Will milk really make my broken hand heal faster?
Discussion
hi all, its a bit of a long winded story, but if you wanna skip to the paragraph starting "So, i wanted to know", you'll get to my question without reading all my left handed 1 fingered, cant be bothered using capital letters cos its a stretch, whining and sulking on the internet rubbish!
at the start of june, i was supposed to fly out to canada. i was going to a place called whistler, iys 70miles north of vancouver and is holding a lot of the olympic events this winter. my plan was, that i would fly out at the start of june, get a job, ride my mountain bike all summer, and snowboard all winter. Fantasic plan, then i broke my index metacarpol 5 days before i was due to fly.
Anyways i go to hospital, they say its gonna need plating. come back tommorow, they tell me, we'll operate in the morning! I get there, they tell me its really busy and i might get bumped to the next day. after a few hours they call me in to see the dr. he decides it doesnt need plating and to come back in a week for a new cast, once the swelling has gone down. i go home and realise i may have juat been fobbed off but, he's the dr, trust him. anyway, a week later i arrive at hospital, get re-xrayed and a new doc says it should have been plated all along, and all i can remember is that he was a posh young male dr. so no joy there. They tell me to come back monday and i duly do so.
They decide to operate with me awake, which i thought was awesome, and it was! they numbed by arm by injecting the nerves in my arm pit, then i walked in, with a dead arm, got on the table, and realised how filthy my trainers were. they got started, and despite having massive hands, i'm told (well, i was nosey and was asking questions) that the break was too close to the end of my bone and a plate wouldn't fit, so they put 2 long screws in at jaunty angles. all fine till the trainee surgeon (not the one who fitted the screws) had finished sowing me up and was moving my hand whilst cleaning it, he heard a crack, the screw had slipped and my bone was no longer touching itself. so i had to be re-opened and the screw refitted. They told me to go back in 2 weeks to have the cast removed, a splint fitted and for me to start moving everything.(normally, they would do this after 2 days - but wanted my bones to heal a bit so i didn't have a repeat event)
So, i wanted to know (because i need to get strong and out to canada as soon as possible, i also dont want any more screw slipping), if there is anything i can do to help speed up the bone healing process? people keep telling me milk, but i get the feeling this is more an old wives tale than anything else! i've googled this but just seem to find pages of people trying to sell me potions. So i figured i'd try the biggest forum i know, which is probably filled with dr's and health professionals, i've already lost a week and a half of healing time through not getting pinned when i should have been, all the while paying rent for a bed in a flat all my mates are currently in!
please help, people of the internet!
and thanks in advance!
nick
at the start of june, i was supposed to fly out to canada. i was going to a place called whistler, iys 70miles north of vancouver and is holding a lot of the olympic events this winter. my plan was, that i would fly out at the start of june, get a job, ride my mountain bike all summer, and snowboard all winter. Fantasic plan, then i broke my index metacarpol 5 days before i was due to fly.
Anyways i go to hospital, they say its gonna need plating. come back tommorow, they tell me, we'll operate in the morning! I get there, they tell me its really busy and i might get bumped to the next day. after a few hours they call me in to see the dr. he decides it doesnt need plating and to come back in a week for a new cast, once the swelling has gone down. i go home and realise i may have juat been fobbed off but, he's the dr, trust him. anyway, a week later i arrive at hospital, get re-xrayed and a new doc says it should have been plated all along, and all i can remember is that he was a posh young male dr. so no joy there. They tell me to come back monday and i duly do so.
They decide to operate with me awake, which i thought was awesome, and it was! they numbed by arm by injecting the nerves in my arm pit, then i walked in, with a dead arm, got on the table, and realised how filthy my trainers were. they got started, and despite having massive hands, i'm told (well, i was nosey and was asking questions) that the break was too close to the end of my bone and a plate wouldn't fit, so they put 2 long screws in at jaunty angles. all fine till the trainee surgeon (not the one who fitted the screws) had finished sowing me up and was moving my hand whilst cleaning it, he heard a crack, the screw had slipped and my bone was no longer touching itself. so i had to be re-opened and the screw refitted. They told me to go back in 2 weeks to have the cast removed, a splint fitted and for me to start moving everything.(normally, they would do this after 2 days - but wanted my bones to heal a bit so i didn't have a repeat event)
So, i wanted to know (because i need to get strong and out to canada as soon as possible, i also dont want any more screw slipping), if there is anything i can do to help speed up the bone healing process? people keep telling me milk, but i get the feeling this is more an old wives tale than anything else! i've googled this but just seem to find pages of people trying to sell me potions. So i figured i'd try the biggest forum i know, which is probably filled with dr's and health professionals, i've already lost a week and a half of healing time through not getting pinned when i should have been, all the while paying rent for a bed in a flat all my mates are currently in!
please help, people of the internet!
and thanks in advance!
nick
Milk is not the best source of calcium around. You have to drink an unbelievable quantity of milk to obtain enough calcium.
There are other factors which contribute to the uptake of calcium in the body. Vitamin D is important to help the body absorb the greatest amount of calcium you can.
A quick google search to confirm it was Vitamin D which did this also brought up a few pages which state that a diet high in sodium and also in whole grains can also reduce the uptake of calcium. I have never heard of this before but have just spent an hour linking from one site to another.
edit: I meant to add that green leafy vegetables have a greater amount of calcium along with some nuts.
There are other factors which contribute to the uptake of calcium in the body. Vitamin D is important to help the body absorb the greatest amount of calcium you can.
A quick google search to confirm it was Vitamin D which did this also brought up a few pages which state that a diet high in sodium and also in whole grains can also reduce the uptake of calcium. I have never heard of this before but have just spent an hour linking from one site to another.
edit: I meant to add that green leafy vegetables have a greater amount of calcium along with some nuts.
Edited by TristanGardner on Friday 12th June 23:36
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