Humorous Bone Fracture Recovery: An Unusual Case

Question
Seven years ago I broke my right humorous bone in the middle. The x-ray showed a relatively clean and complete break so that the space between the two bone pieces was very definate. After 5 weeks the bones had obviously mended because there was no longer pain and because moving my elbow moved my shoulder. At that point they gave me another x-ray and the doctor said to the nurse,"that's odd, the new bone does not appear in the x-ray". I did not ask him about that. 3 years ago I went to a new doctor to get my arm x-rays again out of curiosity. In the new x-ray it still appears as if my arm is broken, there is a definate gap between the two bones, there is only a faint "ghostly" clue that there is bone surrounding the break. In the past 7 years I have never experienced any pain in my arm and I have lifted heavy objects with that arm. Is it normal that after a broken arm mends the new bone does not show and it still appears disjointed even though it is not? If not, what are possible reasons? I am 38, male. Thanks.

Answer
Sometimes the bone does not heal as well as we would like, and it creates a "pseudojoint" meaning a movable area between bones that shouldn't be there.  If there is "non-union" there, you should see an ortho, and there are tricks to stimulate better bone growth, so that the area heals with good strength to prevent a re-break.

Hope this helps....