Dagamon

Pedaled through a turn, pedal hit the ground and I went down. 6-8 weeks off the bike. Anyone else have an injury like this, and how long did it take you to get back in the saddle?

jds108

Hope yours isn't as bad as mine was. Dislocated my elbow and parts of all three bones at the joint were broken (i.e. shattered) so I now have a rubber bumper in lieu of the last inch of my radius. Lost one muscle as its attachment point no longer exists, and lost 5-10 degrees of extension. Took a few years to get over it...
Now many years later there is no impact on my riding.
You don't want to know how much pain was involved with this whole ordeal. Again, i hope that you're not dealing with anything as significant.

Dagamon

No, not nearly as bad. Non-displaced radial cap fracture. Hurts like hell, but i'm on some good drugs right now.

Bikehog

First , I'm sorry to hear about your mishap. Broken elbows can mean different things . One of the most common is the fracture radial head. That' what I did October 26th three weeks ago. Like you, I wanted to find out about as much as could about this injury. My injury was type one, minimal or no displacement. 5 days in a sling and then reexamination.
No cast , no sling,no prescribed therapy , should be 90% healed in 6 weeks. I was pleased, but dismayed there was no prescribe exercises that I should start. Googled broken radial head fractures and started my own PT. before going on, no two fractures are exactly the same. I had two cracks, no more than 2mm each , that were visible on the X-ray. The doctor told me I could not cause further injury by using the arm. Thus no cast , no sling, he wanted me to use it as much as possible to get range of motion back.

What you may not realized yet, besides your broken elbow, you probably also have ligament and tendon damage. In one sense , getting a fracture is better than tearing a ligament or tendon. You must start working on getting your ROM back as soon as possible AFTER waiting 5 to 7 days for the swelling to go down. Use ice the first week to reduce swelling. After the first week, you will find hearing pads very soothing. Twisting your arm, bending your wrist , bending your elbow any way you can until it hurts and holding it their for 5 seconds. Do this repeatedly, 3 sets of 10 more. You will find all kinds of positions where it hurts. You will also find many opportunities to perform PT. The first few days , you will notice slow improvement. Then more noticeable improvement will occur overnight and this will provide the confidence you are on the right track and the pain you ffeeling during PT is good thing.

I rode my bike two miles 8 days after breaking my elbow. It was the most painful two miles I ever endured. In hindsight, very stupid. I had zero strength in my arm, gear shifting , braking was almost impossible . Why it was stupid is the fact that my chances of falling and injuring the elbow even more were very high. I rode the bike again on day 15, 16, ,17, 19,20 and 22 (today). Each time I went a little further and it was a little better. Today I went 17 miles in 72 minutes. Good luck - take it one day at a time. If you have to have surgery or if they put it in a cast, your experience will be very different.

One more note -as you go through the PT , most of the pain will be centered around the wrist and arm, not the elbow. You will feel it in the elbow anytime you try to straighten the arm. The pain should decrease over time. When you can get through range of motion PT with minimal pain, that is the signal to start strength excercises - riding you bike should be considered a strength excercise. I jumped the gun a little bit.

Racer Ex 

You should talk to Gstienb over in the racing forum.

MuppetMower

I had the exact same thing. I think I got on the trainer around 5 or 6 weeks and started actually riding around week 6 or 7.

jgf310

Broke mine cycling in early April, 2010.

I had surgery within about a week - before and after X-Rays are below.

I was worried, because I was scheduled to do the Newport-Bermuda yacht race in June - the 10th, if I recall, and I was afraid I wouldn't be ready. I was the navigator, so I didn't have a job that required a huge amount of strength, but anyone who has sailed offshore, through the Gulf Stream, will tell you that sometimes it takes a fair bit of strength just to take a leak. You have to hold yourself steady as the boat crashes through big seas. Just getting around the boat can be difficult.

To give the surgeon an idea of what would be required, I asked him if I would be able to do a dozen push-ups by June 10th. He said probably so..., that a bone break takes 6 weeks or so to be pretty strong, and that I should count the six weeks from when I had the surgery. He also said that soft-tissue pain might be an issue, but was hard to predict. The bone, he said, would be strong enough.

It was an very tough time for me, because If I thought I wouldn't make it, I would have had to resign my spot, so a replacement could be found - it's not always easy to find a qualified substitute navigator, just weeks before the race. Anyway, I told the captain, and he generously said he was willing to wait and see.

I had the surgery, and went to PT . The PT guy thought I was completely insane to even be contemplating an offshore race within a few weeks. The pain was pretty bad at first, but I progressed rapidly. I was lucky in that I had no issues with range of motion. I was 51 years old at the time.

In the end, I did the race. Conditions were pretty easy, and my elbow was never an issue.

I was cycling again as soon as I got back from Bermuda.

Here are the X-Rays

colombo357

But why?

Looigi

Same reason why you pedal on the straight, to go faster. Obviously, you gotta know when you're running out of clearance and quit pedaling.

gsteinb

shattered my elbow memorial day weekend. 8 pieces. Major surgery. I rode pretty much straight away, but only indoors. range of motion will never be the same, but fortunately I pedal with my legs

Dagamon

Because I'm a moron? I learned my lean.

jtwilson

I broke my elbow foolishly trying to ride no-handed on a new bike in a strong crosswind. I was a guest on a racing team's training ride. Talk about embarrassing! I started riding on a trainer indoors right away after the surgery, and cautiously took to the road after a few weeks [probably unwise]. The surgery messed up where my tricep connects with my elbow, and it has never regained full strength. I lost a couple degrees range of motion in extension, but flexion is 100%. The back of my elbow was super sensitive to impact for a couple years, and I still get some pain when I try to fully extend it. Nonetheless, it didn't prevent me from joining the Army Infantry, meeting the push-up standard and performing my job.

gsteinb

wow. That's good to hear




I have some loss on extension and flexion, but I'm still working it. I get about 130-135 degrees on flexion. I forget what my extension number is.

idc

Broke my left elbow (and got a chip in my wrist) crashing on a ride to work downhill in the wet - but it was relatively minor. I was in a sling but had no cast and riding again in 6 weeks. I still have occasional twinges of pain. My doc let me ride on the trainer at home 4 weeks after.

jimbohamez

Wow your X-rays look very similar to mine after the surgeon was finished. Broke my left humerus in 5-6 places courtesy of an errant Harley rider. he was coming down the hill on my side of the road after misjudging a corner, didnt see him until it was to late. my leathers saved me from a lot of road rash which is a good thing. don't have full extension due to the olecranon having to be cut off and reattached to fix the break, but strength has returned and doesn't effect riding the bike to much. Had the hardware out after a year, so have a nice momento of the event.

JJIV

Newbie here...been lurking mostly but saw this thread and thought I could help out a bit. I completely shattered my radial head about 3 years ago and needed to have a prosthetic radial head inserted. To this day my elbow is just not the same. I lost about 15% of my range of motion in the process. I now need to ride with an elbow brace in order to help. I wouldn't say that I'm in pain, but my elbow is just sore after a long ride.

What I learned throughout the process is that you need to start moving your elbow as fast as possible (as soon as the swelling goes down). My case is way more severe than yours but a lot of elbow injuries result in decreased range of motion, which is why you want to get moving quickly. I nice tight elbow brace is going to help while you ride and ice will help with the swelling after the ride.

RIRview

Crashed on September 15. Didn't see a bump in the road (one of those deals where tree roots push the asphalt up). Concussion, fractured clavicle, fractured rib, pneumothorax (partially collapsed right lung). Surgery for following Thursday (the day before went to the hospital to have a chest tube inserted to reinflate the lung...that was fun).

Anyway, about six weeks after the surgery got on the spin bikes at the gym. Last week, first time back on the road bike. Day before Thanksgiving, rode 29 miles solo, then on Thanksgiving morning, did 37 with my bike club. Feels good to be back!

dstrong 

So much pain in this thread.

Dagamon

Came back from the orthopedist, and it's going to be well into 2013 until I ride again. Happy percocets to me.

Zane_04

Did the same thing but 5 pieces, had a plate and screws put in and I've got one week left in cast, I ride mountain bikes mostly enduro and downhill, I'm being told alot by alot of people that's probably not gonna happen in the near future

ryan_rides

I broke my left ring finger today☹️

MattTheHat 

Almost 8 years. Impressive.