11/30/07

8 week update - painful and slow progress...

One would think that I'd be all healed by now and back to my normal active life. I surely expected that to be the case. An elbow break is not a quick heal. I've been visiting the PT 3 times a week now for the past three weeks and still have a very limited range of motion. Today was 65 degrees flexion and 147 degrees extension while on XODOL 10/300MG as well as alot of moaning, breathing and yelling. The pain is close to being unbearable! The progress is a few additional degrees of motion each session as long as I've done my stretching on the off days. If I don't, I can easily lose a weeks gain in a few days. If I don't get enough range over the next 4 to 6 weeks, it is back to the operating room where they'll put me under and manually move the arm.

In addition, my unlar nerve is compressed which is causing 1/2 of my hand to be constantly numb. This also limits my sleep as the numbness turns to throbbing while attempting to sleep. I'm up and down all night and actually fear going to sleep at night. Last night was about 5.5 hours of sleep with some on the couch in the living room and some on the floor next to my bed. The doc started me on Celebrex yesterday in hopes that this nerve compression is simply due to swelling. If not, another surgery will be required.

Therefore, you now have a clearer picture of my agony. This injury was not my fault which makes this whole thing even harder to accept, yet I chose to race. It is making me think very seriously about any hobby that I enjoy and the risks involved. It is time to grow up a bit as I surely don't want to repeat this lesson.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Hey, 65 degrees is sounding pretty good right now!

Ben said...

I know this is a couple weeks late, but keep smiling, the body will heal and you will be happy and sleeping again. Have a great holiday!