Non-displaced Fracture of Olecranon

On March 21 I fell and fractured my elbow.  My husband and I were walking home from a restaurant near our house. He turned to say something and tripped me with his foot. I fell in front of him and tripped him with my body. Fortunately he wasn't injured, but I suspected I broke my elbow.  Later that day x-rays confirmed a non-displaced olecranon fracture. Urgent care personnel splinted my arm from upper arm to fingertips and gave me an oversized sling, because they didn't believe the smaller size would fit.  2 days later I returned, because the splint was wrapped so tightly that my fingers were swollen and tingly.  Also the sling kept falling off and my splint slipped out within a minute after tightening straps.  They rewrapped the splint, which relieved finger symptoms, but refused to give me a smaller sling. I wore the splint for 5 days before returning to get a cast.


I was pleased with my pink cast, but still couldn't get a properly fitting sling. Like urgent care personnel, the ortho doc and assistants blamed us for not adjusting the oversized sling often enough (every 60 seconds???)  I experienced the same 'blame the victim' treatment when my cast was removed.  X-rays showed that my fracture had developed a soft callous long the fracture line/ However my fingers, hand, wrist and forearm were swollen to twice the normal size.  The tech would wrapped and set my cast had not put enough padding around my bony hand and wrist.  I have always bruised easily and am taking horsechestnut for venous insufficiency.  However, I suspect the overly large sling forced me to bear the weight of the cast on my hand/wrist/forearm.  Nevertheless the doc and tech tried to blame me for not raising my arm often enough (false).  Then the doc said the 'hematoma' (swollen bruised parts) resulted from the elbow injury (false).  He also thought I injured my hand/wrist in the initial fall, but my hand/wrist was normal 5 days after the fall, before I got the cast without much padding outside the elbow area.


They initially rewrapped my arm in a removeable splint and told me to exercise my elbow w/o the splint 4 hours daily. However, the splint exacerbated pain from my badly bruised hand/wrist/arm.  After 10 minutes of pain, I returned and asked them to reconsider the splint.  Instead they gave me a brace with velcro straps.  The good news was they gave me a size small sling which fit my arm perfectly with the splint.  The bad news was the brace was too big for the small sling.  So I was left with the original oversized sling.  After 3 days of more pain an swelling from the brace pressing bruises, I realized my bruises would heal better w/o the brace.  I could also exercise my elbow more often Unfortunately someone bumped my elbow a few times a few days later, but x-rays showed no new fractures or obvious displacement.


When my hand was sooo badly swollen with bruises, I discovered that aloe vera gel helped heal bruises and reduce swelling.  Now over a week later, my left hand almost looks like the right hand of the unfractured arm.  I have also recovered more range of motion with daily use of my elbow. I continue to ice the elbow at meals and at night, but still need to reguarly take tylenol for pain.  (I can't tolerate NSAIDs or narcotic pain meds and have to limit tylenol to no more than 5 daily, because I don't weigh as much as the 'average' adult and can overdose on the recommended no more than  6 daily limit (as I experienced after oral surgery last year).


I see my ortho doc again next week to check elbow healing progress with x-ray.  He wanted me to begin physical therapy, but I had to cancel the appointment because I can barely walk now. I had a total matricectomy on my left big toenail yesterday. My toe is wrapped in gauze to control bleeding, but I also need to keep it elevated as often as possible for at least the next 2 days.  I'm doing pt on my elbow with daily activities as well as recommended rotational exercises throughout the day.