Arm injury, any advice on how to get movement back?

[maggiso]

Hi! I injured my wrist elbow and shoulder in a fall from the stairs. I have only limited movement and cannot fully bend my elbow or fully straighten it ( or raise my arm properly so cannot reach my face etc)My Gp said not to do exercises until the bruising had mostly gone, but did not say what exercises to do. Now the worst of the bruising and swelling is gone ( 3 weeks) can any one point me to a website that could suggest things. I have kept moving as much as my arm has allowed.I am worried I will never get the movement back. It will be several weeks before I can get a non urgent appointment to see my Gp again and I need to get back to work ( and be able to write again) Any ideas?

You really need to see a proper physiotherapist. If there are no fractures then it should be possible to get the movement back but this sounds pretty extreme for no fractures? I had a serious arm injury and can no longer straighten or bend my arm completely - but it was a lot worse and I had to work a lot with physiotherapists to get to this point. Swimming is also meant to be good!

Second finding a good physiotherapist.

Thank you. I will see if I can self refer. I think I tore several muscles, but xray of my lower arm showed no fractures.

Self referring normally takes a couple of weeks. Private appointment might be around £30.

OP, I would get a GP appointment ASAP - they may not even need to see you to refer you on to physio/musculoskeletal for assessment at least. Does your GP surgery not have any phone appointments? And I would say if you can't work it is urgent. As my GP freely admitted, they are not the experts on this stuff. I am recovering from a shoulder injury and the exercises are very specific and you need to be sure you are doing them properly with good form.

Thanks, I’ll see about a telephone appointment to request muscoskeltal assessment. I hope to go back to work soon, but need to be able to write legibly and use fine equipment with both hands.