Anybody here broken their radius before? I got taken out on my morning bike commute a week ago and have fractured the radius in both arms, just below the elbow (compression fracture just below the head on one arm, about a third of the head broken off on the other arm). Saw a specialist yesterday who said they’re both healing fine, no need to reset, but that it would take some time before I would be fully active again and that I may never be able to fully straighten my arms even when fully recovered (he said only being able to straighten to 5-10 degrees would be normal).
Seems like this is a fairly common biking injury, just wondering if anybody else has done similar and if so how long before you were able to run/bike/swim again and how much range of movement you lost in the arm(s) and whether this impacted your sport? Am guessing swimming would be the main loser of shortened reach and god knows I don’t need anything else slowing my swimming down!
My wife broke her elbow on Feb 5 after a fall. ER doc put her in a sling. Went to Ortho doc a couple days later and he confirmed the radial break in her elbow and told her to lose the sling. He put her into physical therapy that same week as he said she’d lose ability to fully straighten her arm is she didn’t start immediately (your 5-10 degrees was consistent to what he said). She’s been going for 6 weeks now and is able to straighten to 6 degrees. She’s added lifting weights (2 lbs) in her PT but still can’t swim or ride a bike. We go back to doc in 4 more weeks but not sure how much improvement she’ll get. I guess important thing is to get PT asap and start working the elbow.
I broke my radius and ulna back in 8th grade jumping off a deck…
both bones clean through around mid forearm- bones overlapped, my arm was about 3" shorter for a couple hours. gross. its amazing it wasnt compound.
Aside from carrying around a 20lb plaster cast for a few weeks (too much swelling to use fiberglass yet), then getting the fiberglass (wtih a goretex liner so i could swim) i went about buisiness as usual.
I was able to swim, bike, run, whatever- because of the goretex, i could wash the whole thing out to reduce the stank arm.
Doc says my bones are thicker than ever cause he only lined them up about 80% correctly, and they got more reinforced around the break area- sorta like how all the companies are heavily reinforcing bottom brackets.
Never had any trouble because of it. dont even think about it anymore, 10yrs later.
I broke one in a bike crash, near the wrist healed fine. The other arm I broke near the elbow playing basketball (remind me to never dunk on an 8ft rim again and skying like it was a 10fter) have a bit of ROM loss from being in a cast for 8 weeks. I think it’s about 10-15 degrees from straightening out. Hasn’t inhibited me from doing anything, never even think about it.
My daughter broke both her radius’ (radi?) last summer although there were pretty minor breaks. Her ortho had her start on phsyical therapy right away which basically amounted to not much more than just straighting her arms on a regualar basis during the day and using heating pads to loosen them up. She had great difficulty straightening her arms past 90 degrees at all at first but has basically full motion now. But, they were minor fractures.
The doctor told us that even if there are no bone issues limiting motion, the tendons around the elbow go into some sort of defense posture and tighten up. He said the key to getting as much range of motion back as possible is to keep the joint moving (if that won’t screw of healing of the fracture of course).
BTW - she had her best swim season ever last winter but it was about 4 months post break before her arms stopped hurting after hard workouts.
I had a colles fracture 8 years ago, pretty much shattered the distal head of my right radius, from falling off a roof. Internal and external fixation. I can’t say this for certain, but I’m fairly sure the first doctor I saw fucked it up pretty bad. I have limited range of motion (8% PPI) and it really sucked at first but you get used to things and learn how to adapt. I was in a lot of pain for 18 months, 1st doctor decided to enter the semenary. Maybe that should be a clue that he wasn’t the best ortho in the world. Another doctor at his practice wanted to fuse my wrist so I found a specialist. In B’ham, he did a good job. Still have limited ROM but almost no pain. Only pops up if the weather gets cold suddenly, if I get sick, or I hit just the right spot where the screws are. Do your PT as early as possible and work hard at it. If available take some pain meds before PT, there is nothing wrong with being comfortable and you should actually be able to accomplish more at PT of you aren’t screaming like a little kid every time they try to manipulate you.
I have lost a fair amount of weight since and the hardware can get me from time to time. Ex, A full size bottle mounted ST style on the aerobars hits something just right and lights me up like crazy.
Thanks everyone for the advice and well wishes. Sounds firstly like I should be seeing my physio ASAP, and secondly like I got off relatively lightly compared to some of the more severe injuries out there!
I had a fracture right in my elbow a few years back from a spill on my mountain bike. I think it was the radius, it basically went right into my elbow joint.
It was SUPER painful. I never went through PT, but the doc had me work on my range of motion every day, I think twice a day. No sling after a day or two. Within a few weeks I had full range of motion, despite still having the fracture. I think I was swimming again in 6-8 weeks, running in 1 week and riding on the trainer within 2 weeks. I found riding in the aero position to be a lot more comfy than riding my road bike, mainly because the load went into my upper arm and not my lower where the fracture was. At one point the doc stuck a tremendous needle into my elbow joint and removed some fluid. I almost passed out, but once I had recovered I had significantly more range of motion than before hand.
What works best for my patients is LLLD. Low load long duration. In and range that is restricted: pronation, supination, flexion and most commonly extension.
I tell my patients that it will be uncomfortable, but definitely more comfortable then not being able to feed yourself or wipe your bum (due to lack of flexion).
Some patients may need a capsular release but most do well in the long run.
In your case, good luck. PM me if you need assistance
Broke mine at the elbow in a straight-arm fall off the mountain bike about 6 years ago. Sling only, healed fine, but range of motion is definitely an issue, and I still can’t quite straighten it, but close enough. It’s worth being proactive with the PT for restoring range of motion, as it will bother you for awhile if you can’t straighten it adequately. Overall, I’d do it again if I had a choice of which bone to break.
Broke my ulna and radius in college when I road down some stairs at full speed, my bike stayed at the top, I went flying. My roomate said it looked awesome because I was “flying” stretched out about 15ft through the air, he was right behind me. Then I showed him my arm and he almost fainted. Full clean break of both bones, just above my wrist, it was like I had a removal wrist, it moved all around and looked like a goose head.
Anyways…long story short, had surgery to put in a two plates and 6 or 7 screws. Had a soft cast, and supposedly it healed faster because of the surgery. Physical therapy is what really speeds it up though…lots and lots of PT! I did double and sometimes triple the daily routine, as much as I could without it being painful…if I was sitting, I was working my hand and wrist. I had the soft cast off in about 8 days (as soon as the wound closed), and had a removable cast after that for another 4 weeks. I was a swimmer at the time, had to stay out of the water with the soft cast, but I was able to kick for the remainder of the time with the removable cast (man I hated kicking!)
Other thing was lots and lots of massage. I had a huge scar that I need to get “mobile” in order to regain full motion bad. When I went in for my PT appointments, they would remove the cast, and get some hot steamy towels, and wrap my arm in it. They would let it sit for about 15 minutes, then come back and massage the scar, getting it to “break loose” under the skin. Worked great, and I did that once a day at home as well. I still have a scar, but the skin is as mobile as my un-scarred wrist.
I broke mine ~1.5 years ago in a low-speed mt bike endo. Compression fracture of the radius head. I was in a sling for about a week, physical therapy 2-3x/week for a month or two after that. Within the first week I was sitting on a trainer with the arm in a sling. probably ~3 weeks before I was jogging (the bouncing hurt it) and a little longer before I was swimming again. I would do the PT exercises (bending, straightening, etc.) on the trainer to relieve the boredom as well.
It was 6-8 months before it would stop aching occasionally, and there was a little tightness in it for up to a year. But I don’t even think about it anymore and have no loss in range of motion at all.
Once you can do it without (or with minimal) pain I would encourage light weights - bicep curls, tricep, chinups, lat pulls, etc. to help build the strength and range of motion back up.
Oh, and ask how much the PT office is charging for what they’re doing before you agree to go 3x/week for a month or two. Otherwise it’s a shock when you get the bill later and realize you could have done all of the exercises at home for free. though the electric stim and massage was good.
Hi
How long did it take for you to start to swim after the accident, ie how many weeks?
And how many weeks until you felt you were swimming at a similar level pre accident ?
I’d really appreciate if you could share your experience.
I am at Week 4 from accident (broken wrist radius distal fracture)
Hi
How long did it take for you to start to swim after the accident, ie how many weeks?
And how many weeks until you felt you were swimming at a similar level pre accident ?
I’d really appreciate if you could share your experience.
I am at Week 4 from accident (broken wrist radius distal fracture)
Hi
How long did it take for you to start to swim after the accident, ie how many weeks?
And how many weeks until you felt you were swimming at a similar level pre accident ?
I’d really appreciate if you could share your experience.
I am at Week 4 from accident (broken wrist radius distal fracture)
Hi
How long did it take for you to start to swim after the accident, ie how many weeks?
And how many weeks until you felt you were swimming at a similar level pre accident ?
I’d really appreciate if you could share your experience.
I am at Week 4 from accident (broken wrist radius distal fracture)
I broke my radius at the elbow in a high speed crash around a curve during a race. T shaped fracture through the head. I was in a sling 4 days before the doc told me to stop using it. The lost range of motion was crazy, so I grew a beard because I couldn’t come close to touching my face. It took 4 weeks before I could touch my face again, 6 weeks to be cleared to drive. I did the LLLD rehab and regained full range of motion, but I did have lingering pain for probably 18 months-2 years when carrying heavy things like suitcases or bags of groceries that pulled through the arm.
Regarding training, I also had a head injury, so I don’t have reliable estimates.
Hi- I don’t remember how long it took me to start swimming again- probably a couple of months? That break was over a decade ago.
I did however break the same bone in my elbow a bit over a year ago in another stupid slow motion mountain bike accident. But I wasn’t swimming at this time with all the pools shut down due to Covid-19. It was probably 10 months before I started swimming again. By that point it was a little sore the first few times (freestyle was a little different motion than anything I’d done in the last year) but after a couple of swims it was fine. I still do get a little pain with butterfly and a snappy breaststroke pull- elbow still doesn’t like to hyperextend.
Good luck, don’t worry too much. You’ll be able to get back to current swimming level, it just might take a few months.
J
