was the surgeons decision. When I tried to get an earlier fracture clinic appt, they said "try your GP". So I went to see my friendly GP, who was very obliging, did a quick examination, and wrote me the clearance letter on the spot. He also sent me off for an xray (to be sure) which is included here.

An interesting point here - my GP was the first Dr to actually "touch" my arm since the injury. I didn't actually realize this until after he had done the hands on exam!!!!

The docs at the hospital always examined me from their chair! (looking into the computer screen/xray)

I have started seeing a private physio, who once again, only has me doing "active assisted" exercises, because he thinks my x ray  still looks several weeks away from "load bearing". The problem is - even with these "baby stretches" my shoulder is playing up badly. I can't seem to increase my range of shoulder movement without  nasty catching "ligament" type pain in the front of my shoulder.

As for my fracture - it feels great, I now use my arm almost normally, limited only when it requires some strength. I can go about my day to day life for hours before I  remember I even have a bad arm. I stopped wearing the brace altogether about 10 days ago because my fracture site feels very secure and doesn't hurt at all!

One sad thing though, I still have not had a complete nights sleep since my accident, I can only lie on my R side and back (too much shoulder pain for the L side). On my back get woken by back ache, so I roll over and then I wake up with TERRIBLE numbness in my L arm!! Oh well, at least the waking hours are virtually pain free.

So, 10 weeks on, and life is pretty well back to normal. Some people might not bother moving on from here, but as I said to my physio at the first visit, my goal for recovery is "to be able to lift a hay bale again" so I am going to have to work on that one!!

Week 8

Thought it was time to post another entry.
Even though I feel my recovery is so slow, reading back a few weeks I realize how much progress I continue to make.
I now leave my brace off most of the time - but its on when "doing" stuff (housework, feeding horses, out shopping and sleeping). I can use my arm nearly normally now - but it has no strength at all - i still cant open the fridge door, but can open a car door. I am able to lift my arm straight up over my head in a fashion, and can hold it out 90 degrees from my body! AND... for the first time today I did up my own bra, not prettily, but successfully!!
The long awaited fracture clinic appt last week was a big disappointment. Once again they just looked at the xray, not at ME!! It continues to heal well - no xray update to post here as they were "too busy" to download it onto my USB. Told me to come back in 4 weeks! Driving? Not yet. When? At 12 weeks he said.
They did send me to the hospital physio, who was also a disappointment - just gave me some "active assisted exercises" (meaning using the other arm or a broom stick to help the movement - not my own muscles) I felt this was too basic for what I was actually already doing!! He said he would talk to his senior (he was about 20!) and would see me in 2 weeks.
In total frustration on Friday 2 days ago (day off from work) I got in the car and drove around to do all my chores!! What a wonderful sense of freedom it was to be autonomous again, and in my opinion totally safe. When I am at the hospital for next weeks physio, I am not leaving till someone actually looks at ME, and what I can do and gives me a clearance to drive. (this is what my boss needs to give me back my company car)
So in short, I am feeling pretty "healed". I only have an ache when I use my arm to do things, my muscles are absolutely week as..., so if I don't get any joy from the hosp physios as to proper strengthening exercises, I will revisit my private one, and get some hard core stuff to do.

week 6

Well, another week of marking time, but also a week of small breakthroughs.
I can type 2 handed again - I now have the strength in my arm to hold it above the keypad and type normally.
I can lift my arm a little higher each day, and now I can  blow my nose 2 handed also!
I no longer use my sling at all, my arm is just as comfortable without it. I also have been taking off the brace for periods, because it is bugging me. I have it off when I am at work, or sitting quietly, but need it on for security when up and about.
Its another few days before I go back to the doctors, so I am trying really hard to get my arm up to "steering wheel" position, because not driving is what I am finding most frustrating at the moment.
I try to gently push my arm to new positions, and heights, but do suffer from nasty pain in the muscles when I do. I guess I should wait for a physio to tell me how hard I should push, but I am getting pretty impatient with the whole deal!!!

Week 5

So here I am at week five, just marking time while my arm heals.
I can actually use my L hand for the shift key when typing now (and for the first 6 letters). I can even lift my arm up to the keypad by itself, but it can only rest on its wrist - I cant hold it up to type yet.
I have no idea how long it will take to be able to cut up meat, do up my own bra, or be able to shave under my R arm.
Almost all other things I have worked out how to do one armed (I actually do have "2 hands" just the L arm doesn't work)
I still wear my brace at all times, apart from showering, but wear my sling (collar and cuff) only when i am up and about doing things (cooking. washing and now even housework)
I can use my hand to carry things now, more weight when in the sling, but even without it I can manage something light.
I am trying to do a little more each day, letting pain be my guide. I am hoping by the time i go to fracture clinic in 2 weeks I will be able to drive again. (I am working on getting my arm up to steering wheel height in 2 weeks)

I do have lots to be grateful for, this will all be over in a few months, and it could have been alot worse.

• It could have been my R arm, or I could have smashed my head!
• It happened on the first day of school holidays so I didn't have to worry about how to get my daughter to the school bus
• My work colleague lives in the same street as me - so work's been easy to get to
• It happened near Christmas, when my children's horse sports all stop for 2 months (in fact this was the Pony Clubs break up ice skating party when it happened)
• I have read lots of books and allowed myself more down time than ever before
• the Public Hospital system has worked well so far, apart from a bit of waiting around (always have a good book on hand)

week 4



small callus formation on RHS of break



No operation looming - thank god. Who would have been available to do it 2 days before Christmas anyway?? The xray showed some new bone forming, and the fracture clinic don't want to see me again for 3 weeks.

At last - i have managed to sleep back in my bed. Still not all that comfortable, the arms OK (resting on a flat little pillow), but back pain wakes me up halfway thru the night because I cant roll onto either side, it is somewhat relieved by a pillow up under my thighs/butt.

I have stopped taking painkillers for my arm, it just hurts now if I overuse it or move it awkwardly (like trying to get up out of bed)

I made an appt with a private physio seeing as the hosp couldn't really tell me what exercises i should be doing (apart from hanging arm and shoulder rotation)

I am getting just a tiny bit more movement back, and was told by the physio to try to have it out of the sling a bit. I have always had it out when sitting, but she wants me to try to have it out when I am walking around, which is currently still pretty painfull..

week 3

At week 3 my pain levels increased, thank god someone had warned me, or I would have thought there was something wrong.
What I believe was happening was that there was some callus formation starting, and every time I moved it slightly, it hurt like hell!
This new pain lasted more than a week, and had me back onto the panadine forte at times, but along with it i could feel something happening with my arm. It didn't feel quite as floppy, I had a tiny bit of forearm movement if I tried really hard, and it just felt more connected.
I was fairly confident that the 4 week xray would some callus formation, and it did - YAY

week 2

Another visit to Fracture clinic, another long wait.

7.7 mm gap between the bones

This time the Dr didn't really like what he saw on xray, and said i may need to have it plated after all, seeing as the bone ends were still 7.7mm separated. But after some humming and haaing, decided to wait 2 more weeks !!

This didn't instill me with much confidence, and at this stage I was wishing they had plated it at the start. I still couldn't move my lower arm at all, still flopping around like I'd had a stroke. The pain had settled somewhat. I asked the head Dr what I should be doing, and he basically said "let pain be your guide". So I came home a little more confident that I could do a bit around the house (cooking, washing, folding, feeding the horses - but not house work yet!) with my arm securely strapped into my sling so it wouldn't move/flop too much.
I worked out a way of adding an extension to my "collar and cuff" sling so I could have it around my upper forearm, around my back, and then around my wrist, this also stopped my neck aching from so much drag.
Still only working every second day, with a rest day in between to recuperate and also get some Christmas shopping done, because with one arm everything is so much slower, in fact at times it was nice to have a legitimate reason for not moving at my usual 100 miles an hour.
It is also an interesting position not being able to drive, as I have spent years being the designated driver every time we go out  - so now I have an excuse to over indulge, and hubby has to remain sober (tricky around the festive season)!!!

week 1



Clam shell brace



My first visit to fracture clinic, hoping I would finally get some answers to "what happens next".

Good old Public hospital system, wait in line, take a number, wait some more, go to xray, wait some more, see a Dr. Everyone was very lovely, but Wow, did i feel like "fractured humerus" not a person.

Eventually they took off the cast and put on a nice "clam shell brace". So much more comfortable, but very scary putting the "sock" on, because every tiny movement was painful.

But no words of encouragement for me...

Told it will take up to 3 months to heal! No driving for all that time. My 2 bone ends were 7.7mm apart which was why they felt it would take so long! Come back in another week, and we will check up on it!

I actually went back to work in that week as I essentially have a desk job when not driving around seeing clients - got lifts to and from work with my colleagues, just had to try to speed up my one handed typing. Needed extra panadol to be at work, instead of in my recliner, but  the pain settled quite a bit.

Day 1

I woke around 5am in terrible pain. The slightest movement of my upper body was horribly painful. Hubby got up and brought me some more "Endone" and after 30mins he had to push me up out of bed. Nobody had told me you can't lie down with a fractured humerus!!! (5 weeks later I still struggle getting out of bed.)
Once I was upright, and gravity had a chance to pull things into place I was so much more comfortable.
I spent lots of time the first day surfing the Internet, trying to find out what was in store for me.

I had to learn to do everything one handed, dressing, going to the loo, typing. Thank god i am right handed! I was only able to wear big baggy t shirts that fitted over the whole cast. I didn't need any more Endone, but took regular Panadiene forte all day. The slightest movement of the arm was extremely painful, so I alternated between the recliner chair and the computer.
In fact - that's pretty much where i spent the next 5 days!! No more attempts to lie down in bed , I could sleep reasonably well in the recliner each night. The panadiene forte was OK for pain relief, and after a few days I was only on panadol during the day, with p/f at night.
I did spend some hours on the phone to private orthopedic doctors, but with Christmas coming up, no-one could fit me in till the New Year! So the famous Qld Public Hospital system was my only choice. (tho my local GP has told me since that he would have rung around and squeezed me in with someone if I had told him I was stuck)
One of the things I found very disconcerting was that my arm was totally "disconnected". If I moved my shoulder, my head imagined my arm moving, but it stayed still. I had absolutely NO movement of my lower arm - up, down, sideways - nothing. My wrist/hand worked, so no radial palsy, but numbness all down my forearm and thumb and 1st finger. My forearm just hung around like a stroke victim!

the accident

I broke my humerus on 27/11/2010, in a silly ice skating accident. I hadn't ice skated for years, but thought I was 21 again (I'm actually in my 40's)
I have started this blog after reading another similar blog, http://fracturedhumerus.blogspot.com/ and I realised how much his helped me in the early days of my "confinement". If you havent found his blog yet, make sure you have a read.
(I am very new to this type of technology, so if things don't work properly, forgive me.)
My story is from an Australian health system perspective, which is quite different from the American one in the blog mentioned. I am currently at "week 5" but will start back at the beginning.

I was cruising to a stop on the ice rink, when for absolutely no reason i can fathom, both my skates flew out from under me, and i fell flat on my back. i must have put my left arm behind be to break my fall, and ended up with it trapped beneath me.

i knew immediately that it was broken, i was totally unable to move my arm at all! after a few seconds the pain kicked in - it was excruciating.

People came to help me, all i could say is "don't move me it hurts too much, get the ambulance with some pain killers". I did let them move the arm out from behind my back, as i could feel my hand freezing up. The pain was unbelievable!! There was an intense burning all the way down my forearm as well, which i now figure was the nerve damage/entrapment (i am still numb all down my forearm and thumb/index finger 5 weeks later)



the ambulance arrived in good time (15 mins?) and thankfully gave me a "green stick" to suck on. With this in me they lifted me into the ambulance, stuck in a cannula, and gave me some further morphine and anti nausea drug. i must have slept in the ambulance, as the next thing i knew was arriving at the hospital, with my entire family waiting for me.

Good old Australian Public Hospital Casualty, i got lined up in a "queue" along with others waiting for a bed. I was there for some time, but did get seen by a Dr, and nurse, and was given more pain relief while i was waiting in the queue.

Eventually i got a spot, was taken to x-ray, and given the verdict - "no operation, we will manipulate it under sedation, and set it in a "U" cast." I sent the family home at this stage.



transverse fracture mid shaft L humerus



Blessed relief when I woke from the sedation, with the arm in plaster - the intense pain had subsided to a more manageable level. It was very scary going home, i felt so helpless, didn't know what to expect. i had only spoken to the head ortho Dr for 1 min the whole time. The other Dr's did not really tell me anything, just gave me a sling, and script for pain killers, and told me to come back to fracture clinic on Thursday. (5 days time)

My husband picked me up (midnight, i had arrived at 4pm) and when we got home he had to help me have a shallow bath. I was still in my damp clothes from lying on the ice. he helped me dress, including pulling up my knickers - WOW, what a steep learning curve for my "Aussie bloke" husband.
I sank into my bed around 1am, and fell into a drug induced sleep.