Anyone ever tear a bicep muscle at the elbow area?
mantis
Posts: 17,230
Suck I did last Friday. I was loading up a 77 inch Sony OLED tv into our van for an Install . My business partner was pulling the Tv off the Loading dock and I didn't get to the back of it in time. He also didn't wait for me to have my hands on it and he pulled it right off the loading dock. I reacted by trying to catch the TV so it didn't hit the ground. Well I managed to catch the Tv one handed as my other hand was reaching for the handle when he pulled it off the loading dock. The Tvz weighs about 100 lbs in the box and man did it hyper extend my arm. I felt the bicep muscle pop in my elbow joint on the top.
I went to ER and the did an x ray. The ER doctor thought I torn it in the elbow joint but I had to go to Orthorpedics to get an MRI. That took several days to get in there and that day was today. If you never had an MRI , I will tell you they suck. I didn't like that experience at all. I had to keep myself calm as I was in there for about 1/2 hour. Now I have a CD disc I have to now take tomorrow to get the final verdict what they are going to do. The Doctor that sent me to MRI think I'll need surgery. That also sucks.
So my question is if you did go through this how long did it take to fully heal and be able to use? How painful was th surgery afterwards? I never had surgery so I have no idea what I most likely getting into.
I'm kinda nervous.
I went to ER and the did an x ray. The ER doctor thought I torn it in the elbow joint but I had to go to Orthorpedics to get an MRI. That took several days to get in there and that day was today. If you never had an MRI , I will tell you they suck. I didn't like that experience at all. I had to keep myself calm as I was in there for about 1/2 hour. Now I have a CD disc I have to now take tomorrow to get the final verdict what they are going to do. The Doctor that sent me to MRI think I'll need surgery. That also sucks.
So my question is if you did go through this how long did it take to fully heal and be able to use? How painful was th surgery afterwards? I never had surgery so I have no idea what I most likely getting into.
I'm kinda nervous.
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
Comments
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First off, sorry to hear that this happened. Tearing muscles is never a pleasant thing.
That said, color me confused, as I have had probably 8 to 10 MRI's and all of them were a breeze. Getting on and off the table was the worst part for me. (Back issues)
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
I'm sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you heal quickly.
My MRI of my neck took 15 min., maybe 20. They made me very comfortable with a warm blanket and plenty of support around my head and neck.
The noisy bangs were weird but it was over pretty quick for me.
Maybe something was wrong with the machine or operators you had. Maybe not. I'm just guessing.
Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them. -
I had an MRI about 11 years ago, surgery after that. It was my right elbow. I tore the tendon away from the bone on the lower part of the elbow. The MRI did stink but the gal said the elbow was one of the worst parts of the body to get done. It took me about 4 months to heal with physical therapy and such. It still aches from time to time...Remember, when you're running from something, you're running to something...-me
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You big sissy! Go take your Flintstone vitamins and drink 6 beers, you'll be fiiine....
All I can reference is my bicep was found to be 3 strands from coming off my shoulder. I had already blown out my rotator cuff and rear shoulder area.
Mine was an 8 month recovery. That first 6 weeks was nothing I'd wish on anyone. Getting dressed was challenging to be frank. -
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You big sissy! Go take your Flintstone vitamins and drink 6 beers, you'll be fiiine....
All I can reference is my bicep was found to be 3 strands from coming off my shoulder. I had already blown out my rotator cuff and rear shoulder area.
Mine was an 8 month recovery. That first 6 weeks was nothing I'd wish on anyone. Getting dressed was challenging to be frank.
6 weeks of being someone else, hell of a surgery!- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
Tear a deltoid and that bicep is gonna feel like a cake walk.
The pain is intense and unrelenting to the point where it makes you want to vomit.
Only pain that I ever had that was worse was a radial fracture of a finger.
Think of a phone cord and your finger bone resembling that.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
Sorry to hear what happened to you. I worked with a fellow that tore his bicep in a motocross race and needed surgery. He had a bum limb for a while with his arm in a sling. But he was still able to function and even operate heavy equipment without missing any time from work. In my case torn ligaments was the most painful injury I've had. Far exceeding broken bones and dislocations.
I don't understand about getting worked up about an MRI. I've had maybe 6 or 8 of them and have never found them stressful. Sometimes I even doze off for a few minutes. Good luck to you in your surgery and recovery. -
So, I've had several stress injuries that ended up with tendon or muscle damage.
Everything from "turf toe" to torn muscles.
Healing time depends on how bad the injury is and how well it can stay immobilized. The "turf toe" took 10 weeks to heal because, well, I wouldn't stay off it. I'm dealing with a reinjury on that now too and while it doesn't hurt anymore and isn't swollen, it certainly is tight and hampers my mobility.
I've also had repetitive stress injuries on both arms (not at the same time) and on both interior and anterior sides of the joints (elbow and wrist) severely affecting digital dexterity and grip strength. All 3 times, it took 3-4 months to heal because I couldn't just not use my hands. I work on computers all day so I could never give my arms time to heal. The worst injury on my right arm had both anterior and interior flexor tendon damage. I got the injury finishing a home improvement project in September 2021 and it didn't actually get better until I took off on December 20th and didn't go back to work until, like, January 4th.
The deltoid tears and strains, they both feel the same because the deltoid controls how your arm is situated and when it's injured, it cannot locate your arm in it's joint and your rotator cuff wants to pull it out of alignment and stretches your injured deltoid constantly. Without a brace or a wrap holding your arm in it's socket and an immobilizing sling, it just aches and aches. Sleep is almost impossible. The worst deltoid tear I had went straight down the muscle like it was fileted. That took almost 6 months to get to the point where I could pick my arm up without pain. If I was able to immobilize it better than I was, the healing time would have been less but I lived by myself and it was a challenge to get any kind of wrap or sling on my arm effectively enough.
But surgery, it will potentially heal faster if it's only a partial detachment. A detachment doesn't actually heal and needs to be surgically secured so that the tissues can actually reach each other to actually heal. If there is a gap, they don't span the gap. Partial detachments don't always get operated on because a significant part of the attachment point is remaining and physical therapy can help restore the majority of function over time with little impact to quality of life. If the detachment is too severe, though, surgery is required. The recovery time is going to be the healing process from surgery and then physical therapy to help restore strength and flexibility in a manner and at a pace that doesn't risk reinjury.
Any way you cut it, you are going to be restricted from lifting heavy things. It will impact your ability to install systems at customer locations. The longer you can go with the injury immobilized after the verdict on surgery, the faster the healing will go.
Inflammation is your enemy here because it will stretch things which hampers healing. I've found that the pain relief aspect doesn't really touch it when the injury is fresh. Alternating ice to control inflammation and heat to relax the injured muscles goes a long way. Additionally, get a muscle pain relief product that uses methyl salicylate (aka: BENGAY). There's a few different products out there that use it in their cocktail of active ingredients but methyl salicylate is the most effective at actual pain relief. They are not sure why it works at pain relief so well but a study done at MIT indicated that it activates the neuron receptor that keeps minor pain signals in the brain from communicating with the spine. So it interrupts pain receptors and stops you feeling the pain because the pain signal never reaches your brain. So if the pain signal isn't getting to where it needs to, you body doesn't create the nerve situation that causes the pain. It appears that methyl salicylate pretty much runs interference on pain in the nervous system by temporarily clogging up the pain receptors. That can not only help with pain but it will help reduce inflammation too.
Everybody makes jokes about BENGAY but when I've had severely painful injuries, BENGAY was the only way I was able to get any sleep. The reduction in inflammation and the relaxation your body goes through when you sleep is critical to cutting healing time. So let people laugh, you want to get back to work so use every tool available to you to do that.
Do what the doctor says, ask questions about what you can do to help things along and ask if there's good off-the-shelf or over-the-counter products that can help and don't need prescriptions. Healing time will depend on a number of factors and the doctor is going to give you a time range. The level attention you give to your own care will help keep that healing time at the shorter end of that range.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
The repair for my bicep was to cut the remaining tendon threads and drill a hole in my humerous, pull the bicep tendon through the hole and screw it to the backside of the humerous. The bone will heal shut and is actually (supposedly) stronger than the attachment you're born with. The entire fix was to my rear Deltoid, Rotator cuff and and upper bicep and yes @Jstas is correct it is a very painful recovery. The therapist shaking and stretching my shoulder area had me in tears. The best part was the ice vest they put on after all the torture.
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Reading all of these horror stories, it becomes obvious why some of you seem to cultivate such cranky online personas. 😜Alea jacta est!
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I've had several MRI's since 2008. What do you mean you have a CD? You don't know the results yet? Here they send the MRI results electronically, at least since 2008. I've always been able to see the results online within a few hours.
Usually they will want the injured arm in a sling for 6 weeks, and weight restrictions after ward. I hope you made a workers comp claim. You will need it. -
Dang sorry to hear that mantis.
I can’t share any experience as far as your bicep but I can share a similar.
Hamstrung tore lose from my arse and went down my leg.
They grabbed it, drilled some anchors then reattached.
The worse part was actually when it happened. There was more pain then than anything after.
The surgery was a piece o cake, took a nap then woke up.
For you I hope your recovery was as easy as mine.
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The repair for my bicep was to cut the remaining tendon threads and drill a hole in my humerous, pull the bicep tendon through the hole and screw it to the backside of the humerous. The bone will heal shut and is actually (supposedly) stronger than the attachment you're born with. The entire fix was to my rear Deltoid, Rotator cuff and and upper bicep and yes @Jstas is correct it is a very painful recovery. The therapist shaking and stretching my shoulder area had me in tears. The best part was the ice vest they put on after all the torture.
I'm currently at week 3 since my rotator cuff and upper bicep were both re-attached. It is something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Well, maybe I would.
The pain so far has been manageable but sleeping and boredom have both been the worst parts. Hoping it doesn't take 8 months to recover but from what I'm reading it's definitely a long road! -
Danm, that one bad.
mantis, don’t read the above.
Never mind… -
First off, sorry to hear that this happened. Tearing muscles is never a pleasant thing.
That said, color me confused, as I have had probably 8 to 10 MRI's and all of them were a breeze. Getting on and off the table was the worst part for me. (Back issues)
Tom
It was almost touching my face. It was a square interior MRI model not the typical round ones you see. So it was bigger inside but felt closer to you. I just closed my eyes and listened to music. Still suckedDan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
I'm sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you heal quickly.
My MRI of my neck took 15 min., maybe 20. They made me very comfortable with a warm blanket and plenty of support around my head and neck.
The noisy bangs were weird but it was over pretty quick for me.
Maybe something was wrong with the machine or operators you had. Maybe not. I'm just guessing.
I had to just mentally calm myself as I didn't like being in there. Yes it banged and made all kinds of sounds but I counted in my head to pass the time.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
I had an MRI about 11 years ago, surgery after that. It was my right elbow. I tore the tendon away from the bone on the lower part of the elbow. The MRI did stink but the gal said the elbow was one of the worst parts of the body to get done. It took me about 4 months to heal with physical therapy and such. It still aches from time to time...
Sorry to hear that. Mine is on top the bicep muscle. It's 6 months for me. 3 months when I can get out of the splint thing I have to wear. I'm just happy I have a Theater chair to sleep in. Not the biggest fan of sleeping in a chair but it's electric and has 2 cup holders. I should be okDan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
You big sissy! Go take your Flintstone vitamins and drink 6 beers, you'll be fiiine....
All I can reference is my bicep was found to be 3 strands from coming off my shoulder. I had already blown out my rotator cuff and rear shoulder area.
Mine was an 8 month recovery. That first 6 weeks was nothing I'd wish on anyone. Getting dressed was challenging to be frank.
I'm already having the difficulty of getting dressed eating showering, sleeping as I'm left handed and that's the one I hurt. It really sucks actually.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
I'm currently at week 3 since my rotator cuff and upper bicep were both re-attached. It is something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Well, maybe I would.
The pain so far has been manageable but sleeping and boredom have both been the worst parts. Hoping it doesn't take 8 months to recover but from what I'm reading it's definitely a long road!
I'm so sorry to hear about this. I don't wish this on anyone . I hope you have a speedy recovery. Mine is supposed to take 6 months total before I'm back to lifting weights and getting 1100% of my strength back.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Mine was an 8 month recovery. That first 6 weeks was nothing I'd wish on anyone. Getting dressed was challenging to be frank.
So were you 100% after 8 months with no lasting issues?
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I'm so sorry to hear about this. I don't wish this on anyone . I hope you have a speedy recovery. Mine is supposed to take 6 months total before I'm back to lifting weights and getting 1100% of my strength back.
Yeah I'm figuring a minimum 6 months also. Wish I enjoyed reading or something but everything I like doing requires 2 working arms. Happy for my Polks though! Wishing you a speedy recovery as well!
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So were you 100% after 8 months with no lasting issues?
Oh h3ll no! It took 2 yrs before I could throw a ball on that side without major pain. Thank God I'm ambidextrous and can throw with either arm.
Could I do my job Yes! Could I lift Yes but I still had some pain and had to be very careful. I also had a lot more work done than you did from what I read. It takes time don't rush it, don't try to push it, you'll get better.
Because of the screws back at my shoulder blade holding the deltoid muscle on Yes it took well over a year and a half before I could lay on my back comfortably and I didn't wake up in the middle of the night in pain after rolling onto it sleeping. 8 yrs out I'm fine. -
Reading all of these horror stories, it becomes obvious why some of you seem to cultivate such cranky online personas. 😜
Well, when you're a creampuff that's never done an honest day's of labor in your life, one can see how arrogant statements like that will just totally endear you to others. The dismissiveness with which you've approached others trying to help someone through their own experience only shows how out of touch you actually are.
Dude is injured and cannot do what he does for a living because of it and it's due to the impatient, short-sightedness of a fellow employee and that honestly sucks. Being in that position myself in the past, I know all to well the anxiety from the uncertainty that comes from it. This is not a time for throwing personal barbs at people and trying to laugh it off as jokes.
Grow up.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
Reading all of these horror stories, it becomes obvious why some of you seem to cultivate such cranky online personas. 😜
tell us how you strained your pinky lifting your tea cup that morning while reading the Wall Street Journal...Gustard X26 Pro DAC
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There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus -
“ Well, when you're a creampuff that's never done an honest day's of labor in your life, one can see how arrogant statements like that will just totally endear you to others.”
I’ll give that my two thumbs up….
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Yeah man, incorrect lifting will rip you a new one in a heartbeat, not that you had a choice, it sounds like you reacted to a bonehead move on the opposite end of the TV.
Sorry to hear about the result....coming from someone that has ripped, torn and broken several parts of the anatomy, I'd suggest getting the surgery, follow medical advice to a T, and don't hesitate on the physical therapy. Patience is going to be key, everyone heals differently.....day by day my friend.Source: BRP Panasonic UB9000, CDP Emotiva ERC3 - Display: LG OLED EVO 83 C3 - Pre/Pro: Marantz 8802A - Amplification: Emotiva XPA-DR3, XPA-2 x 2, XPA-6, Speakers, Mains/2ch-Focal Kanta No2's, C-LSiM706, S-702F/X, RS-RTiA9's, WS-RTiA9's, FH-RTiA3's, Subs - Epik Empire x 2
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Hey Dan,
I'm sorry to hear about your injury. Hopefully your recovery is under way & your back on your feet quickly. Getting old sucks...
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Yeah man, incorrect lifting will rip you a new one in a heartbeat, not that you had a choice, it sounds like you reacted to a bonehead move on the opposite end of the TV.
Sorry to hear about the result....coming from someone that has ripped, torn and broken several parts of the anatomy, I'd suggest getting the surgery, follow medical advice to a T, and don't hesitate on the physical therapy. Patience is going to be key, everyone heals differently.....day by day my friend.
Thanks man,
its the day after surgery. It went well they did a great job from beginning to end with taking care of me. I'm very happy with at least that part.
So the issues are lots of pain and discomfort. My arm is hot in this 1/2 cast wrapped thing they put on my arm.
The other thing is how the hell do you get a shirt on? My wife ordered me a post surgery shirt that buttons on both sides.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
The other thing is how the hell do you get a shirt on?