|
|
|
|
aerili
Jun 3, 2008, 6:05 PM
Post #1 of 9
(4162 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 13, 2006
Posts: 1166
|
I have been diagnosed with this injury in my left wrist (after many months of problems which resolved and then came back again).
I searched and found some other threads about this injury, along with a few informative stories from a few people who had gone through this. However, I would like to start another thread with more comprehensive info and/or more long term outcomes, if possible, since this injury is so hard to treat and I don't know how to feel about my various treatment options and their possible outcomes (none of which have lots of documented bright outlooks, it seems).
If you have gone through this injury, can you please tell me what kind of treatment you received and how successful you felt it was? How long did it take you to return to climbing and other activities? Any other complicating factors? Any problems with the length of your ulna or radius? Did you have problems again any time after therapy/surgery was complete and you were done with rehab? If so, what did/do you do?
Ideally, if you can tell me also the nature of your tear (peripheral? central? etc.) and if you had surgery, did they just do debridement or also repair?
My tear is a Palmer class 1A or central tear. My radiologist said my ulnas appear to be neutral in variance, i.e. they are not longer than they should be in relation to my radius--which is a good sign for outcome, from what I read.
Thanks for any input, it is highly appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
onceahardman
Jun 4, 2008, 4:52 PM
Post #2 of 9
(4107 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 3, 2007
Posts: 2493
|
Hi aerili...
Here is a set of post-operative rehab protocols I found:
http://xnet.kp.org/...ageComplexRepair.pdf
Sounds like conservative measures are worth a try, but if they don't work, there are surgical options.
|
|
|
|
|
reg
Jun 4, 2008, 5:37 PM
Post #3 of 9
(4097 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 10, 2004
Posts: 1560
|
hummm.....sounds like you've been doin to much crack!
image of wrist
ok so i haven't figured out how to do jpg's yet but there was this:
"Everyone recovers from an injury at a different rate. Return to your activities will be determined by how soon your wrist recovers, not by how many days or weeks it has been since your injury has occurred. In general, the longer you have symptoms before you start treatment, the longer it will take to get better. The goal of rehabilitation is to return you to your normal activities as soon as is safely possible. If you return too soon you may worsen your injury.
You may return to your normal activities when the injured wrist has full range of motion without pain. Your injured wrist, hand, and forearm need to have the same strength as the uninjured side."
i was tryin to do an FYI jpg - i'm workin on it
(This post was edited by reg on Jun 4, 2008, 6:02 PM)
|
|
|
|
|
jsh
Jun 4, 2008, 10:08 PM
Post #4 of 9
(4071 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 24, 2003
Posts: 118
|
http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1451917;#1451917
I tore mine. They reconstructed it. It's bombproof now.
|
|
|
|
|
aerili
Jun 5, 2008, 5:02 AM
Post #5 of 9
(4058 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 13, 2006
Posts: 1166
|
onceahardman wrote: Here is a set of post-operative rehab protocols I found
Domo arigato, friend.
reg wrote: hummm.....sounds like you've been doin to much crack! You may return to your normal activities when the injured wrist has full range of motion without pain. Your injured wrist, hand, and forearm need to have the same strength as the uninjured side."
Thanks, reg. Actually, I do not believe crack climbing caused this injury. I believe it may have started on a sport route in a bouldery section when my left wrist subluxed violently in and out of joint (i.e. popped out of the joint and back in). I took six weeks off and it was 100% pain free with full function at that time. I believe it was re-injured/torn out later...mainly from sport climbing easy to moderate lines. The crack climbing I did was not an issue, perhaps because I tape my hands down over my wrists and the tape stabilized the joint.
Also, my problem is that I have a connective tissue disorder...which doesn't help anything, including the rehabilitation process. 
|
|
|
|
|
aerili
Jun 5, 2008, 5:06 AM
Post #6 of 9
(4056 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 13, 2006
Posts: 1166
|
jsh wrote: I tore mine. They reconstructed it. It's bombproof now.
Thanks, jsh. Unfortunately, I have this brand new $40 mouse that is so stupid that I cannot right click with it, so I cannot copy and paste your link. So, based on your statement here, should I assume you had a PERIPHERAL tear that was repairable? How long has it been since you had this surgery, and at what point did you start climbing again post-op?
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
jsh
Jun 5, 2008, 1:54 PM
Post #7 of 9
(4034 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Oct 24, 2003
Posts: 118
|
re:mouse: Ha! The longest-lasting benefit of my saga was that due to a hard-nosed grad chair, I had to learn to write left-handed to take my quals. I'm almost entirely ambidextrous now. Left-handed mousing is the easy part - try tooth brushing or hair-tying left-handed!
Anyway. The hand surgeon I saw wasn't concerned with exactly which part of the TFCC had torn: when I first saw him, he pushed down on the distal end of my ulna, it moved a lot, I screamed. So he knew he had to get in there and reconstruct whatever was torn.
I spent two months in a full-arm cast with a pin thru my radius and ulna, to keep anything from moving, while the reconstruction 'took' - they reinserted the TFCC into my ulna, and secured it via a hole drilled into the other side. Surgeon was himself an ex-climber. Surgery was in late Nov., cast off in February.
This was .... 1998/9? and winter, in New England, and I didn't ice climb yet. So I would have gotten back in the gym slowly over the winter, and then outside in the spring. I don't remember any particular weakness or delay; so several months, but by summer it was fine. Never any pain there.
I'd broken both bones in my right wrist in a car accident in 1982. Then I went and broke my left wrist walking off of a winter gully climb, in 2000. So I have nothing 'normal' to compare it to; but of my two wrists, the right one is definitely stronger. I have trouble with pain in my left wrist in inverted yoga poses (ie downward dog), but my right wrist is fine; ditto for extended crack climbing - right fine, left can hurt.
That's the long story.
|
|
|
|
|
wendyhoward
Jul 11, 2008, 10:25 AM
Post #8 of 9
(3606 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jul 11, 2008
Posts: 4
|
I have lots to add to this post although it is old.. do you still have pain?
|
|
|
|
|
aerili
Jul 11, 2008, 5:38 PM
Post #9 of 9
(3588 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 13, 2006
Posts: 1166
|
Wendy,
I have already spoken to you extensively on email, actually, but you probably didn't know it by this thread post of mine.
Yes, I still have pain, although it's getting better slowly and my ADLs are more functional.
I have received two surgeons' opinions so far; they know each other well and have somewhat contradictary recommendations and predictions for my climbing future. So I am going to get a third (and perhaps a fourth) opinion to see if there is a stronger consensus. Luckily I live in a very large city.
My personal case seems like it may relate little to the limited number of studies out there, and maybe even to other people's outcomes as well b/c of my connective tissue problem... One surgeon emphasized my distal radioulnar instability issues as perhaps a root cause and (in his opinion) a reason to give up climbing permanently since nothing will stabilize the laxity in my interosseous membrane. He mentioned experimental surgeries where they take the pronator teres and move it up to try to stabilize the translation between the two bones, but he didn't feel like any surgery, standard or not, was a good idea for me.
However, the second surgeon (and my original referring sports med doc, who is not a hand surgeon) feels that surgical debridement would be a very good option for me and would actually help me get back to climbing regularly without recurrence of the injury. I do know you are rather anti-surgery, though. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
