Crash bang wollop – fractured Olecranon.

Crashed the mountain bike early September and fractured my olecranon into several peices. The Docs used a locking plate and screw to put me back together. I was wondering if anyone else had a similar fracture and had any advice on returning to cycling, like how soon and how long it took until the docs said the bones were healed ?

I did the same a few years back. I didn’t get back on the bike for 5/6 months, although I could have got on earlier. I think I was given the all clear after 3 months but was told to be really careful, so I started running instead.

Make sure you really work on elbow mobility as soon as you’re told you should. I can’t fully lock out my arm anymore, but can get it mostly straight. My elbow is also still very sensitive, 5 years on, and really throbs at the slightest knock. But other than that, I rarely think about it now.

I was advised to get the metalwork removed when I mentioned MTBing and snowboarding to the Consultant. This was done a year later but could have been done earlier – I postponed it to ride Kielder 100. That operation is much quicker to recover from.

I did the same in July 2012. It took me about 4 months to get back on a bike, fully padded up. Initially it was just riding local bridleways etc, as I was worried about falling off etc. It took me about 1 month of that and some very understanding mates (as I was stopping and scared of anything remotely technical) to ride trail centres. About a month after that I started riding the natural stuff (Peaks) again.

As Ciron says the key thing is to get it moving as early as possible.

I’ve lost about 20 degrees of movement in total, which was due to me making a right mess of the elbow (it smashed into 7 pieces, one of which went missing when I fell off). The Doc who did the second op (I had to have it reworked due to the wires and pins being the wrong size) said the best he was hoping for was a loss of around 40 degrees.

I was spending about 2 hours a day working my elbow for 2 months, to try and get it back. It hurt and felt funny but I think it was worth it. Even now I still do the exercises.

Good luck.

I did mine back in 2006 – smashed to pieces. I was operated on by a very clever man at Carlisle hospital who pinned it all back together with a lot of metal work. I was in a back slab (half a pot) for 8 weeks and started physio a few weeks later. After 6 months of pretty intensive physio (at hospital and by myself at home) I was as back to normal as I was going to get (about 20-25 degrees from full extension). My physio recommended that I have a chat with a specialist in this field (wrists and elbows). His name was Mr Funk! who had a private practice at Manchester sports injury clinic but also worked part time for the NHS. I had a private consultation with him and he said he could get me more movement. I had the operation via the NHS at Wrightington hospital (Near Wigan). He took all the steelwork out that he could, filed a few bits down and generally tidied up my joint. I was put on a machine for about 30 hours which extended my arm fully back and forth (non-stop, even during the small amount of sleep I had that night!). Any way after a lot more physio by his team at wrightington I now have nearly full extension (about 10 degrees off). It aches occasionally after a long ride or heavy lifting but nothing I cant cope with.
To answer your question, I ignored the docs (who said I wouldn’t be able to ride for 6-8 months) and I rode about 3 months after my cast came off – very tentative ride around the block to start with and built it up from there.
I must dig out my old x-rays!!

Thanks for replies. Appreciated. if there’s any more insight I’m listening.
Regards
Mj