I had a bit of a tumble the other night and am experiencing some swelling and discomfort where my hand meets my wrist in line with my thumb and first two fingers.

I’ve got full movement but very little strength. Couldn’t pick up a pan of water last night.

It only hurts when I bend my wrist or poke at the lump.

I go away in 10 days and not being able to drive would effectively cancel it. At the moment I can drive without any problem (left hand, gear changing and handbrake are OK), but if I were to have a pot on my arm this could change.

Your thoughts?

I broke mine and carried on working for 2 weeks. Then ended up in a cast for 6.
A lad at the gym broke his wrist and ignored it. Now he needs a pin in his arm and a bone graft

Mine didn’t heal after being in cast and had to wait 8 months before the operation I could do most things with my hand just not under heavy load.the longer you leave it the less likely it is to heal as there’s already a poor blood supply. Even with a screw fixation mine took another 6 months to heal.

Yeah, a couple of times (well, one in each wrist). Pot on each time for 6 weeks. First time I went skiing while the pot was on, no worries. Second time still had enough grip to drive (I was young and stupid) but i’d not recommend it.

Yep. I wish I’d got mine looked at and fixed straight away – would happily sacrifice a week away for that.

My advice is to break both radius and ulna as well.
You’ll not notice the scaphoid then.
It worked for me, although it did involve an operation, stay in hospital, intravenous morphine and some mentally strong pain killers (Capake) and after 8 weeks in a cast it was fine.
I don’t suppose that helps you though!

I found out I did mine 3 months ago, problem was I broke it many years before, the healing isn’t that good and I’ll be getting arthritis in there at some point. Got weakness in the wrist that as the physio joked will get better once the arthritis kicks in….

In for an MRI to get a better idea…

So yes treat it while you can.

Yep, managed to fracture both scaphoid and trapezium in one fall. (I wasn’t drunk honest)

Lovely bright pink cast for 4 weeks and job done. Fingers were fine but thumb grip and overall wrist strength was terrible for 8 weeks or so.

Symptoms sound familiar Harry. Best go get it looked at to make sure. It’s a relatively easy bone to break and can be a bugger to fix. As others have said here if left it can cause complications and as it has bad blood supply it can take a while to heal.

I instantly knew something wasn’t right as I was unable to grip the bar. I was in cast for 10 weeks.

As above if it is scaphoid then there is no good news

If it’s broken the longer you leave it the worse it’ll get and the longer (if ever) it’ll take to heal.

Have broken both of mine Falling Off Bikes the one I ignored needed a bone graft & a pin has never been right since (1998)

Get it seen to & good luck

hang on…

so it wasn’t ‘Barry’…

anyway, off to A&E with you!

On the plus side, I broke mine 27 years ago and didn’t get it treated for 18 months. Was booked in for an op, but surgeon decided as it was stable (it’s a malunion – ie still broken, but cartilage has grown around it) that the risk of making it worse was too high. Told I was likely to get arthritis within 10 years. 25 years on still don’t have arthritis and it’s not a fundamental problem – weaker than the other one and I only have about half the range of movement, but I’ve done lots of stuff with it without much in the way of pain so long as I’m careful. Have made some changes – I kayak left handed because of the lack of movement, but I’ve done a lot of kayaking and canoeing. TBH it’s not even something I think about most of the time – probably go weeks or months without noticing, and it’s only when threads like this crop up I remember it.

So whilst as above if I had the choice again I’d go to A&E the same day and get it treated, it’s not as big an issue as I was expecting.

Yeah, do get it looked at. Second time when I was in A&E the nurse didn’t think it was that serious (wasn’t in a huge amount of pain and no pain killers) and took a bit of convincing to send me to X-Ray.

I’ll also second that – when I did eventually get mine treated, neither my GP nor the doctor in A&E thought it was broken until they got the X-Rays. Insist on getting that done.

Yep. Cast for 10 weeks and now fine.

I go away in 10 days and not being able to drive would effectively cancel it.

The hardest part ,is that stare from your OH when you tell her.
You have already done that though,haven’t you?
The rest is easy,get it checked out ASAP 😉

The weird thing is that it doesn’t hurt. It just doesn’t work very well either. Previously when I’ve broken bones I knew instantly that something was up. With this I didn’t even notice it at the time but the other bumps and bangs sustained in the tumble have started to go away.
It is on the back of the hand, there is no bruising on the front. It could be due to me bending it over with lump being caused by my watch being in the way.
Got quite a bit of bruising and swelling on the back, but no “crunchiness” or movement in the bones. I’ll see how it looks in a day or two.

Broke mine in a tumble in picardy. Ended up driving back to Scotland. Plastered for 6 weeks. Was relatively easy to grip steering wheel but to be fair I avoided it as much as possible.

That’s the way with scaphoids, which is why so many of us have waited to long to get them fixed. They don’t feel like broken bones are supposed to feel – have never had any “crunchiness” or noticeable movement, so I thought it was just sprained. I went canoeing the same evening I broke mine – not for long, that did hurt, but it felt fine enough to attempt it and IIRC I was back paddling the next week – having spent the afternoon in school writing with that hand.

You’re thinking about going to A&E in a few days? They’ll send you away to see your GP – it’s only supposed to be for very recent injuries. What’s the disadvantage to going now (or preferably a minor injuries place with X-Ray if you have one)? If it is broken it’s not going to suddenly get better in time for your trip, and the sooner you get treated the better.

It reminds me of a housemate who broke his a few years after I broke mine – had to pretty much force him to go to A&E.

I broke mine a month before my driving test after coming off my road bike on gravel.

It hurt like hell and there was significant swelling.
I was in a cast for four weeks. There was a surprising amount
of forearm atrophy when It came off.

I broke mine at the beginning of a biking holiday, thought it was sprained so bandaged it up and carried on riding (hardly any swelling etc). 6 weeks later it wasnt better (it wasnt that painful anyway) and it ended up displaced and not in a great way. This ended with me off the mountainbike for close to a year from surgery (bone graft and pin) and then giving it the time to heal properly, as it heals very slowly compared to a regular break, and so is very fragile for a long time. I would take it easy and get it checked properly asap!

edit: go to A&E and tell them you’ve just done it!

Shit that’s bad news. It sounds like you need to pop to your local minor injuries unit.
I’m just back from hospital after having my radius fracture fixed with a couple of wires. Didn’t hurt that much at the time of injury on Saturday either…
Wife and kids are in Croatia having flown yesterday. I’ll be joining them on Saturday.
I’m not sure when I will be forgiven…

Trouble with spicer’s advice to lie about when you did it is that as scaphoid fractures don’t always show up on X-ray for a few days they will want another X-ray in 2 weeks anyway if it’s tender in the “anatomical snuffbox”
Maybe tell the triage nurse/reception its a fresh injury but don’t try and be clever with the person trying to assess you. It could cause problems with management.

Yep be honest, it’s a very simple, the more they know the better it goes. Just been looking back at my films…

I ‘think’ I broke mine, but where most poeple have 4 bones in the wrists I only have 2, so my break could be technically not the same thing.

Anyway, I had a protective cast put on my break (to give the swelling time to go down perhaps) before going back a week or two later for an Xray, which was when I found I’d broken it and it got put in a cast, and eventually healed fine.

You might actually find you can drive okay with the protective loose fitting cast they put on it, if that’s what they do for you rather than giving you an Xray and putting a proper cast on straight away.

In the grand scheme of things a healthy and usable wrist is more important than a holiday.

It can be a very tricky bone to heal so really you want it looked at ASAP.

If you really must delay getting it seen, at least get a wrist support or something to help keep it immobilised. Keep the wrist up and wiggle your fingers every now and then to promote blood flow in the region.

I would arrange a different holiday and get the wrist looked at if it was me, you only get one usable hand on each side.

I would arrange a different holiday and get the wrist looked at if it was me, you only get one usable hand on each side.

Broke mine in 2013 after falling off my road bike. I didn’t get a pot, I got a splint. As docrobster says, it doesn’t always show up on the xrays right away. I went back for the 2-week one and it showed a fracture, but they said there was no point putting a pot on it by then, that the splint would do the job. So you won’t always have to have a pot. I never got one on my elbow when I broke that either, they said it wouldn’t heal right if it was immobilised.

It eventually healed, but it took a loooong time to feel stable again. I had pain in it whenever I put weight on that hand for about a year.

Broke mine, A&E missed it, told it was a sprain, tried manning up for two weeks at work before going back, re x rayed and spotted it(can take weeks for healing to start so often missed on first x Ray). Bone died, fobbed off for 3 months by consultants before they admitted it wasn’t going to heal and then Herbert screw and bone graft off hip.

3 months healing after op before back on bike

missed most of last summer, and that was a tiny fracture.

I got MRI’d as they couldn’t tell what it was. Felt like a fraud, as it didn’t hurt that much. Immobilised in a steel support/splint for 12 weeks and I wore a skate wrist support for some weeks after that for riding, introducing a few more easy miles each time.

Was my left arm too and I had no issues driving, although I’m not sure of the legality.

Try the jam jar test and use shonky wrist to open it, if you dissolve on the floor in pain then probably scaphoid (I may have found this out the hard way)

Even if it doesn’t show on X-ray, they may still refer you for bone scan to make sure. It was well cool seeing fluorescent bones!

I’ve broken both mine twice. Yes twice. Once falling over when in teens , then tripping up stairs and lastly jumping off a wall and getting feet caught resulting landing on hands and both arms in cast for 6 weeks .

Broke Scaphoid and hamate in a crash last year hurt a bit had no grip. Four weeks in cast no operation.