Wednesday, November 12, 2008

I Broke My Elbow


I don't know what it is about me and skateboarding, but I cannot seem to fall without seriously injuring myself. I've been skating a lot lately with my kids, but deliberately not trying anything that's too much of a stretch. And I hadn't had any real falls in a long time. Just getting my flow on at the local skatepark.

So I'm starting to feel like I'm getting my mojo back, and I recently bought a small miniramp I found on craigslist so the kids and I can skate in the backyard... and then I go and do this. It happened at the skatepark, so I was on concrete, and I just hit a pebble and went down while I was rolling backwards. I landed on my arm and I immediately knew I had done something bad to it. I thought it was my wrist initially, because I've injured that wrist before. But then my elbow swelled up as the day went on.

I went to urgent care that afternoon to get an x-ray, and as soon as I saw it I spotted a small fracture on what I now know is the "radial head." The radius is the bone in the top half of your forearm if you are giving the thumbs-up sign. The radial head is the elbow end of that bone. It's easy to break it by throwing out a forearm to catch yourself, although in this case I'm pretty sure I landed on it from the side with my body weight. Either way, it's cracked.

The orthopedist told me to keep it in a sling and avoid using it, and it will heal by itself. I'm going back in a week for another x-ray to make sure everything is lined up correctly.

I just have to say, this sucks. I guess I'm lucky it wasn't worse, but I'm a righty and it's hard not to use your right hand for anything strenuous. I can't go skateboarding for 6-8 weeks, and so I can't use the miniramp which I had only skated about 3 times since I bought it. I can't pick up the kids, or anything heavy. I can't play guitar. And mostly I just feel foolish having to wear this sling around and do everything with my left hand. Dang it.

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