R Arm, Fracture
2009-04-14 – 2009-10-02
Grade: 2
Tripped in the driveway and fell. There is a small chip on the x-ray where a ligament pulled a bone chip from one of the little wrist bones.
Dr. recommended cast, but reluctantly agreed with a removable splint.
Some carpal tunnel numbness in my fingers and palm---I have a wound from the fall directly on top of my carpal tunnel.
I'm gonna be struggling with this for 4-8 weeks. It's hard to dress, write, type, lift, and drive. I'm working on a thingie to help me shift my manual transmission.
The bone chip means one of two things. It might mean the ligament is intact, and a simple mending of the chip back to the bone will fix it. This takes 4-6 weeks. It can also mean a tear of the ligament. This is actually worse and takes 6-8 weeks minimum.
Apparently immobilization of the wrist is critical, and I need to be vigilant not to use it too much, but I also need to keep my fingers moving so they don't get impaired.
Update 2 Oct 09: I'm going to click the recovered box, even though I'm not 100%. The bones have been healed since around the beginning of June, but the doctor says, and my wrist pain confirms, that the ligaments will take very long to completely recover. He says I can expect to have aches during low-pressure systems for years. The main injury is a ligament that attaches to my triquetral bone (aka triquetrum). It might be the LT ligament. And then I have 2 more areas that are less a problem, one in the middle top of my wrist (in line with my middle finger).
First wisdom: If you think it might be broken, splint first and then go to the doctor. This is the second time I've seen a possible break and didn't split it (once on someone else's break, and once for my own break). It will feel a million times better if you splint it.
I had a custom built brace made from a white plastic called Orthoplast (which is a term like Bandaid). It wasn't too expensive (after insurance), and it fit better than any other brace I tried. It was more comfortable and it worked better.
One of the reasons my brace fit really well was because I made some modifications to it. Mostly I just drilled holes in it to allow sweat to get out. It was extremely wet in one spot from the start, and it was all wet when I started to run. Seriously either drill holes or get someone else to do it. The holes made it very comfortable. I also changed the velcro to smaller widths that let air in better. I also did a few mods in areas that rubbed badly, but I could have just taken it in and the specialists would do free fit adjustments.