"Excellent staff but lacking aftercare information"

I attended Dumfries Hospital at the end of April this year and after an X-ray was advised I had a left neck of humerus fracture. I was told it would heal naturally and given a collar/ cuff sling and painkillers. 

I was asked to return to the fracture clinic and when I explained we were only visiting the area, I was then given a letter to hand in to my local hospital. The staff in Dumfries A&E were lovely and I was fortunate that it was not busy. 

I wasn’t given any information on how to deal with this injury  such as position for sleeping, not resting elbow on pillow etc or the horrendous swelling which I experienced from the shoulder down. 

I am aware of the constraints within the NHS but maybe a leaflet with basic information could be made available when fracture first occurs followed by another a few weeks down the line explaining the importance of exercise. 

The reason for asking for a follow up leaflet is I was advised to take my arm out of the sling and do pendulum exercises at week 5 by the staff at fracture clinic  at Hairmyres Hospital. It was really explained to me the benefit of this exercise and as it hurt and was very uncomfortable I am sorry I didn’t do much exercise which was obviously to my own detriment in the beginning.

The staff in both hospitals were excellent just need to give more information. 

It may also benefit other patients with this to know that there is a group on Facebook called the Humerous Fracture Support Group. The members share information and tips on how they manage to carry out different functions. Hope this helps