Torn arm tendon

Take pictures of it.

So @rob9221504 howā€™s recovery coming up?

I am currently contemplating my options as yes, wrist has improved a bit, but not much. Doc has given meds for inflammation and pain but movement is still limited.

Makes house chores quite a deal, Iā€™m telling ya. It takes me longer because one out of line movement and ouch ouch.

You need to go to physical therapy. Itā€™s covered by NHI so I would definitely take advantage of it. Not doing physical therapy can result in your arm not back to 100% for the rest of your life.

Oh Iā€™m already on physical therapy 3 to 4 times a week. And wearing a sling for protection.

Physical therapy here is so accesible. 50 NTD. There are two clinics in a ,5 minute walk radius. And they are always full.

Iā€™ve become quite good using the left hand. My signature is almost recognizable. Heck, my name has 38 strokes!

Eat lots of red meat and make bone broth for collagen. Your body also needs to rebuild and protect itself from muscle atrophy

How did the surgery go?

Yikes, thatā€™s a pretty long time for it to only have improved a bit. The decision for surgery is tough, my doctor said Iā€™d likely recover more of the strength in my arm if I did the operation, so thatā€™s why I went for it.
The surgery went okay I guess, although it wasnā€™t so simple as there was the main tear at the bicep tendon insertion point on my forearm, but also smaller tears further up the tendon. Add to that the one month delay before the surgery, which made it even trickier. First thing the doctor did when he came to see me after the surgery was just let out a sigh. So yeah, a tricky one.
Itā€™s been 3.5 weeks now, Iā€™m slowly getting a bit of strength back, being able to slowly pick up a bit heavier things. Left the house today without wearing a brace/sling for the first time (had it in my bag though), did a long walk along the riverside. Right now just working on straightening and bending, the bicep muscle is quite tight so itā€™ll take awhile to be able to fully extend it. Pronation/supination is coming more slowly, havenā€™t really attempted doing it yet. Pronating my arm enough just to type on my keyboard is a bit painful.
Saw the doctor a couple days ago, he said things are going as expected, told me to keep using the brace, and pretty much just keep doing what Iā€™ve been doing, and go back and see him in a month. So not going to physio, just basically taking time every day to practice bending and extending my arm.

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Yikes! @rob9221504 that sounds icky but it seems you are well on the road to recovery. Wish you all keeps on going well.

Oh pronation and that other thing - after looking them up- ainā€™t working that great here either.

Iā€™d really love to see a model to explain what we broke so we canā€™t move in certain ways.

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Thanks Icon, and the same to you, whether you elect for surgery or not.

Well for me the injury was here: Biceps Tendon Tear at the Elbow - Dr. Groh

But for you it seems your pain is more in your wrist? Your doctor didnā€™t say specifically which tendon or ligament you injured? Or he/she also isnā€™t quite sure? If they donā€™t know and arenā€™t able to explain it clearly to you then perhaps you should try seeing someone else.

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If you donā€™t mind explaining it, how did you get injured?

I have this too, the Doc says its tendonitis - though not as bad as what @Icon has it seems.

For me itā€™s the area just below the tip of my right shoulder (I am right handed), mainly when I twist my arm, but also when I carry or pull on anything heavy.

He suggested that I rub a gel called Diclofenac (Brand name is Voltaren) over the affected area which I have tried and it is working - slowly - and he says it could take a few months to disappear.

How did it happen? I donā€™t really know, but the Doc says itā€™s a bit like the old RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), and people who use a computer mouse a lot are susceptible to it, more so as they get older - it crept up on me, wasnā€™t a thing that happened overnight. Lugging 5-10kg of fruit and vegetables home from the market in one shopping bag would not have helped either as that no doubt stretched the arm.

I did contemplate to becoming a leftie when using the house PC and changing the mouse buttons, but that would get me into trouble with my partner, so I have reverted to using just my Laptop where I have now become a leftie and the mouse buttons changed for leftie use.

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Ive used those on and off for a few years. They are particularly good for muscle/skeletory type pain. In New Taipei city you can just walk in and get them. Taipei might be different though.
Theyā€™re an NSAID and all NSAIDā€™s actually work slightly differently and treat different kinds of pain differently. Also different ones can cause allergies in different people. For example my daughter can take Ibuprophen but not Diclofenac or she gets an allergy. On the other hand I can take Diclofenac but my stomach bleeds on Ibuprophen.
Panadol does F all for any of us.
But yeah for sports injuries Diclofenac all the way for the win. For headaches probably Ibuprophen.

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Eating collagen does not directly increase collagen inside your body. Proteins are all broken down to their component amino acids before absorption can happen. Any protein will do the same job.

Still, eating collagen will boost levels specifically of the amino acids proline and glycine which may assist your body to make its own collagen a little. But the effect is marginal at best, and researchers have shown there is little benefit. Most ā€œstudiesā€ that do support collagen therapy are paid for by cosmetic and other industries that profit.

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Hmmm doesnā€™t collagen have the exact building blocks needed by your body toā€¦ erā€¦ build collagen? I mean, isnā€™t it better than just proteins?

Damnā€¦ I guess that if I ask if youā€™re sure youā€™ll just say yes haha. I have read that vitamin C promotes making collagenā€¦?

Yes, I will say yes. And vitamin C and the metals copper and zinc do also help collagen manufacture.

so eat your fruit and veggies and oysters and liverā€¦

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I see. I think Iā€™ll skip the liver though :rofl:

I sometimes have collagen enriched milk powder enriched in the hope of helping my shitty joints. I also used to eat a lot of chicken and beef noodles with tendon

Fruits and veggiesā€¦ Iā€™ve been neglecting that departmentā€¦

I went hiking in Wulai with a group of friends, we were descending and had reached a difficult section. People ahead of me were going quite slow and I was waiting for them for awhile. Saw a vine hanging down in front of me and thought I could grab onto it for support going down. But when I grabbed it it swung me to the outside, lost my balance and as I was afraid I might take a bad tumble if I let go so I put my full body weight onto my arm, doing a really bad Tarzan. Tendon snapped, and I fell down, fortunately made a good landing. The pain/shock was so bad I almost fainted, had to lie down for about half an hour before starting to hike again.
So yeah, thatā€™s the story. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the storyā€¦ Iā€™m going to read it a few more times to see if I understand how putting all your weight on the arm holding the vine that was taking you away would help you to stay safe xD

Doctorsā€™ stupidity here is baffling. Iā€™ve personally seen in several occasions how a second consultation was needed because the first doctor failed to see something obvious on the body or on an x-ray.

I slept the wrong way.

Actually, I was having a nightmare, fighting someone and threw a punchā€¦hitting the mattress.

When you are in recovery state Google climbers rice bucket exercises in YouTube, really good for recovery.

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