broken arm, any advice??

[green6767]

i broke my arm yesterday snowboarding. i fractured the end of the Radius where it connects to the hand bones. (wrist joint). left arm was the one injured. right hand dominant golfer. anybody have a similar injury? recover time for golf? stories or advice is greatly appreciated!

[Guest]

Therapy, therapy, therapy. I was in a motorcycle accident three years ago and broke my radius and ulna in my left arm. 10 surgeries, two plates, over 30 screws and a prosthetic radial head latter and I’m playing better golf than before. The one piece of advice I can give is to be patient in your recovery and diligent in any therapy required. Also, if you do have to go to therapy make sure to tell your therapist that you play golf so your exercises can be tailored for that purpose. Good luck!!

[mnel]

... give up snowboarding... ;-P

[green6767]

hahaha. been boarding (8 years) longer than i've been playing golf (2 years), but i have to say that golf is much less painful. Thanks for the advice.

[Q.Q.Quillume]

My advice would be (duh), check with your doctor and do exactly what he/she says.

[NM Golf]

I fractured the radial head in my right arm 2 years ago. I was out of golf for 3 months.

[green6767]

Surgeon said pins aren't necessary. I have a distal radius fracture. its called a Colles' Fracture. just a cast and weekly x rays. he was able to numb me up well enough to push the bones together and then cast it. he said 6 to 8 weeks before cast comes off though. ugh.....

[waynem80]

Well, I dunno about a broken are, but i sure do know about a broken wrist. And belive it or not, i feel like i play better after the broken wrist, maybe it did something for me :)..

wayne

[cbass2141]

i just broke my elbow in 3 places and had two screws put in and my doctor said i could play baseball in 6-7 weeks so I imagine Golf is sooner not as much stress on the elbow but I started Therapy and it hurts but if you push really hard when your there it helps then do the workouts at home as well.

Good Luck

[cougar978]

At least the small bones in your wrist weren't affected - I had a similar injury 10 years ago, but I had several bones in my wrist crushed as well and required pins and a screw. The screw is still there. My best advice to you is to do as much strength training in your forearms as possible - a wrist injury in golf can be overcome by forearm strength training, as the forearms play a big role in torque absorption during and after contact.

Before my injury, I was flirting with a handicap in the +1-+2 range - after the injury I was out for approximately four months. After they took the pins out and I went from a hard cast to a soft brace, I could barely move my wrist without extreme pain, let alone swing a club. I actually tried to take up playing left-handed (that was a joke - I couldn't hit the ball over 50 yards). After I graduated from college, I didn't play much until 2006 when I got my master's degree and finally had some time to rededicate myself to the game (and the fact that a week prior to graduation, I went out and could not break 90 on an easy course). I started practicing again and more importantly, doing strength training with a Weider hand grip, and now I'm back in the low single-digit range, hoping to cross over into the plus again at the end of this year and try to win some tournaments and take a shot at the state amateur.

Sorry for the long-winded response, but my best advice to you is once you feel up to it, immediately begin strength training on that wrist - starting off with silly putty or a tennis ball, and working your way up to a hand grip. It's a pretty tough injury to overcome, but if you train the right way, it can be done.

[cstorms]

... give up snowboarding... ;-P

Blasphemy

[mmcgee13]

I had the same injury on my right wrist. Weird. I also did it snowboarding. You are probably looking at 4-6 months before your game is back to full strength. About 3 months until you can play.

[Dpricenator]

Having broken both arms twice, my jaw, femur in the left leg and tibia in the right leg. All in different accidents. Let me tell you this. Being in a cast is only the first part of recovery. after a few weeks in the cast the bones will have begun to fuse together. This would be a decent time to start working out your grip with a stress ball or something light. However after tha cast comes off you will experince several weeks where the joints will be sore. You elbow and wrist will br imobilzed for weeks on end and it takes time before those joints are back to normal. I had my jaw wired for 35 days and couldn't open my mouth fully and chew normally for anther 30 days. it takes time and you gotta work throught the pain if you want to recover a bit faster. Instead of babying my jaw I chewed gum all day. slowly at first, cause it hurt, but the Doc said it helped me get back to normal a lot faster. With my wrist I would toss a raquetball 6 inches and catch it. Doing as many reps as I could. Then I moved up to a baseball. the leg stuff was much worse. for my Femur i was 4 weeks in a cast to my hip, and another 4 with a cast from my calf to my upper thigh. I walked with a stiff knee for a couple of months after the cast came off.

[shortstop20]

i broke my arm yesterday snowboarding. i fractured the end of the Radius where it connects to the hand bones. (wrist joint). left arm was the one injured. right hand dominant golfer. anybody have a similar injury? recover time for golf? stories or advice is greatly appreciated!

Just so we're on the same page, you are talking about the bone between the end of your thumb and the beginning of the wrist(where the wrist would cock in the golf swing)?

I broke that same bone about 8 years ago(when I was 14). Hopefully yours isn't broken as bad as mine was. I had to wear a cast up to my shoulder for about 8 weeks, then they cut it down to just below my elbow for 4 weeks and then they cut it down to just above my wrist for about 2 weeks. Golfing that summer was basically ruined for me.

[Guest]

I just broke my olecranon(elbow) the doctor said I would be out of sports for 3 months. I am pissing my brains out I'm so mad. It sounds like physical therapy is the key to success.

[Mallet]

I broke my wrist (actually its my forearm) snowboarding in January. There were 3 major breaks to the radius and I broke the tip of the ulna (ulna styloid) off completely. I had surgery on 1/27 to put in a plate and 12 screws. I had a cast on after surgery until March 2nd, a splint for 3 weeks after that, and started therapy on April 1st. Last week I started swinging the clubs for the first time, and it is super painful. I can pronate and supinate the wrist ok now, but contact with the ball sends shockwaves up my arm, and creates pain in the hand under the pinkie and ring finger. I stopped trying to hit from the mats, and started using a tee. I've only tried my wedges and a few irons, but I'm hoping to be able to swing all but my woods this weekend. Its slow, but at least I have progress, annd alot of hope, 4 months post accident!

[cougar978]

I broke my wrist (actually its my forearm) snowboarding in January. There were 3 major breaks to the radius and I broke the tip of the ulna (ulna styloid) off completely. I had surgery on 1/27 to put in a plate and 12 screws. I had a cast on after surgery until March 2nd, a splint for 3 weeks after that, and started therapy on April 1st. Last week I started swinging the clubs for the first time, and it is super painful. I can pronate and supinate the wrist ok now, but contact with the ball sends shockwaves up my arm, and creates pain in the hand under the pinkie and ring finger. I stopped trying to hit from the mats, and started using a tee. I've only tried my wedges and a few irons, but I'm hoping to be able to swing all but my woods this weekend. Its slow, but at least I have progress, annd alot of hope, 4 months post accident!

My first time out on the range after I got my cast and brace off, I could barely swing the club and anything I hit went maybe 50 yards max - I seriously gave consideration to trying to learn to play left handed. You have to give it time and do A LOT of forearm strength training - my doc told me that if you have a wrist injury, the best thing you can do is build up strength in your forearms to offset the stress and build up power in your swing.

[Awsi Dooger]

Don't rush back. That's my only advice based on personal experience. More than 30 years ago I broke my elbow smack on the joint in two places while playing basketball. I told the doctor I was a golfer and he emphasized to wait at least 6 months, considering the severity of my injury.

I did all the hand squeeze exercises faithfully, and three months later I felt nearly recovered, other than pain in the joint when I tried to lift something that weighed more than a few pounds. My dad wanted to play at Lake Tahoe and we idiotically decided I was ready. Gad. I'll never forget that pain. The first shot I let go of the club with one hand and wanted to scream but there was a crowd of strangers at the first tee. My second shot from the left rough was even worse, and I did yell out in agony. We walked back to the clubhouse and managed a refund.

It was a definite setback and I've always wondered if it would have healed differently if I had waited the full 6 months or more.