Anyone have frozen elbow?

Posted by martydav @martydav, Nov 4, 2020

Has anyone on here had a frozen elbow?
I do . Six weeks after a bad break and PT.

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@fourof5zs

@martydav

That is what my shoulder used to do. Years before I had been in a car accident.. t-boned on the passenger side of car and I was driving. No one with me. I banged my shoulder twice in the jolts of the car. I mostly felt bruised and achy at the time. I had arthritis buildup where the outer arm meets the shoulder, and some kind of entrapment near the shoulder blade. Hard to remember that far back. I was better after surgery cleanup. I had thought my elbow (numbness in pinky and ring fingers and could not grasp with thumb and index finger) had something to do with the shoulder, but it was an ulnar entrapment. I had both surgeries at same time.

You need to be evaluated by your surgeon to tell what is causing your elbow to freeze up. Hopefully it will not mean more surgery.. maybe a different physical therapist. Some are better than others with certain injuries.

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I appreciate your story. I am going for a second
Opinion.
Physical therapy is brutal because they want to bend the joint past my threshold of pain .

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@artscaping

Good evening @martydav. I am sorry that you have had such a problematic injury. I don’t think I can be very helpful. However, @amandarjro did tag me to share my experiences.

I fell down the mountain and broke my elbow in three places. I was in the hospital for three days because I also messed up my shoulder on the same arm. That led to multiple surgeries and a reverse shoulder replacement. But what about the elbow. First there was much less pain than the shoulder. Secondly, the arm and elbow was casted which kept me from banging it around and making it worse.

Here’s the smile..........When I went to the orthopedic clinic to have the surgeon cast the elbow, I was shocked that I was the only adult in the waiting room. It seems that in the summer there are a lot of young baseball players and other athletes getting broken bones.

I didn’t know that casts came in colors.....so I chose purple and then let the kids decorate it. Some fun......

What is your next step? Have you had X-rays?

May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Chris

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Found out with a new surgeon that the shoulder hardware is broken inside and will need to be fixed. Will also need new Surgery on my elbow. My first dr was not great. I’m hopeful that someday my arm will work again.
Thanks for your story.

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@martydav

Found out with a new surgeon that the shoulder hardware is broken inside and will need to be fixed. Will also need new Surgery on my elbow. My first dr was not great. I’m hopeful that someday my arm will work again.
Thanks for your story.

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@martydav No way...........and no one saw it on the images. Would you please continue to share your journey with us. That will be so helpful for other members to learn how do continue the journey in spite of hardships.

May you be safe and protected.
Chris

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No one saw it until I hired the best elbow expert in Dallas. He took more xrays from so many different views and that is how he found it.
I go for revision sometime in the first of December.
My heart aches that I must go thru this again.
I have been in terrible pain since September , daily.
Going thru 8 weeks of aggressive physical therapy
Per doctor’s orders only now to find out it was in vain.

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@martydav

No one saw it until I hired the best elbow expert in Dallas. He took more xrays from so many different views and that is how he found it.
I go for revision sometime in the first of December.
My heart aches that I must go thru this again.
I have been in terrible pain since September , daily.
Going thru 8 weeks of aggressive physical therapy
Per doctor’s orders only now to find out it was in vain.

Jump to this post

@martydav
I am so sorry that you have to go through the surgery and therapy again.

I am happy that you did get the answers to the why. I hope all goes well this time.

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