Broken Bones, Shoulder Breaks

If you have broken bones, it’s a painful, frustrating and often slow process to recovery. Luckily, there are SO many things that can help speed up the journey of healing.

Broken Shoulder or Humerus (SO not funny!) near the shoulder joint.

This is one of the most painful breaks as it is surrounded by quite large muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerve supply contributing to the excruciating pain here. It’s not possible to plaster this area so often you are given a collar and cuff sling to hold the whole arm as still as possible.

Broken bones do begin to heal very quickly but need to be kept still - especially the first 2 weeks - for the bone to knit without being moved out of place. Keeping this joint still for usually 6 weeks creates other issues. Scar tissue begins to form and muscles begin wasting after 3-4 days. You may well have damaged ligaments and tendons as well. This is why this injury is a long road to recovery. Usually it takes 12-18 months to have full use of your shoulder.

Pain Relief

You may be given pain relief such as Endone or Oxycontin which is a crazy strong drug but if it gets you over the initial period, we can certainly clear that drug out of your body later. It’s ok to take these short term, as pain can be unbearable, making the whole injury even more traumatic.

If you are someone who can’t stop doing things, it’s important not to push yourself just because you are on painkillers and you aren’t feeling the pain. This can cause more injury to your shoulder so you will need to keep it still, especially for the first 2 weeks.

Pain is a really good message that what you are doing is causing pain and so if it feels better being completely still then that’s what your body needs right now.

You can take the Homeopathic remedies (mentioned below) alongside the pain medication as they won’t interfere with each other. With the right remedies you will most likely find you either don’t need any other pain relief or much less than without these wonderful remedies.

We can make up your pain killer in to a Homeopathic remedy and you can take this to remove the horrible effects. You can pretty much feel it taking away the yuk feeling these drugs cause.

Remedies to the rescue

We are so very lucky to have the gift of Homeopathy for broken bones and injures surrounding tissue. The first remedy to begin with is Arnica. This remedy helps with shock to the body and helps the healing process internally. Other remedies you may need, depending on symptoms include Bryonia, Rhus tox, Ruta grav, Rhododendron, Hypericum and there may well be a more specific individual remedy you might need. I would always recommend alternating with Arnica.

You may also need something for emotional shock, grief or what it is you are experiencing.

Symphytum is great for helping bones to knit but please make sure the bone is well aligned before beginning this one or the bone will knit faster but out of place, potentially causing you more issues. Later on you will most likely need Thiosinamine to help resolve scar tissue that can develop in soft tissue around the break and inside the joints, contributing to ‘frozen shoulder’.

Tissue salts such as Calc phos and Calc fluor are also really beneficial for healing the bone and surrounding tissue. These you can spray or chew throughout the day.

There are lots of nutritional supplements, such as Vitamin C, Magnesium, Calcium and Vitamin D & K and probably a few more that you may need individually.

Rehab, Rehab, Rehab

While recovering, you may be told you can lift your arm up moving the elbow joint and sideways. This is really important to do so you don’t lose movement in the elbow. This will really get you back on track a lot faster.

I can’t stress this enough. Once the orthopaedics have given you the all clear to begin rehab, this is what will help you get that shoulder back and moving. It’s not an easy road and it’s painful - just when you feel you’re getting some of your life back - but it’s SO important to do.

Without rehab, some people cannot move their arm passed their shoulder, which is actually very very common. This is not something that is easy to fix 6 months down the track and often people never get that range back. Find a good Osteopath, Physio or exercise rehab person and just stick with it.

It usually takes 6 months to get a shoulder back to 80% WITH rehab. The last 20% can take another 6 months or more.

Remedies will help make rehab easier and less painful so you don’t have to suffer too much.

Ideally, either read which remedies you feel will help but seeing a Homeopath will help you get to the right remedies a lot faster. You will need to continue remedies for probably a year to support the healing.

Taking the remedies can really speed up healing where a shoulder can reach 80% in 3 months which is quite an amazing achievement! This will only happen with rehab alongside.

Hopefully you never break bones but if you do, maybe something here can help you on your healing journey. Please reach out if you need more individualised help with broken bones.