Had a small tumble at Cathkin on Tuesday evening which has resulted in a broken radius at the elbow. No plaster cast, just a lovely blue sling. Hurts like hell!
Biggest gripe is time off bike….will miss glentress 7 etc….

Do any of you knowledgable folks have tips / advice to get this healed as quickly and strongly as possible. Been told 4-6 weeks. I’m aiming for the 4 rather than the 6…… :-$

Find your nearest hyperbaric chamber, a lot of the motorcycle racing guys I know use them to speed up the healing process.

Last time I hurt my elbow and radius I was taking Codeine round the clock with an arm like a big black sausage and it took over a year to get full movement back. Now I have a puny noodle where my left arm used to be.

My tip is suck it up. It’s all part of the game isn’t it.

no more ****ing for you sonny jim.
Here’s a tip: if you do it with your other arm it feels like somebody else!

Jekkly…..I’m a chick! But I’ll pass that advice on to the OH.

Dont go back on the bike too soon.

I went back too much too soon, 3 weeks, and while I avoided crashing in the short term which would have been a disaster it broke again in a minor tumble after 5 months. One factor may have been that some vibration may speed up healing, too much may have killed the bone stopping it healing, hard to know as there was a long wait between the last break and the opperation so it may have died in the meantime.

Went from a simple ish break to 3 months in plaster and a graft from my hip and much larger metalwork thats actualy visible under the skin.

I suffered a similar injury about 6 weeks ago riding in Tenerife.. I’m only just getting back on the bike now, mainly due to not being able to put weight on my damaged wrists.. but I’m also struggling with full range of movement at the elbow – can’t fully straighten or bend it.

I’ve been going stir crazy in the meantime but I would echo TINAS’s advice and not push it too soon – I’m missing the Dyfi enduro this weekend, but I’d rather that than drag out my recovery.. and grateful I didn’t break my wrists / collarbone!

Welcome to the dodgy elbow club. Did my radius head a year ago. 15 weeks off the bike and still don’t have the full range of movement. Enough to ride so all is not lost though.

Yeah I took a small off at glentress in October fractured my radial head and my humerous just at the shoulder. Took about 10 weeks before I was out of my blue prison then 3 months of physio before I could get back on any of my bikes. I just got back on the mtb tonight for the first time since the off.

My advice is don’t keep it in the sling 24/7 take it out and move it around a bit every few hours it’ll help stop you loosing too much of your range of movement and strength. I know it helped for me I still had 90% movement in my elbow and shoulder once I got rid of the sling, my problem was I lost about 50%-60% of the strength in my arm. I’m feeling it now after my ride tonight but waiting until now has definitely helped as has the odd road ride.

I know it’s a PITA but it’s not that long in the grand scheme of things

stay off sugary food, eat loads of fish like sardines and greens like kale. Herb: Comfrey, poultices of.

Mine was non displaced so a bit quicker to heal.
Some points to note, avoid any food you need to cut up
It will hurt
It will seize up solid…

I was off on holiday 5 weeks after so pushed it, moving in 3 weeks, first simple climb in 4, holiday in the alps in 5, fully straightened in 6 2/3 of the way up a mixed route. I put the pain away into a little box until we got down.

Mostly fine since then.

Mine was non displaced so a bit quicker to heal

Same here. A couple weeks after doing it i got bored of the sling so would take it out at every opportunity to keep my arm moving. After 5 weeks i had a holiday booked in Menorca and was getting really bored by then so hired a bike, cycled across the island and found a bit of off road stuff to test it out on 😆

That was nearly 4 years ago now and apart from it clicking a bit now and then its all ok.

I did myself in the same way last year.

Got signed off work by my GP until my appointment at the fracture clinic, resting it probably did a lot of good as I was back on the bike in just over a month. Probably should have left it a week or so longer had about 90% movement back at the time and it ached like a bugger at the end of the ride. Swimming on holiday the week after was a little uncomfortable.

drank lots of milk, scoffed plenty of vitamins and generally ate well (apart from developing an addiction to tunnocks teacakes)

drank lots of milk, scoffed plenty of vitamins and generally ate well (apart from developing an addiction to tunnocks teacakes)

In comparison I drank lots of beer, ate takeaway as cooking was way too complicated took no vitamin supplements or anything like that but did go to the gym 4 times a week to try and retain some fitness 🙂

(sample size of 1 and all)

Thank you everyone for all your advice and experiences. Trying to have it out of sling as much as possible. I have some movement in it although the frequent muscles spasms in my bicep (puny things!) are excruciating. Getting cold is the same. Apparently your body needs loads more calories when trying to heal a bone so I suppose that’s good now wishing I hadn’t gotten rid of the hybrid bike as legs will need to spin in a few days.

Fracture clinic next Wednesday so will see how it’s looking then.

Thanks again.

I was told DONT take ibrufen because its an anti-inflammatory, and its basically the inflammatory response that leads to bone growth.

Fracture clinic next Wednesday so will see how it’s looking then.

they should have an in-house physio who should be able to recommend any exercises that might be appropriate.