Back on May 22nd, I was playing a friendly, self-feed game during a "Fundamentals" adult tennis clinc at my local racquet club. The player I was playing is a pretty good player so I was running down balls and generally playing smart, or trying to, rather then just smacking winners. I was down 2-3 (playing till 7) and was in the middle of a good point when he lobbed me, or at least I think he did as details of what happened are hazy. I remember being at the net running back towards the backdrop of the indoor court, planting my right foot and then hitting a two-handed back hand through the ball, with my left leg swinging around to face the net.... then all of a sudden momentem kept me going backwards. I do remember skidding off my heels twice and the third time I skidded I started falling with my upper body hitting the backdrop with a collision to either a concrete wall or a steel beam, or both... so I threw my arms out to avoid either!
Thirty seconds later, I'm on my back, facing the the wall knowing full well that wasn't a good fall. During the fall and subsequent tumble I was pretty sure I saw my left arm in 3 different pieces flopping through the air, so I tried to move my
left arm and felt a pain I've never felt before. At this point Paul Prior, the head tennis pro, who was covering this class for the regular pro called over if I was alright.... most definitely not. :(
About 15 minutes later, I was in the SUV of a very nice friend from the class drove me to the ER and I began my 4 week path to today...
As you can see my arm is in three pieces, the x-ray confirmed it was broken at the wrist and elbow. However, at this point no-one in the E.R. was telling me squat. Fortunately, I was happy after an hour or so of being at the E.R. because I finally got a dose of Morphine to relieve the pain but I was still holding my arm to my stomach as you can tell in the picture.
I had a splint put on and was taken from the ER to a shared room and spent the night. The next morning I went into surgery at 9:00 AM and after getting back to the room at 5:00 PM found out I was in surgery for 4 long hours and then spent the rest of the time in recovery, slowing regaining conscious. May 23rd was the shortest day of my life it seems.
I was sent home Saturday morning after the blood had drained and I was considered stable. I believe this was taken the following Tuesday after my accident, that entire week was blurry as I spent the entire time laying down and doing what I could for work in that position to allow my arm to drain and let the swelling come down. As you can see my arm is massive, mostly because of swelling but also partly due to the splint I had on.
As for my movement, here is what I can do - without any weight of course. Not being able to life more then 2 lbs stinks since that means I can't drive or do anything else.
I've been in recovery since my first doctors appointment on June 2nd and according to my PT I'm making great progress. I can almost extend my arm straight out and my wrist is completely mobile, however I'm barely able to move my arm from 90 degrees towards my shoulder. I'm told they had to cut my tricep to repair the elbow and then they put a screw with a wire attached to bring the muscle back into place... I'm guessing it's going to be a few weeks until it wants to work again.
Lastly, people love x-rays!
At my first doctors appointment they took an xray of my elbow, but not my wrist, the nurse forgot... oh well. My injury stats are:
- 35 staples
- 3 plates, 2 arm + 1 wrist
- ~25 screws
