Decision??????

[luv2ride94]

I went back to the doctor for my elbow and he said the only thing left that he can do is surgery or rebreak through hopefully just the scar tissue. Or i can learn to live with it the way that it is... I don't know what to do really. My parents and family want me to decide mostly b/c i'm the one that has to live with it I agree but big decision since im only 12.... Have any of you had surgery of this type or elbow surgery?? I can use it the way that it is but it makes things hard and I don't think i will ever be able to swim the way that i did before and swimming is everything to me and im still not even allowed to ride with it the way that it is. Anyways if anyone has any thoughts or ideas send them this way PLEASE!!

[silver]

Awww.....I'm so sorry to hear that. this is something that only you can decide. We can listen as you "talk" through the options, but we can't tell you the right decision to make. What do you feel in your heart?

[light_sabe_r]

luv2ride this is a BIG decision. And a scary one too. Amazing that you've been given this choice and you're 12. ^_^

the BEST thing you can do right now is GET EDUCATED. Find out EVERYTHING about the surgery and it's outcomes. GOOGLE is a great place to start or a university Anatomy text book.

If you don't know enough or don't understand, then book another appointment with your surgeon or your GP and get him to explain everything to you. (not to your parents) If your parents say you're making this decision then you HAVE to be well informed. More so than they are.

What exactly is wrong with your elbow right now? does it bend funny or hurt when you bend it? Can you live with that if you don't go through the surgery?

Yeah. You have to way all that up. Welcome to adulthood. ^_^

[margo49]

After my Near-death-by-squashing- experience with a tractor and a concrete wall ended in a totally mangled right arm here is my $0.02:

Since I was (then) 48 and had a family I just decided to get on with everything as fast as possible and the phuck the pain and to h#ll with the cosmetics and limitations. So I have a real mess there inside (metallica and scar-gunk) and outside (scars looking like a shark bit me) plus mental traumas still. I just put the bars on the bike a little bit off centre crooked to accomodate the unstraightenable arm and it is all mostly ok. Gave up swimming at all.
But if I had not had dependent kids I reckon I would have been more thorough and put more effort into getting it really sharp. Maybe not 100% but pretty close. I mean all those top sports-people have serious surgeries all the time and come back to world-class form.

[mimitabby]

my son has some scarring on his hand and "couldn't decide" whether to fix it or not. After almost 10 years (he's an adult) he's finally gotten to the point where the scars are more flexible now. The cosmetic aspect (how good it looks) doesn't matter to him.
But if i had been in control of the situation, i would have pushed him to get the surgery. Life's tough enough without stupid scars making you stiffer.
good luck.

[Tuckervill]

You're very young now, and you will heal much easier than you would if you waited until you were an adult. You'll have a job when you're older and you will have to pay for it all yourself, too.

My husband broke out his front tooth when he was 9, and so he had a fake one, which ended up being smaller than his real adult tooth on the other side. He had the fake one until he was 38! It looked funny. His parents should have spent the money when he was a teenager to make it right. By the time we married, it became an issue of affording to fix it. He made do until it broke permanently, and then I insisted he have it fixed. He's glad he did. But all those years he had funny looking teeth, and it would have been so much easier and cheaper to have it fixed in the 70s rather than the 90s!

If you were my child, and the surgery could make it near 100%, and with a passion like that (swimming), I'd try to make it happen sooner rather than later. It's not just the money. It's your quality of life that is at stake, and feeling better about yourself, and getting to do the things you love sooner.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Karen

[twin]

If I understand what you are asking about scar tissue here is my situation. Because I had a bicycle accident I injured my shoulder and many months later I was told that if I had the type of surgery you are reffering to where they put you to sleep at the hospital and the orthapedic surgeon breaks up the scar tissue then PT? Mine might have been more successful if my doctor had not gone on vacation right after my surgery because that delayed PT. I did have the chair you sit in and move your shoulder for a week at hours at a time. I eventually went to another well known PT and she said she gets her patients in the day of surgery or otherwise the scar tissue sticks again. I think from what I understand if I had have had PT from the 1st day forward my results would have been very different. I think you should consider it because it will bother you from this day forward if you do not. You need PT the day of surgery until you have the use of your elbow like it used to be. How did you injure it?