Another Broken Bone Relates to P Clearing
from Bob A.

Hi Ed:  First time visitor to your site, and I will be back. I read the email from Shirley F. regarding the broken ankle leading to P clearing and wanted to submit my story. (Broken Ankle Made Lesions Go Away, from Shirley F.) 

I have dealt with P for 15+ years (age 43) and have toyed with multiple meds with no results worth mentioning.

Last year, I broke my wrist while rollerblading to the extent that I had bone graft surgery requiring a plate & four pins to hold the new bone in place for two months. My P is elbow, knee, torso, scalp & ears, so being in a cast from wrist to mid bicep for that amount of time made me wonder just how much build-up would be there when the package was unwrapped. I wasn't disappointed, as I was able to peel off enough to roof a bird house.

But then the P on that elbow disappeared! It has come back to a lesser degree since then, but the thought that something was different about that arm for a period of time which was unrelated to food, drink, etc. is worthy of mention. I have given up on any miracle cure (for now), and use sun exposure and local moisture as my personal treatment. I don't advocate breaking bones as a desperate attempt to deal with P, but rather hope this info can be used perk interest into some link between broken bones and their relationship with P.

Thanks for hosting this wonderful forum, -Bob A.

*****

Ed’s Response:  Very timely, Bob.  Two months ago my wife, Clara, broke her arm and fractured her wrist.  The breaks were such that they didn’t put her in a cast, but she wore a demobilizing harness for a few weeks and is still sore and with only a fraction of her arm mobility restored.  Good news is, her P cleared almost completely!

This really has me scratching my head.  The lion’s share of evidence supports the theory that most trauma exacerbates P; but now there’s Shirley F., and Clara D. and you.  Shirley F. wrote back and said she did have a long, quiet recuperation after breaking her ankle.  My Clara was home for over a week, tended dotingly by a daughter while I was out of town and (I hope) by me when I was home.  Can it be that the recovery from the trauma is also recovery from P (or, at least, engendering a respite from P)?  I don’t buy it.  Clara, while resting and away from her usual stresses, was in plenty of pain — which is one of the worst kinds of stress. 

It makes sense to me that bone healing is a kind of immune system response.  I read that it starts immediately after injury with a kind of collagen bunching up inside the fracture space.  This binding tissue is supposed to keep the bone parts in proximity while actual bone cells grow to replace the collagen.  I don’t know enough about the process to compare it to the complex and incompletely understood T-cell activity that sparks P, but perhaps as both may be (generically, at least) immune system responses, there is some relationship.

I wish I knew more, because scratching my head is exacerbating my scalp P.  Anyway, thanks for adding fodder to the mystery, Bob.  -Ed

This Month's Mail | Archives