Originally Posted by DonTx
First off, I am not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV. From experience though I can say, it takes a week or two for everything to settle down, so you can move your arm.
It will be 2 weeks tomorrow ... and if anything it is getting worse. I'm not even comfortable just sitting ... my very bruised hip and my shoulder ACHE. Sleeping isn't even comfortable. I just get nicely to sleep ... then change position slightly in my sleep .... and become
very awake because of all the pain of that movement. Painkillers etc. don't even seem to help at all.
Originally Posted by DonTx
Then just take it easy with the movements. I started by laying flat on my back and slowly moving my arms striagh up and then straight out. I had fractured my humerus as well so this had to be a slow and gradual process. However the Orthopedic surgeon said I could move it as much as the pain would allow. Anyway after a few weeks of just practicing moving my arms in a controlled manner I was able to try some excercise with very light dumbells (2lbs) a soup can works well too. I got gradually better after that. Then I crashed again in a 24 MTB race. The second time was not as bad an injury but really set me back on the rehabilitation. So my advise after all that is to take it easy and slowly recover, you will be OK. It will hurt for a while, but it will get better. It's only pain.
I've got fairly good forward movement. If I lay on my back and moved my arms straight up and straight out, that would be OK. I have no problem raising my arms straight above my head ... in fact, one of the most comfortable positions is lying on my back with my sore arm straight up by my ear, and then bent in an "L" over the top of my head (above my head).
The pain comes if I try to reach back at all. And the worst is when I stand (or sit), and stretch my arms out perpendicular to my body, parallel with the floor so that I form a "
t", then bend my left arm up at the elbow so that it becomes and "
L". That's painful, but if I then try to move my elbow back at all ... that's not only horribly painful, but impossible. I can't move the arm back at all. But I can do that just fine with the right (healthy) arm.