Friday elbow update

I actually went back to work on Wednesday and Thursday for 'light duty' deliveries and some time consuming court filing jobs. I really have little to no pain, still not taking any painkillers. It's just hard to deal with one arm and a poorly functioning left hand. I'm trying to get in as many hours as I can before being laid up after surgery, but more so, I'd rather be outside moving around whenever possible. As much as I typically wish I could take time off work to get stuff done, I can't really get much done with one arm... and it gets boring fast.

At the Fracture Clinic, they say the cuts are healing just fine and scheduled me to go under the knife on Wednesday morning. I'm excited to get this over with and start healing! My surgeon will be Dr. Gladu, the head of the Kaiser orthopedic department and an elbow specialist. Hopefully I'll be in good hands.

In my 32 years, this is the first broken bone I've ever suffered, my first surgery, first anesthesia. I guess I'm overdue, statistically speaking. I've experienced a lot of this vicariously through April's ordeals from her humerous compound fracture and severely shattered elbow (suffered in an unlucky bike accident in San Francisco in October 2008.) Her injury is a far more complex and severe break than mine, and she's had 3 operations trying to regain her elbow function. She's still working at it today.

My fracture is a simpler fix, typically done with either a plate screwed over the broken pieces or, more commonly, a "tension band wire" repair. The complication of an olecranon fracture is that the triceps muscle tendons attach to the part of bone that's broken off. So that piece of bone has to be held in place to heal, and it also has to resist the forces of the triceps trying to pull it back apart. But it's also critical to regain the elbow's range of motion as quickly as possible while the bone heals. Therefore there is no cast, just the surgically installed hardware holding things together. As soon as the incision heals enough to remove the stitches, physical therapy begins asap to work on motion. Typically it takes 3-4 months to regain (almost) full motion, and 6-12 months to regain full strength.

So, Wednesday the pros cut me open and screw me back together. I can't wait to get on with the healing!