Forums » Smalltalk » Needing some advice/tips for damaged elbow

Hey everyone, Lucian here.

So, long story short, I broke the radial head of my right elbow (essentially the spongey bone inside the elbow joint) when I was a sophomore in that dreaded beast known as high school P.E.

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone here has any advice and/or tips for keeping this necessary part of my anatomy from becoming unusable by my mid-forties.

Disclaimer: I know the majority of people on here are not medically and that I should & shall take any and all advice with a grain of salt.

P.S.: I do work in a fast food restaurant, so there isn't really much I can do to only use my left arm, since I'm set up as the cleaning and fry guy in my store. So please, keep that in mind.

Well, you definitely don't want to only use your left arm! That's a fast track to muscle atrophy and loss of movement, so although I really hope your work doesn't put too much stress on your right arm in the wrong way, it's a good thing that you're using it. It'll serve you well in your mid-forties.

I'm really sorry to hear about your fracture, that's a painful injury to have to sustain. I peeped at your profile and saw you're 29, so I gather high school sophomore year was a while back. (Also, I sympathize. High school P.E. freaking sucked.) Does your elbow still hurt? If it does, does it hurt at any particular times or during any particular motions?

As a disclaimer, I am currently in med school but it'll be a good few years before I'm an actual doctor, and even then obviously you can only give so much (very generalized) medical advice online. So, huge grains of salt. Entire shakers! In theory, though, the fact that you're using your elbow is actually good for preventing future loss of function, but obviously pain, if you still have that, is something to be taken seriously. Did you get to see a physio as part of your rehab?