Anyone ever fracture their elbow

[The Night Stalker]

Last Sunday, I broke my elbow, had surgery on Monday. I was wondering if anyone has any experiance in regards to shooting their bow after an elbow fracture. I have an elk trip planned for mid Sept.

[The Night Stalker]

forgot to mention it is my right elbow and I shoot right handed.

[STEVE R.]

I really feel for you. Although I am not a medical doctor, I will give you my opinion. I think that since you broke your right elbow you will shoot again in time. I feel a left elbow injury for a right hand shooter is more serious. I picked up a staff infection in my left elbow two months ago, and I am still fighting it. The pain in my left elbow does not allow me to shoot. I guess what I am trying to say is you don't have to extend your right elbow to shoot right handed, so I think there is less pressure on it. Good luck.

[Tim]

         
Hey Tim....what a downer, shoot me a pm when you get a chance with the details.  I can't imagine the pain involved in breaking an elbow.  Keep your head up, hope your doing well otherwise.

Tim

[Chester Thompson]

Yeah I broke my elbow in 2001, make sure that you get the physical threopy, I did not becuase I did not have insurance at the time and I only have 45 degree's of movement in that arm. It really does not effect my shooting as far as I can tell. I shoot 54 lbs @27" and it does not seem to make the elbow hurt.

[COLongbow]

About 20 years ago I sustained a "T" fracture of the upper arm and elbow. Broke the humerus and split the elbow itself in two. Had surgery where they sawed off the elbow cap where the tricep tendon attaches to access the humerus, installled a plate of metal the size and shape of a ruler, six screws there. Then re-attached the elbow cap with two more driven in along the line of the forearm, and two more screws width-wise to draw closed the split in the elbow. After "healing", they removed the two holding on the cap and the two closing the split. All the rest under the tricep along the humerus is still there.

Took me a full year before I could do a single pushup. To this day I can't fully close or extend the arm. This is my left, bow-holding arm. I really don't have any problems with it but after a long shooting session it gets sore and stiff due to trying to keep it as straight as possible.

I REALLY hope your situation is better than mine! And the fact that your injured elbow is the bow-drawing arm should help a lot. Get some phys therapy to keep your mobility,

[Shakes.602]

YIKES!!! I have  NO  idea how one breaks an elbow, but I dont wanna!!  :eek:   :eek:   Sorry to hear the Stories!!
 Sure Hope You Dont Rush it! Can you get your money back by chance?? Sounds Bad, but there will be Other Hunts, and Your Health is Priority!  

[SpikeMaster]

I cracked my right elbow in 1997 when I fell off a ladder pulling cat 5 cable. I just cracked it but it hurt alful bad. Still can't straighten my right arm completely. The doctor just told me to curl tomato cans for physical therapy. Needless to say that didn't do much good. Make sure you see a physical therapist. It's actually good that it's your right elbow since you don't have to extend it while shooting. My left elbow gives me more trouble now and it's never been hurt. Hope it heals quickly.

[Hud]

Yep, long time ago. The best person to ask is your surgeon. He will know how long in a cast, followed by therapy to regain movement, range and strength. Age and physical condition will have a bearing on a quick recovery or not. Give yourself enough time to regain your strength. Good luck.

[The Night Stalker]

TIM, IT NEVER DID HURT. I WAS TRAINING A DIFFICULT FILLY WHEN SHE GOT ME OUT OF POSITION AND KICKED ME. I FELT IT WAS BROKE OFF when i grabbed it SO I WALKED TO THE HOUSE AND HAD TONYA DRIVE ME TO WORK. A FRIEND OF MINE WAS WORKING THE ER. TONYA DOES ORTHAPEDICS AT THE OTHER HOSPITAL SO I GOT ON THE SCHEDULE THE NEXT MORNING. I JUST HAD TWO K-WIRES AND TENSION BAND.
COLongbow- my fracture was not as bad as yours. I will find out next week what my recovery phase will be. I guess it makes sense that its better on the right arm since your elbow is bent as you draw.

[RUTANDSTRUT]

my father broke his elbow two years ago which needed surgery and pins to put it back together.  he had to hunt with a crossbow last year and is just getting strong enough now to shoot a bow properly.  all i can say is make sure you take your therapy seriously and never give up on strengthening your arm.  proper stretching was key in his therapy.

[reddogge]

Not broken elbow but torn elbow tendon and surgery. Two years later no pain, great strength but I think I lost a little draw length as I see pictures of myself and my arm is bent a little more than it used to be.

[Paul Mattson]

I had a compound fracture (right elbow) several years ago, had a full cast on for 4 mos.  It took alot of PT to get it working agian.  Lost some extension, only shortened up my draw 1/2" or so.

[Claymore]

I broke my left elbow last year. That is my bow arm.
I had 2 screws put in. Dr. said no shooting for 3 months. Had PT. Dropped down to 26 lbs in bow limbs. Most fun I have had in shooting. Elbow still has some sharp at times after 18 months. Good luck. Don't push it.

[adeeden]

Yup rock climbing accident in 89. Compound fracture on my left elbow, and I am a lefty. Several plates and a whole hardware store full of screws and pins got it back together. One of the scariest nights of my life but thats another story in it's own. Both arms broke, several ribs and my left leg........

As mentioned above work the physical therapy hard! I was young 16 and worked it as hard as possible and they would allow and still ened up losing around 30% of the movement in it. The 30% is the amount it will not "open up". I had 3 surgeries over a years time and was ale to shoot light bows 25#'er about 6 weeks after each surgery.

It still effects my shooting to this day. I have a hard time rotating it "in" from the elbow to wrist and it makes it very difficult to anchor properly. I swithched to shooting right handed for awhile but with the lack of expansion of my left elbow my drawlenth was just waaaay to short.

Kepp after it it will not put you out of shooting for good, but you may have to change your technique a little. Then again hopefully you recover 100% and have no issues at all!

[adeeden]

One more thing I forgot to add, I explained to my therapist that I was an avid archer. She took that into account when giving my therapy and came up with all kinds of excercises to help with the "drawing" motion. Lots of different excersises using rubber bands, surgical tubeing and various other things shee dreamed up to help stregthen my draw quicker.

I'll give her credit I think it helped or at least made me think it was helping!

[Keystone Cowboy]

Back in 1987 i hyperextended my left arm and when it bent back it broke the ball joint off. The Dr.'s replaced it and put two screws in to hold it in place. I did my own therapy and it straightens about 95%. At the time i was shooting a compound and it was about 6 months before i could pull full draw. I now am shooting trad bows up to 60 lbs. and if i want to freak people out i let them listen to snap, crackle, pop as i flex my elbow.

[GPW]

Broke left elbow (RH shooter).  Slowly got back  to shooting.  For a long time I could not shoot any bow with hand shock without pain. Now I shoot without any pain in elbow.

[J-dog]

I did the same as Keystone except I broke the two bones lower of the left elbow and not exactly the ball itself.     Broke mine many many moons ago! healed poorly as back then they did not do surgery for broken bones as regularly as it is practiced now. i shoot right but this was left - no worries just gonna take forever to heal.

Sure great advice has been given but my piece of advice is explain to the doc the dilemma and do not be foolish and try shooting before the doc okays you to try. You may end up just making it worse and taking longer.

Sorry for the injury but hope your speedy recovery!

J

[J-dog]

Weather changes are really gonna be a pain know too --