Messed up my elbow?
 

Yeah probably not the place to ask..but...

Just yesterday I took a fairly nasty tumble from my mountain bike on a paved surface...while going pretty damn fast. (my jacket has burn marks..). I flew of the left side of my bike, landed on my side and tumbled. (No before anyone asks, I was wearing NO saftey equipment, I have a ton of it at home and wear it when REALLY mountian biking, this was more of a fun workout with friends)

The impact was all on my left side, I managed to bruise my hip and take off quite a bit of skin from my left hand.(Nothing some medical glue can't help)

None of these bug me, my elbow is really annoying me though. I have lost the ability to fully flex it nor am I able to hold anything heavier than a coke can in my hand without discomfort.(I can't even bring the damn can up to my face to drink from it). I literally had trouble putting my pants on this morning.

There is no visible swelling - there was some yesterday but I put ice on it for most of the day and it seems to have gone away.

So in other words all I have is rather painful loss of motion.

Is this something I should see the doctor about or will it go away? At 21 I've only broken a bone once and that was a finger during soccer (got kicked in it). I am worried about possible fractures etc. (It was a very nasty fall..)

Is this something that I should be running to my doctor about? Usually I heal very fast...

Any help will be greatly appreciated

I think this injury, like most serious medical problems, will go away if given the proper 2 - 10 years of ignoring the pain and refusing to see the doctor.

Go to the ER, wait 5 hours, they'll see ya for 5 minutes, you go home with some pain killers. 5 days later you'll get a bill for 5,000 dollars.


Bullshit ain't it!?

Or you could go see your physician. It doesn't sound broken. In my extensive experience (5 times) with broken arms, I would think you would have already seen the doctor, driven there by the pain.

But it might be a good idea to get it looked at. I would.

Do you have insurance?

Well I got insurance so the $10 copay isn't such a big deal, the fact that I'll have to miss work is.

mwbEEf, I find your posting odd. Are you implying that I should go see a doctor about every injury I've had?

That'd kinda take long, I've fallen off my bike countless times, and healed just fine countless times.

I'm just not sure if it's a bone injury or just some sore tissue that's causing the loss of movment.

If you miss work while you have an injury and they don't pay you.... its called worker's comp.

He's talking about a day, not a year, r9.

Don't think I get that. Unless I get injured at work. I hardly consider mountain biking a work related injury.

No. He's stated pretty clearly that you shouldn't.

Sorry, he didn't say.
One day won't kill you FNF!

I would just make an appt w/ an orthopaedic surgeon for an exam and xray. I dislocated my shoulder in '89 and didn't get any medical attention and have had shoulder problems ever since.

Bottom line: Why NOT go to the doctor. You can make up the missed work time if its that critical.

One day = Money. I like money.

I got no sick days...nothing of that sort.

Nah, I am in agreement with you that would take up far too much time. I'd probably give it a week or so, and if the Coke can is still pretty much where the threshold of pain lies, I'd head in to the doctor's.

One of the dangers of untreated injuries to joints is the greater liability you'll have to future complications from arthritis. Take it from someone who knows...get it looked at. In the meantime, take 600-800 mg of ibuprofen three times per day, ice it on a semi-regular schedule, and work it through a simple range of motion.

If the pain isn't greatly diminished by the ibuprofen regimen, you definitely need to get it looked at. You could have a bone chip, tendon brusing, an outright fracture. There's no limit to damage that can be done to a joint. They're complex machines and replacement parts are unreasonably expensive.