The Injury that Changed my Life

In my first post I told that my illness skyrocketed  after I was injured. In this post, I will explain my injury.

In 2011 I severed my elbow and broke my wrist. I lost all feeling in that arm. It became swollen to about 3 times it's normal size.
The injury happened at 1pm. I went to a clinic nearby, the doctor there told me I needed to find a neurosurgeon because of possible nerve damage. Since that doctor decided he wasn't qualified to treat my injury, all he could give me for the pain was extra strong Tylenol. A severed bone and a broken wrist...yea that Tylenol was a joke.

I was admitted to the hospital later that afternoon. A doctor checked out my X-Rays and told me  for sure he couldn't just set the bone. It would take surgery...
It was so late in the day already, surgery had to wait until the morning. I was finally given morphine at 10 pm that night. Nine hours I was in pain with no end. I was knocked out when the pain was finally under control. Falling asleep after this was great, especially considering I am a chronic insomniac and usually sleep is not that easy to accomplish.

The next morning I was woken up for surgery. They told me it would be short and I would be back soon. Easy right? I was just glad they were about to let me go back to sleep.

Next I was taken to the operating room. The anesthesiologist started her job and told me to count back from 100. I made it to 92 fine, kinda started waffling... and then she told me to keep counting. I ended at 89 when I finally went out. This was about 7-7:30 am. I couldn't wake up until 4:30 in the afternoon. When I did finally wake up, it was sudden. I was wide awake.

     This was odd for me. I normally only slept a few hours a night...I had just slept through the night(not well but I did) and then again through half the day. Where did this come from?! I was supposed to be knocked out half an hour.

I had the cast on for 9 weeks. The cast started a few inches past my shoulder all the way down to cover half of my hand.
A few weeks after getting the cast off I started physical therapy. 9 weeks in a cast, I could hardly use my arm. No strength at all, couldn't even hold a pen. I still had pins and needles in my hands and fingers. My elbow could hardly move, my wrist bent downward somewhat, and my thumb and pointer finger were paralyzed. (even today I have not regained 100% of the feeling in my hand)

I hated it. I have never hated something this much ever before. It was so painful. It hurt more than the injury itself most sessions.
I followed their regime for six months. I gained some mobility back in my elbow and I could bend my wrist downward.
I went back to the doctor for him to check my progress. He looked at my arm and said "You can feed yourself now with that arm. You don't need anymore physical therapy. Good luck"
I was absolutely floored. I was 13, my arm after six months moved enough for me to feed myself so good enough.
My wrist didn't even move upward. I could flex my hand down, the highest I could move it was even with my arm. My elbow wasn't much better. I could not even come close to fully extend it or touch my shoulder, though I could now bend all of my fingers.

13 years old and less than half of my normal arm function was "Good enough"

I moved on and spoke to my ND. To my surprise they had answers for me. They use a device that emits far infrared laser, it is used to speed healing.

I would go to the ND twice weekly and they would use the laser coupled with massage and another device called a "precusor" from my shoulder to the tip of my fingers. In two months my arm was 95% normal and my strength was returning to normal. It wasn't painful and the results were astounding, after each visit I could see that my arm had improved.

After these two months with the ND with laser therapy were up, I was officially done with anymore treatment on my arm. This whole deal with my broken arm is what caused my LD to go out of control and land me where I am today.