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To all:

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I am trying to see if anyone on the board has had this happen or knows anyone that had this happen. How was their recovery and how did it affect them mentally as well as physically after the recovery?

March 13th was my son's first start of the year. He's 17 and a Junior. He struck out two in the first inning, struck out the first two batters in the second inning and had the third batter 0-1 as he threw his second pitch. As he released the pitch he felt a pop in his left elbow(he's a lefty) accompanied by some
numbness, pain and stiffness. He was now 0-2 and called time so his coach could come out and advise him. The coach asked him to throw one more pitch since the count was 0-2. He did lob one in and did get it over the plate to strike out the kid. My son then told his coach that he was done. A trainer was in the dugout and the back of the elbow was iced because it was swollen. It was initially thought to be merely a hyper extended elbow.

We were able to get into an orthopedic surgeon the next day for an X-ray. The X-ray disclosed my son had suffered a hair line type 1 fracture of the olecranon(basically your funny bone). He will not be able to throw for three months while the bone heals. The prognosis is
excellent for a full recovery and he can start
throwing again in three months and should be pitching again sometime in July.

It was one of those weird, freak accidents. My son is pretty bummed but he will recover. The Dr. said bone heals as strong or if not stronger than before at the break.

Insight please,

Regards,

Dave
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This happened to my son when he was 11. He was a scrawny skinny kid who threw very hard and he just threw too hard for his tendons and muscles to support the bone. (Can't remember the exact medical terms!) He was out of baseball for about 6 months and then everything healed just fine and he has pitched fine ever since. (Now in college)
He should be fine as long as he is fully healed before he comes back.

What I don't understand is "The coach asked him to throw one more pitch since the count was 0-2." What does the count have to do with a kid's arm hurting enough to call timeout?

Anyway, not many of us can say we struck a batter out with a broken arm. Sounds like your kid is tough as nails.
My son also had this happen to him. His injury also occurred at the beginning of the season after a off season where he worked out a great deal and grew both in size and strength. His orthopedic surgeon told him that due to his excellent physical condition his tendons and ligaments were stronger then his growing bone and instead of a tommy john type injury his bone gave out instead of the ligament. Three long emotional monthes with no baseball, and then perfect recovery. I wish your son the same healthy recovery.
This happened to me last season and I had a hairline fracture in the same spot, it took me about 3-5 months about for it to fully heal and honestly when I was going through it i didnt think I would ever be able to throw again without pain, while I was doing this I was still conditioning the rest of my body, not just taking off and sitting on a couch or something but this way I would be able to be in shape when I started throwing again, I started off by throwing lightly (about 30-40 foot tosses at max) and then eventually worked up to what I use to be, here it is at the start of our season and my arm feels as good as it ever has and I am our number 1 pitcher and throwing around 82 mph (6-8 mph harder then when i got the injury). So it takes a while but dont just sit back and relax while your injured do stuff like running or abs, anything you can do to strenghten your pitching even though you cant throw, after all most of pitching is legs not all arm.

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