The days sort of merge together now, with pain med schedules, physio exercises, physio appointments, and supplements. The other thing I start to understand is that it's very hard to compare injuries and get a sense of the prognosis, and nigh on impossible to get anyone to venture a guess at how long it will take for you to have a working shoulder again.
The way the fracture happened seems to matter a lot. A lot of people get this sort of fracture from falling onto an outstretched hand, which transfers the shock up their arm and then shatters their humeral head in some fashion - surgical neck, anatomical neck, n-parts etc. What I did was smash into a bus pole with my upper arm, hard enough to break my humerus through the surgical neck. So that comes with a ton of soft tissue damage, swelling, and bruising. My right hand was broken when the bus braked so hard the pole I was holding onto was wrenched out of my hand as I was thrown towards the front of the bus. So some blogs I read where people fell onto their hands made me feel very far behind, as they were waking their hands up the wall above their shoulder by now, and I couldn't lift my hand up away from my side forwards at all. Even if I tried to assist it with my right hand, it wouldn't move more than a few degrees. Sideways motion was also restricted to less than 30 degrees movement. And backwards wasn't even something I could contemplate.
I am mostly only able to do the pendulum rotations, and shoulder and neck stretches. But the worst of the pain seems to be over, and I can sleep a little better. I sleep on my right side, still with the fort of pillows down the middle of the bed to support my back and stop me rolling over in the night. I read a lot of people with this fracture sleep on their backs, supported by pillows, and with a pillow under their fractured arm - this I cannot do at all, it is just too painful to even contemplate lying on my back.
When getting into bed I sit down on the bed exactly where my hips will need to be when lying down, as it is not possible to shift position after lying down. I then rest my back on the pillow fort, hold the middle of my left upper arm with my right hand to support it, and slide carefully sideways until my head is on the pillows. 9 times out of 10 my shoulder will still spasm while I'm attempting this, and I will have to sit up until the spasm passes.
I am now supposed to go without the sling whenever I am sitting, to try and stop my arm seizing up in that position. I have no power in my left arm at all, so have to move it with my right hand. I cannot type with my left hand, and I use the speaker function on phones as otherwise I have no free hand during conversations.
I have a hard lump roughly halfway down my left upper arm, which runs from my tricep round to my bicep. The consultant and physio think it is soft tissue damage from the fall, and as I write this 12 weeks after the accident, it is still there.
I can walk a little better, but still come down the stairs sideways, with my back against the banister rail for balance. I was particularly happy to be able to walk along the river, very, very carefully and slightly nervous about getting ploughed down by a rogue cyclist.
So a few days later I decide to go back to the C25K plan, starting back at Week 1, to see how my shoulder copes. It actually doesn't feel too painful when I'm actually running. I wear the sling, and I have my right arm hugging my left forearm for support. I get through it and feel fantastic. Until that night. The spasms and pain are back in force, and I cannot sleep much at all. The next morning I attempt the pendulum exercise and something catches in my left shoulder and there is an awful grinding, tearing sensation. The pain is in the bicipital groove in the humerus head where the long head of the biceps tendon runs - it's amazing what you end up learning about arm anatomy with this type of injury.
The physio is appalled that I went running. She makes herself feel better by giving me a very painful massage.
The way the fracture happened seems to matter a lot. A lot of people get this sort of fracture from falling onto an outstretched hand, which transfers the shock up their arm and then shatters their humeral head in some fashion - surgical neck, anatomical neck, n-parts etc. What I did was smash into a bus pole with my upper arm, hard enough to break my humerus through the surgical neck. So that comes with a ton of soft tissue damage, swelling, and bruising. My right hand was broken when the bus braked so hard the pole I was holding onto was wrenched out of my hand as I was thrown towards the front of the bus. So some blogs I read where people fell onto their hands made me feel very far behind, as they were waking their hands up the wall above their shoulder by now, and I couldn't lift my hand up away from my side forwards at all. Even if I tried to assist it with my right hand, it wouldn't move more than a few degrees. Sideways motion was also restricted to less than 30 degrees movement. And backwards wasn't even something I could contemplate.
I am mostly only able to do the pendulum rotations, and shoulder and neck stretches. But the worst of the pain seems to be over, and I can sleep a little better. I sleep on my right side, still with the fort of pillows down the middle of the bed to support my back and stop me rolling over in the night. I read a lot of people with this fracture sleep on their backs, supported by pillows, and with a pillow under their fractured arm - this I cannot do at all, it is just too painful to even contemplate lying on my back.
When getting into bed I sit down on the bed exactly where my hips will need to be when lying down, as it is not possible to shift position after lying down. I then rest my back on the pillow fort, hold the middle of my left upper arm with my right hand to support it, and slide carefully sideways until my head is on the pillows. 9 times out of 10 my shoulder will still spasm while I'm attempting this, and I will have to sit up until the spasm passes.
I am now supposed to go without the sling whenever I am sitting, to try and stop my arm seizing up in that position. I have no power in my left arm at all, so have to move it with my right hand. I cannot type with my left hand, and I use the speaker function on phones as otherwise I have no free hand during conversations.
I have a hard lump roughly halfway down my left upper arm, which runs from my tricep round to my bicep. The consultant and physio think it is soft tissue damage from the fall, and as I write this 12 weeks after the accident, it is still there.
I can walk a little better, but still come down the stairs sideways, with my back against the banister rail for balance. I was particularly happy to be able to walk along the river, very, very carefully and slightly nervous about getting ploughed down by a rogue cyclist.
So a few days later I decide to go back to the C25K plan, starting back at Week 1, to see how my shoulder copes. It actually doesn't feel too painful when I'm actually running. I wear the sling, and I have my right arm hugging my left forearm for support. I get through it and feel fantastic. Until that night. The spasms and pain are back in force, and I cannot sleep much at all. The next morning I attempt the pendulum exercise and something catches in my left shoulder and there is an awful grinding, tearing sensation. The pain is in the bicipital groove in the humerus head where the long head of the biceps tendon runs - it's amazing what you end up learning about arm anatomy with this type of injury.
The physio is appalled that I went running. She makes herself feel better by giving me a very painful massage.
Comments
Post a Comment