No! You Can't Do Anything!

This morning I had my appointment with the orthopedist to have him look at my arm and let me know what sort of damage (if any) I've suffered. First he had me move my arm around and he poked and prodded my arm and asked about 20 times, "does this hurt?" Generally the answer was no. What really hurts my arm is trying to straighten it completely or completely bending my elbow. I also seem to have some pain in my forearm when I turn it to the side, although that also hurts my elbow.

After some more moving and poking and prodding, he brought me over to the x-ray room and took some x-rays of my arm and elbow. He said that my forearm isn't broken, although he could see where I had broken my arm twice before (and I could see them too!). He also pointed out that at some point I had broken a bone in my hand, which I never knew about. He said that he couldn't see anything on my elbow, but it's a really hard spot to x-ray and that he wanted to send me to get an MRI to make sure that nothing was broken.

We then went back to the regular exam room and he gave me a wrist brace to wear instead of the sling I had been sporting. He said it would keep my arm more stable and it's important to keep your elbow moving, even if it is broken. He also mentioned that even if my elbow is broken they won't cast it because elbows can get too stiff in casts and they will generally heal on their own. Once he said that, I wondered what difference it would really make if it's broken or not if the treatment is basically the same.

Since I'm itching to do something athletic, I asked if I could go swimming. His immediate reaction was, "NO! You can't do anything until we know the results of the MRI! Then we can discuss your options". Sigh. I'm a bit bummed out by this, even though I'm not surprised. Luckily, I got an appointment for the MRI tomorrow morning at 7:15, so hopefully that means that I won't have to wait too much longer to know what's really wrong with me.