afternoon

is the swelling in, around or on the point of your elbow?

different places = different things.

a really small hairline fracture may not be seen on xray straight away (especially if the person reading it misses it). 10 days later there may be some callous around the fracture site which will be visible on xray.

if there is swelling in the in the joint, after a fracture, then it's blood. huge fracture = huge pain = huge swelling which when aspirated will go down and return, but not to the same volume. swelling around the joint maybe due to an avulsed ligament and swelling on the point maybe an inflamed bursa (a fluid filled sack), which will return after aspiration.....but give it a bit of compression and fingers crossed

cheers

sixphysio