Can I see your xray please.

My question is whether I should keep my arm completely immobilized for two months as I feel the recovery might be getting affected since I don’t have my sling on . The doctor had prescribed me some exercises like bending my elbow , bending the elbow and moving the arm in a round arc etc which has helped me in maintaining my movement . Could these exercises be a cause for non union .
Also , since the injury is classified as a case of delayed union , should I worry about a case of non union since it’s already 5 months old ?

I am a non smoker and non alcoholic . The shoulder and arm movements have returned to 85% . I have a slight weakness in my arm – everything else seems fine .

One of the purposes of surgery is to provide secure fixation so that adjacent joints can be put into early motion without waiting for bony union and then beginning the process of joint motion.

If not done early, the joints become stiff.

I am not sure why your arm was immobilized in a brace for several months. It could be that your fixation was not strong enough. It could happen despite the best efforts.

Bony union on xray is the point where we can start strengthening the limb gradually.

You need to be sure if your fracture has united. A latest xray would help to find that.

Ask your doctor if bone has united or not. It could be difficult task for the naive eyes to guess if the fracture union is present on a give radiograph.

Let me know. If possible you can send an xay using the email address at contact page.

I should add, the consultant thinks my aches pains in my upper arm are muscular when I asked him 3 months ago. Should this still be the case even now? Elbow, he has not mentioned much except to say he wants to see more movement in it so when I next see him I can only imagine he will not be best pleased with next to no more progress.

Thank you very much for taking time to read my main post and I hope to hear from you soon.

I suffered a Distal humerus fracture on 1st August 2011 falling down stairs. It was a spiral fracture and fractured in several places. The injury I was told was quite severe and surgery was the best course of action. As i recall, the fracture was very close to the nerve which the doctors were concerned about prior to the operation. I was alarmed to find out my operation took 8 hours to fit a plate and 10 screws. The plate runs up most of my humerus bone.

I was in hospital for a week before any surgery in which time I was put in a temporary cast when I entered hospital and then put in a specially made arm brace that was made according to the size of my arm. This brace had 2 sections to it. Upper arm and lower arm with a metal hinge holding the 2 parts together. This same brace was used following my surgery. My arm was immobilised for several months in the brace and sling before the consultant advised he was happy for me to take it off. Even now, I wear it at night as I worry about rolling on to my bad arm during the night.

I have had physio for the last few months now just to get the arm moving again but when I last saw my consultant nearly 3 months ago he did not want any strengthening exercises to be done just yet. I hope this will change when I next see him as my muscles are very weak from non use.

I have only just returned to my office job on limit duties….no carrying files etc.

Whilst I do have use of my bad arm I continue to suffer with severe stiffness in my elbow and frequent aches and a general heaviness in my upper arm. Some days are better than others, some days it gets progressively worse. Some days I wake with aches in my arm, some days I do not. I always have a stiff feeling in my elbow regardless.

My arm will not extend to fully straight. The lag was 35 degrees but through physio it has reduced to between 12 and 16 degrees. This angle seems to be the limit of improvement which is not a major problem to me although not exactly ideal either. The other problem I have is I still do not have full movement of my arm when I bend it. At a push I can bend my arm to 120 degrees. Again, this is an improvement but not great for me as sometimes I find it hard to eat using that arm as I approach the limit of the movement I currently have.

I am getting concerned and to a certain extent depressed that this is it in terms of range of movement/lag etc. All my problems seem to centre around the elbow joint which upsets me as this was not damaged by the injury. I find myself holding my arm slightly higher than if i left it by my side or putting it in my pocket for support although physio have told me off for doing this and i shold not worry aout having my arm down by my side.I had full range of movement prior to the injury.

Although I can accept the limited range of movement it is the continued aches and stiffness that is really starting to get me down. Are these aches and stiffness normal considering the timescales? Will I have to put up with these aches for the rest of my life? I am starting to worry.

The fracture site remains very sore to touch. Is this normal?

From what I understand from the X-rays all is remaining in place with the implants but it seems the union of the bone is perhaps a bit on the slow side although a slight whitening of the fracture could be seen when comparing X-rays but I get the impression this should be happening quicker hence why I am still not cleared to strengthen the arm.

If non union does happen what will happen to my arm in the long term? I’m starting to freak out as most of it is perfectly fine I.e hand, wrist are fine.

I think most of my questions are embedded in my post above but I guess what I am Also asking is does this sound normal in terms of progress, abnormal and so on?

Smoking is known factor in causing non union. And avoidable too.

This answer would be delayed for you. How are you now?

Can you please send me a latest xray please?