Radial Head Replacement and Lateral/Colateral Ligament reconstruction
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I Shattered my elbow 3 times and had a Radial head replacement, Lateral/Colateral ligament reconstruction and several plates and screws. I am having issues with severe swelling in my wrist, lack of strength and severe pain in my hand, as well as losing movement and severe pain in my elbow. I am 8 months on in this injury and feel very isolated.
Story:
Four months ago I had a Radial head replacement with a collateral and lateral ligament reconstruction. This was the first time my surgeon had ever done these two procedures together, and I was the first case of my kind at Occupational Therapy. My origional injury happened at the beginning of Januarary when I fell on the ice and fractured my elbow in about 7 different spots. I did not need surgery for that injury as everything miraculously broke in alligement. My ulna was broken clean through with three different breaks, but still, all in line. After a rough PT (my first pt rebroke my ulna whilst calling me a big baby for not being able to do the exercise she wanted, because she had BROKEN my ulna again) I stepped on a cat toy and fell down a flight of stairs in my house. I was trying so hard to protect my elbow that inevitably I landed on it and rebroke it terribly. It was bad, I had surgery to put 7 plates and lots of screws in to hold everything together. One week after surgery while I was sitting on the couch I felt something in my arm dislocate followed by immense pain. I thought, no that did not just happen, and in the spirit of that denial I waited until my follow up four days later to tell my surgeon. All he had to do was look at my arm to see something was wrong. The x-ray showed my raidius had dislocated and smashed into all the already broken bones in my elbow and just decimated itself. So, after second opinions, one week later I had a Radial head replacement with a lateral and collateral ligament reconstruction.
I am four months post surgery and having some serious complications. I killed my occupational therapy, gaining almost a normal range of motion, I was a little less than 10 degrees off on flexion and extension, my supination was less than 5 degrees off and everything else was normal. During this time the main problems I had were nerve pain and normal regaining muscle and injury pains. My surgeon stopped my Occupational therapy 6 weeks in because it was starting to get a bit more painful and he said that I was way overdoing it.
All my lovely progress ended about 4 weeks ago. I woke up one morning with my elbow and my arm all the way to my fingers swollen and unable to move. This lasted about 4 days during which my surgeon was out of town and none of his partners would see me. Since then, I have lost quite a bit of progress on my flexion, extension and supination. The pain can get quite excrutiating. I find it frustrating, isolating and debilitating. I lost my job to this injury 4 months ago as I was unable to work full time during the injury and recovery process.
My insurance coverage, I'm in the states sad, ends in 2 months and has cost me a fortune to maintain. Now my surgeon is saying all the metal and the radial head need to come out of my arm. He said we need to wait 6 months between surgeries so I have 2 months to go in this pain. I am taking college classes right now and at the end of a 2 hour class I am almost in tears from the aching in my elbow, and by the end of the day my wrist is severely swollen and I am unable to use my arm.
I'm lonely, I sometimes feel like I'm the only one in the world having these troubles. I feel like my life is in limbo with an uncertain outcome.
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Decobridge Guest
Posted
Hey. I was in a really bad car wreck in '79 when I was 9. My right wrist clunked when I rotated it, so they did a suave kupaji (sp) procedure around '92. It fused my ular head and cut out about 1 1/2 inches of my ulna. My wrist still cluncked. It bowed the ulna out and creathed elbow pain chronic tennis elbow. I could not stand the pain anymore, and in April had a capsular release. There was a 3/4 by 1 1/2 bone spur blocking the elbow from moving. I could finally touch my face. One month later at 1st pt visit she pushed my arm up against my body so hard I heard a pop. Doc is afraid to say anything, at first he said nothing was wrong I was stressed. But now he felt the clunking in my elbow and did stress x-ray. Go to 2nd opinion in their office this week but he said maybe radial head replacement with ligament reconstruction. I'm 47 and too young for elbow replacement. Im riddled with arthritis. I've had neck, back and knee replacement already. Total of 24 surgeries. This all sucks. I have a 13 and 8 year hard to take care of my babies. School starts back in 2 weeks. I understand your pain and isolation, but you are not alone!!!