DS fractured arm today. Question about swimming.

[Doodle2U]

Not long back from A&E. DS age 7, has fractured his elbow.

Thing is, he has just won a place at a swimming club and swimming is his Big Thang! He doesn't like footie etc and his confidence was really low until he got on the swim team. His confidence has soard and he's only been there three weeks.

Question:- there is a chance his elbow will need to be re-broken - is this going to affect his ability to swim at a competitive level at a later date. Not talking about the Olympics here - just local gala competitions etc.

It's his birthday tomorrow too

from doing lots of comp swimming but thankfully no broken bones other than a toe - i would think that swimming, once he's free from plaster etc, would do the damaged elbow quite a lot of good.
poor doodleboy.

I hope so Giggle.

I have heard of the waterproof covers Cali - funnily enough, from Mumsnet and only in the last week or so!

Swimming isn't top of MY worry list right now, but it IS top of his.

Crashed car in A&E car park as well - and it was my stupid fault. Fortunately, no one hurt and the guy I hit was brilliant. DS was shaken up from that too

First thing he said when they told us it was fractured - "Will I be rubbish at swimming now, as well Mummy?"

reassure him heaps, swimming is the best exercise for rehab on injured joints. lots of mobility and the arm will be supported by the water. I'm not sayin that it won't hurt [sorry] but it will get him a good range of movement and strength back. At 7yrs he should mend well anyway, and tis crap that he might have to have it broken again - but just take all the medics advice and put up with it for now. Physio's will love him for swimming his way to fitness.

Thanks Giggle,

He didn't mention it this morning. Too busy trying to open his presents, one handed. His younger sister was beyond annoying and kept ripping everything open before he had chance to get to it. Every present seemed to require two hands to play with as well - even the sodding Rubik's Cube he's been coveting for months!

Sent him off to school all strapped up and he started to worry in case he needs a poo - how will he wipe his bum?, how will he open his work box? How will he open his lunch box? How will he take his jumper off if he gets too hot?. Still, least his new set of concerns has put swimming to the back of his mind for now!

Agree with gigglewich that swimming is a good way to regain strength and mobility. Unless it's a very bad break everything should get back to normal and after a few months training he should be back to competition fitness. Occasionally after a very bad break you don't get full mobility back and that can affect swimming performance. We have one child at our swimming club who smashed her elbow up very badly and needed a whole series of operations on it and now has restricted use of that arm. It has affected her swimming, but she has still competed for the club since . I should stress that a break of that severity is very rare (I believe even the consultants were saying it was in the worst 3 they'd ever encountered), I suspect your ds will be back to normal before too long - but the consultant will be able to best advise.

ah theres so much to worry about.i guess once the 1st day is out the way you'll get the answers to your questions.its a long day when u feel anxious for them.my 11 yr old had spiral fractions of bones in hand after falling over in wet when fire alarm was set off.she'd just started secondary school and although she's older i worried about stuff too.she had to leave all the clubs like netball and hockey till it was better.it took 6 wks to be pretty much back to normal...no contact stuff straight away...but you'd never know now.soon it was all about getting your sling or cast drawn on or signed and she still keeps signed slings in a draw somewhere...i was worried she'd get into embarrassing situations because she couldn't use her right hand to do trousers for toilet etc but she managed fine.

limbo

Not sure if can swim in them, more for showering?

My dd (6 at the time) broke her arm badly enough to have surgery on it just before we went on holiday last summer. We got a limbo, and she was able to splash around in the pool on holiday, with the heavy arm propped up on an inflatable pillow! She couldn't swim properly because the weight of the cast. He won't be able to join in swim club for a while, but it might be fun to take him to splosh about at the pool.

8 months on, she is completely fine, and I'm sure your boy will make a good recovery too. Happy birthday to him!

I broke my elbow 10 years ago and they just put it in a sling and said if it is put in to plaster it may cease, you've got to keep moving it [ouch]

I had physio on it to gain full mobility after it had healed and tis now fine. I don't see why it should hinder his swimming long term.

My ds used a protectacast here last year when he broke his wrist. Mainly for just splashing about the pool.

Thanks for replies.

I'm liking the look of these waterproof covers - thanks for linking.

It's the longer term implications for swimming - his 'reach' (I think it's called) when doing front & back stroke. Will he be able to extend his arm.

By the sounds of some of your replies, he couldn't have chosen a better sport for helping repair his arm and I've taken heart in that a number of replies have had similar injuries and are fine now.

Fingers crossed.

He seems to have managed at school OK today but he hadn't been to the loo all day!

if it makes you (and him) feel any better, one of the boys at ds' swimming club broke his arm playing football last year - 6 months later he was winning loads of medals in his age group at the borough championships and is now a county champion as well

after a while (can't remember exactly how long) he went training but just concentrated on his legs (using kick board) so he didn't lose too much fitness

and even if it came to the worst and the arm is permanently affected, he could still have a swimming career - a boy at ds' school only has full use of one arm and he's a fab swimmer - he competes in disability galas and does really well

There is a lot of breakages going - my DS1 (yr6) broke his arm just above the elbow last Wednesday night.

Guitar lessons, cricket, after school clubs have had to stop for the time being.

Not sure yet how long his pot will be on for - we have an appointment on Thursday and hopefully they will be able to tell us more.