Lol's New HST Log
- Thread starter Lol
- Start date
mickc1965
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the world of the UK, if lol is using the NHS then he will have to get in the line behind 'health tourists', people requiring urgent procedures such as nose jobs, tummy tucks and breast augmentations, gender reassignment as all of these seem to take priority over real procedures.
Friday 18/11/16
Hi folks. Had op this afternoon, 11 days post A&E visit. That's actually insanely quick for the NHS. Top surgeon too. I don't suppose it would have been any quicker if I had had the op done privately and I would be down thousands of pounds (GBP) as well.
After surgery in recovery room, I never expected the first hour post-op to be quite so painful. Felt as if I'd been shot in the arm. I was shaking and shivering and teeth were chattering for the first 30 mins. Got stuffed with various pain killers including fentanyl which then started to help. After the first hour I felt ok enough to be taken back to the ward. And that's where I am now, tapping this out. It's 3:15 am and I'm not at all sleepy. Plus I'm surrounded by people snoring for England and nurses wanting to check I'm still alive every hour and to administer pain killers and antibiotics. Plus every machine in the ward has to beep its little head off at annoyingly regular intervals.
Seeing physio in the morning and then I am looking forward to being discharged so I can get out of this place, get some decent food and to try to rest.
I have plenty of numbness on the outside of my left hand and forearm and plenty of pain in my bone where they've drilled through, and stabbing pains when I supinate and pronate my hand. Arm flexion is limited, as is extension.
Roll on the next week of healing and getting all the crappy drugs out of my system.
Hi folks. Had op this afternoon, 11 days post A&E visit. That's actually insanely quick for the NHS. Top surgeon too. I don't suppose it would have been any quicker if I had had the op done privately and I would be down thousands of pounds (GBP) as well.
After surgery in recovery room, I never expected the first hour post-op to be quite so painful. Felt as if I'd been shot in the arm. I was shaking and shivering and teeth were chattering for the first 30 mins. Got stuffed with various pain killers including fentanyl which then started to help. After the first hour I felt ok enough to be taken back to the ward. And that's where I am now, tapping this out. It's 3:15 am and I'm not at all sleepy. Plus I'm surrounded by people snoring for England and nurses wanting to check I'm still alive every hour and to administer pain killers and antibiotics. Plus every machine in the ward has to beep its little head off at annoyingly regular intervals.
Seeing physio in the morning and then I am looking forward to being discharged so I can get out of this place, get some decent food and to try to rest.
I have plenty of numbness on the outside of my left hand and forearm and plenty of pain in my bone where they've drilled through, and stabbing pains when I supinate and pronate my hand. Arm flexion is limited, as is extension.
Roll on the next week of healing and getting all the crappy drugs out of my system.
Do you have to have the arm in a cast or anything like that, or are you allowed to basically use it as normal?
Hope you get out of there soon. That environment is no good for recovery if you can't get any sleep. Is there anything specific you have to do for rehab?
Hope you get out of there soon. That environment is no good for recovery if you can't get any sleep. Is there anything specific you have to do for rehab?
Cheers folks.
Getting out of here later today once all I-V ABs administered.
Saw physio this morning. He was extremely pleased with my mobility. Good supination and pronation so soon after. Been working on it all night. He thinks the numbness should improve over the next week.
I'm not supposed to lift more than a cup of tea with the left hand for next six weeks but obviously have to keep working on mobility.
I will be careful because rerupturing is most likely early on. Really don't want that.
So, at almost one day post-op, I'm able to use my arm more than I thought. Still get plenty of pain doing mobility work but I need to get as much blood flow to the area as possible. As long as the pain isn't of the sharp, stabbing kind then whatever I'm doing is apparently ok.
Some of the folks I've seen on YT, who have had a similar procedure, are only allowed to do what I'm doing now after several weeks! Some are in full casts for 6 weeks!
Getting out of here later today once all I-V ABs administered.
Saw physio this morning. He was extremely pleased with my mobility. Good supination and pronation so soon after. Been working on it all night. He thinks the numbness should improve over the next week.
I'm not supposed to lift more than a cup of tea with the left hand for next six weeks but obviously have to keep working on mobility.
I will be careful because rerupturing is most likely early on. Really don't want that.
So, at almost one day post-op, I'm able to use my arm more than I thought. Still get plenty of pain doing mobility work but I need to get as much blood flow to the area as possible. As long as the pain isn't of the sharp, stabbing kind then whatever I'm doing is apparently ok.
Some of the folks I've seen on YT, who have had a similar procedure, are only allowed to do what I'm doing now after several weeks! Some are in full casts for 6 weeks!
1 week post-op update.
I now have ~90% supination ROM and ~50% pronation ROM. I get a fair amount of pain at the fullest extent of ROM in either direction.
Arm flexion has improved as the swelling has gone down. I can touch my head now without much pain. Extension is improving more slowly and is quite a lot more painful. I'm about 20° off full extension.
Background pain level has dropped so I'm only taking painkillers if I really have to, which has been once in the past three days. I feel that I can gauge my progress better if I'm not on them.
Distal biceps and forearm still feel very sore so there's plenty of healing left to do before I can properly massage the areas for improved blood flow.
I have a light exercise band which I have been using to add a little resistance to my supination/pronation and arm flexion physio. Ulna and radius are making grinding and clicking noises during wrist rotations. Numbness in hand and forearm hasn't improved which is a shame but it is still early days.
So, I've made quite a bit of progress this first week. There's a way to go but at least I'm on the way back.
All the best with your training, folks. I will be figuring out what I can do soon, but in the meantime I will live vicariously through your workout logs.
I now have ~90% supination ROM and ~50% pronation ROM. I get a fair amount of pain at the fullest extent of ROM in either direction.
Arm flexion has improved as the swelling has gone down. I can touch my head now without much pain. Extension is improving more slowly and is quite a lot more painful. I'm about 20° off full extension.
Background pain level has dropped so I'm only taking painkillers if I really have to, which has been once in the past three days. I feel that I can gauge my progress better if I'm not on them.
Distal biceps and forearm still feel very sore so there's plenty of healing left to do before I can properly massage the areas for improved blood flow.
I have a light exercise band which I have been using to add a little resistance to my supination/pronation and arm flexion physio. Ulna and radius are making grinding and clicking noises during wrist rotations. Numbness in hand and forearm hasn't improved which is a shame but it is still early days.
So, I've made quite a bit of progress this first week. There's a way to go but at least I'm on the way back.
All the best with your training, folks. I will be figuring out what I can do soon, but in the meantime I will live vicariously through your workout logs.
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Wed 7th Dec
1 month since distal biceps-tendon rupture.
2 Weeks, 5 Days, Post-Op
Arm is doing well. My biggest issue has been the constant neuropathic pain in my left hand. I can distract myself in the day but it's been keeping me awake at night. Yesterday, I was starting to lose the plot so went to GP and he's put me on Amitriptyline to see if that helps. It's given me a fuzzy head and a funny taste in my mouth but I think it will take about a week or so to have any noticeable effect on the pain.
Been working on mobility as much as possible with some light-weight 50-rep hammer curls with 4-pinter of milk and light CoC gripper work thrown in to get blood flow up.
Front Squats (kg)
20(Bar)/10
40/10
50/10,10,10
Flat shoes
Notes
One month since I last lifted. Desperate to try something. Managed to use a clean grip with index fingers under bar.
Light as heck. Weak as heck.
1 month since distal biceps-tendon rupture.
2 Weeks, 5 Days, Post-Op
Arm is doing well. My biggest issue has been the constant neuropathic pain in my left hand. I can distract myself in the day but it's been keeping me awake at night. Yesterday, I was starting to lose the plot so went to GP and he's put me on Amitriptyline to see if that helps. It's given me a fuzzy head and a funny taste in my mouth but I think it will take about a week or so to have any noticeable effect on the pain.
Been working on mobility as much as possible with some light-weight 50-rep hammer curls with 4-pinter of milk and light CoC gripper work thrown in to get blood flow up.
Front Squats (kg)
20(Bar)/10
40/10
50/10,10,10
Flat shoes
Notes
One month since I last lifted. Desperate to try something. Managed to use a clean grip with index fingers under bar.
Light as heck. Weak as heck.
Have just blown biceps again doing my physio. Such a pain.
I'm pretty cheesed off that I was given the impression that I should work on getting full mobility. No restrictions placed on movement. Only restriction was on loading.
Booked in to see surgeon next Tuesday.
I'm pretty cheesed off that I was given the impression that I should work on getting full mobility. No restrictions placed on movement. Only restriction was on loading.
Booked in to see surgeon next Tuesday.
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Good call, only I'm now back to square one. I will carry your advice forward to when I'm back to where I was yesterday, which will hopefully be not much more than 5 weeks away if the surgeon thinks he can try again.
Best I can hope for is the surgeon having another go at it.
If there was a weak link in the repair and that was why it failed then I'd rather have it happen now than in a month when I was going to begin loading it.
I read one surgical report on the procedure in which it said that the sutures holding the button in place are as strong as the tendon. I don't have a clue what suture material was used in my case but my guess is that it snapped, so it was either weak or it must have abraded against something sharp (maybe the button used was not as smooth as it should be). Or a knot in the suturing could have come undone.
The other possibility is that the sutures woven through the tendon have pulled through it and turned it into spaghetti! I really hope that is not the case as I can't see how the surgeon could easily fix that. But I am jumping the gun and overthinking as I am wont to do.
An extra pain in the parts is having to travel 300 miles to see the surgeon because I sustained the injury when I was away from home and so I got it fixed where I was staying at the time.
Will post an update once I've spoken to the surgeon next Tuesday.