It’s been four long months, but I was officially discharged from the orthopedics the other day!
I had reconstructive elbow surgery on my right elbow back on July 18, and really haven’t been able to use my right arm since then while it’s been healing up. It was a pretty intense and unlucky injury to the joint, and the result was a very long heal and tough rehab to get it back to being able to perform athletic movements. As I told my PT/OT guys, “I don’t want to just be able to brush my teeth, I plan to throw with bad intent again”.
I’m not going to lie, post-surgery was pretty rough. I was hurting for several days afterwards, but the biggest pain was having my arm immobilized in the splint. It was hard to find a comfortable position that lasted more than a few minutes as my arm would quickly stiffen up and fall asleep. This would be the biggest pain when I would try to sleep. I’d get a few minutes here and there, but wasn’t able to get a solid sleep until the splint came off after a few weeks.
From the splint I moved to the post-operative brace which I would later decorate with amazing stickers. This brace and I would be quite close for the next 6+ weeks, so stickers were surely in order.
The brace allowed me some limited movement in my elbow. While the range was very limited, it was great just to have a little movement and functionality as compared to none that I had with the splint. I would continue to work my elbow as much as the brace allowed, hoping to keep as much movement in the joint as possible.
Towards the later stages of wearing the brace it was becoming quite apparent that my elbow had stiffened significantly. It kinda had me spooked out a bit, as I could tell from the doctor’s and just anyone else I would demo my range of motion to’s body language that it wasn’t too good at this stage. I was not pleased by the loss of range of motion one bit, and realistically knew that I had an uphill battle to get it back coming.
Once the brace was finally removed after about 2 months post surgery, I began PT/OT. I was very eager to begin PT/OT, as I finally felt as though I was actually doing something at this point. They were great and gave me stretches that I could do on my own as well. When they suggested I do them 4-5 times a day if possible, I asked it I could do them every hour instead. I was on a mission, and kept thinking of how Adrian Peterson came back from his knee injury ahead of schedule, why can’t I come back from this fast as well.
I showed rapid progress in PT/OT in regaining range of motion. While many of the stretches aren’t the most pleasant of experiences, I was determined to get back so I just dealt with it. Stretching was pretty strange, you could literally hear and fell things stretching and at times tearing up as I performed much of it. There were times where, I knew I had moved things a great deal (it feels warm and different afterwards) and was a little scared wondering if it would be increased range of motion the next day or a stupid setback.
Once I’d gotten a good deal of my range of motion back, I then was allowed to begin gentle strengthening. This was both frustrating and fun at the same time. While I really enjoyed building that arm back up to something functional, it was very frustrating to realize just how weak I had become over three months it it not being used at all really.
I’ve been going to the gym multiple times a week for several weeks now, and generally keep myself in pretty good shape, so this portion of my recovery went great. I breezed through pretty much everything, making big, steady gains. It was pretty great and I had a great PT/OT team working with me to get me where I had to be.
Now, at four months post surgery I passed all my tests. My range of motion is very solid and better than many pitchers that the orthopedist has worked with. My elbow recovery is at around ninety percent with around two more months to a complete recovery.
I have just resumed going back to the gym regularly and it felt great to be able to do things again. While I’m still super weak, it’s still great to be back to my old routine and getting my strength back. I have even resumed throwing in the repaired arm and am slowing building up a throwing program to get me back to dodgeball form.
It’s been a pretty long journey, but it’s pretty great to be back to almost normal and not having to settle for less than what my elbow once was.