Not so humerus (eh well it is now)

 This would the left elbow.  Notice anything that may be different about it?  There is a pin in the humerus.  Although you may not be able to see it well in this picture, the humerus was chipped off and what was left connected to the elbow joint was hanging on by the width of a piece of yarn.  How do I know this from this picture?  Truth is, I can't even tell either.  This is my elbow.  I broke it in a wrestling match in eighth grade, and it friggin hurt.  This image is just a good look at the pin.
      But take a look at the picture below, and you'll see a better look at the injury.

     In this x-ray mid way through the pin, you may notice a crack in the bone where that piece of bone had chipped off completely. But, now look at the connection to the joint, and you'll notice a thin piece of the unclipped humerus still connected to the joint.








     

   










      My elbow was a displacement fracture because of the fact that the bone had been completely removed from its' original position, and then chipped as well too add to the damage.  When the end of the bone had been chipped off, the doctor said that hopefully the body will either reattach the chip, or get rid of it.  Instead, that chip floated into my elbow joint and got jammed in there.  This prevented me from getting my elbow to move out all the way.  So off to denver I went, twice before I got surgery done.  They ended up bolting that chip back to the elbow and letting the osteoblasts get to work and glue that chip back on to where it belongs.
      Once that was all said and done, the therapy and healing stages took place.  My elbow was so swollen that my friends would push there fingers into my skin and it would leave a crater.  The swelling occurred because of the torn blood vessels that were in my now newly repaired humerus.  It was swollen because it was providing new ground to now start connecting to its' self.  The swelling then started to go down leading to the new blood vessels to be formed and start getting blood flow to that chip of humerus bone.  Trabeculae (spongy type of bone)  then forms between the chip and the humerus in the second to last step to complete healing.  The newly formed border, is now solid bone and the osteoblast cells go to work and get rid of any excess bone that may have been left.  Now, I wrestle, lift, work laborious jobs, and walk on my hands perfectly normal.