Timeline of changes in your body - 9 months after surgery

-

Reaching the 9th month life quality gets improved a lot.

Elbow flexion is pretty good at this point. I was able to do 5 KG weights easily for biceps, and 3 KG weights for brachiallis.

Arm abduction was not close to M3, but a good range of motion was achieved. A slight increase in muscle density could be felt in the deltoid.

By the 8th month I started cycling again. Not on a road bike like before, but on a comfortable, stable and more upright city bike.

Swimming became an everyday thing for me since the 7th month. I believe it helps with the recovery, since in the water you can easily move the arm it is more practical to get the muscles going. I developed a set of exercises that will be shared in a separate post.

Long walks of more than 10 KM with minimal arm support were comfortable.

The affected arm becomes of use for the day to day. At that time I opened doors with it, carried light objects, used it to get dressed etc. I was occasionally able to snack and reposition my specs with it. I mention "occasionally" because not every day was the same, sometimes depends on how tired the arm is at that moment. Moreover, I didn't seem to maintain a constant range of motion for a prolonged time - I believe the muscle was getting easily tired.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Timeline of changes in your body - 21 months after surgery

-
  Soon it will be two years since the surgery. Arm movement continues to improve, and feels like soon enough it would allow raise on a more natural motion. Elbow flexion is improving as well, still not forcing it too hard tho. Doing planks is possible again, and sometimes I can throw in a half-way push-up. I'm still doing daily exercises, and functional daily usage of the arm is now more comfortable. Muscle mass keep increasing for all the muscles. The biceps it is still sensible when being pressed. Hypersensitivity seems to be fading, but at a very slow rate. The elbow flexion still looks a bit crooked. Not sure if I can get it straight on my own, but anyway it is a small issue. Incredibly happy with the progress :)
Read more

Timeline of changes in your body - 3 years and 3 months after the surgery

-
I'm changing a bit the exercises. I usually work the lateral or front raise, now I'm trying to engage more the rear deltoid, supra and infra. The doctor recommended me to try badminton to improve arm stability, I think I would be really bad at it at this moment so I'm trying some exercises with a soft ball against the wall. I've quickly noticed an improvement. I think I'll try badminton or some racket game soon. As for now, I managed to do my first real push-up \o/ it was only one, but that's a start :) I'm actually OK doing planks, I guess I have not been exercising the triceps as I should, so I still have some pending work there.
Read more

Timeline of changes in your body - 27 months after surgery

-
Passed the 2 years mark, and very happy to see improvements. Strength is increasing, muscle mass too. From an outside viewer it appears my BPI arm is a healthy strong arm. Hypersensitivity still there. I recently spoke to an old friend whose partner got into a motorcycle accident and had a nerve injury in the leg. Several years later the hypersensitivity still there for that person, I guess this part takes a bit longer to heal. Life goes on as usual. I'm moving apartment next week and had to do a lot of physical movement, including a very tiring round of washing curtains. I was surprise to have muscle soreness on the BPI arm the day after, I guess that's a very good sign. I continue with my exercise routine, and I noticed I developed a bit of bad posture when raising the arm. I suspect this caused me to have a mild pull on the sciatica nerve last December, from what I'm still recovering too. I expect this will improve as it gets easier to raise the arm. The feeling I have w
Read more