Another fractured humerus. Spiral fracture with pics.

[vici0us57]

Well I thought I would go ahead post my story and some pictures of what happened to me a few months ago. I broke my right humerus during an arm wrestling match on May 29th. Don't do it, I was winning the match too and I put my body into it (big mistake) and about 3 or 4 seconds after I did that I heard the loudest crack I've ever heard come from my arm. I knew exactly what happened. Immediately knew I was done with the gym for at least a good 6 months before I can get back into it without restrictions again. It didn't hurt the moment it happened but when I got to the hospital, holy crap, that was easily the worst pain I've ever felt.

I got 4 different injections of morphine within 30 minutes to see if they could kill the pain so I could get it set and splinted. I felt REALLY good but that didn't do jack for the pain so they just put me under to do all that. I didn't need surgery due to decent alignment and no bone fragments. Well the arm has been getting better every week but x-rays seem to show that the progress has been slow. Maybe because of the complex break? Not sure. I don't smoke and I have been taking just a multivitamin and calcium as supplements. I'm just about 3 months deep and I'm free from my splint and brace, I have full movement back in my arm and just about entirely pain free but I haven't been referred to physical therapy just yet since the bone has not been entirely united just yet.

My Doctor says he expects to see the bones united completely with new bone in about 3 to 4 weeks. Right now it's just "soft callus" that is holding everything together but you can feel that it's pretty hard at the moment. My doctor squeezed my fracture to see if he can feel something moving but he didn't feel anything. Well I have a few questions for anyone who has had a similar injury without surgery since my doc is reluctant to give me a straight answer. How long was it before you were able to hit the gym again without any medical restrictions and how long did it take for your bone to "unite" with new bone that you can visually see in x-rays?

Well here are some x-rays with descriptions.

01 - 30 May.jpg This is what my arm looked like a few hours after the break.

02 - 1 Jun 2.jpg / 02 - 1 Jun.jpg My doctor re-splinted my arm the same day because he wasn't happy with my first local doctor's work. This was just hours after the break.

03 - 7 Jun.jpg / 04 - 7 Jun 2.jpg I got referred to another hospital about 3 days later to pick-up a brace for my arm. What my failed to tell me is to just simply pick up the brace and not let them put it on. Well this doctor just went ahead and put it on for me. I told him I was only a few days in and he said that was fine. He was not a Orthopedic doctor. I should have known better than to listen to him. I got x-rays a week in and my doctor wasn't happy to see the brace on. He showed me that my bone had slipped from it's original set and he wanted to re-splint it.

.... see 2nd post....

[vici0us57]

07 - 7 Jun splint.jpg / 08 - 7 Jun splint 2.jpg My doctor took off the brace the same day and re-splinted my arm. Hurt like hell when he squeezed the ever living life out of it to do that.

09 - 14 Jun.jpg / 10 - 14 Jun 2.jpg 2 weeks deep. My doctor decided it was time for the brace to be put on and I'm glad to see that re-splinting my arm didn't do jack to keep the alignment. At least the brace is way more comfortable.

11 - 8 Jul.jpg / 12 - 8 Jul 2.jpg Almost 6 weeks deep. I got some more x-rays done. Looks like someone just started to fill in the gap with a crayon. I got a good amount of movement back in my arm but still a good amount of soreness at the fracture site and my shoulder was super stiff.

[vici0us57]

13 - 25 Aug.jpg / 14 - 25 Aug 2.jpg 12 weeks deep. Here is what my x-rays look like as of Aug 25th. Not really sure what to make of this. My doctor says that the soft callus hasn't developed into new bone yet but judging from the lack of pain, good range of motion and the fact that he can't feel any bone movement, he expects to see new developed bone on x-ray within the next 3 - 4 weeks.

Well hopefully this will be informative to anyone suffering a similar injury. I just learned to keep smiling through it all even though it sucks. It's not the end of my life and I'll be back in the gym soon. I hope. I'll keep updating the x-rays as I get them.

[vici0us57]

Well I just came across an interesting read. Cissus Quadrangularis is a supplement that has been proven (on animals anyways) to promote the healing of fractures. USPlabs makes such a supplements called Super Cissus RX which I'm going to see if they have it at my local GNC. I know GNC sucks but I'd rather have this stuff right now than wait.

Here is the article I found.

I can't post links yet since I don't have 50+ posts so you just need to copy/paste. There is a space that needs to be deleted between the O and f at HealingO fFracture.

wellcorps.com/files/EffectOfCissusQuadrangularisInAcceleratingHealingO fFracture.pdf

I hope others can learn from my pain. I'll let everyone know how the next set of x-rays go.

[faizhamzah22]

hi vicious57, i broke my humerus same as u did..by arm wrestling. it happened on march 23rd 2012. still new.how is your progress now?

[pbohart]

I will chime in only to say I did the exact same this (broken humerus arm wrestling).

I was quite a bit younger (27ish - 41 now)....but it was the worst injury I have ever had.

Good luck. You will fully recover. Everyone is probably telling you that and it isnt making you feel any better - but it is true! Come back here if you need to vent. We all know how you feel

Edit: OH! One more thing. About a month after I had my cast off I got cocky and lifted a computer monitor at work. My bone re-broke in an instant and I was back to square one. Dont make the same mistake I made!!! Give it time!

[rzeznikj]

wow, seems like i'm not the only one here

broke my arm in an arm wrestling match last october 2011.
The guy i going against was 3 times bigger than me (lousy organizer who did not match opponents based on weight)
clearly that guy was trying to show off, and let me push as hard as i could and then he snap my arm.

Spectators gasped and i realised that my arm was bending the other way, went to the hospital at 10pm and the surgery was next morning 10 am
got a bad ass scar on my right arm with plate with 8 screws.

After 5 months, doing only cardio and now i started lifting light weights like others.

The only problem is, i realised that my broken arm muscle is kinda weak and fatigues easily. It seems to be loose and occasional "clickety-clack" sound when i twist my arm

anyone having the same problem?