A week last sunday I had a fall, which came about 'cos I couldn't clip out. Anyways, i landed badly on my left hand, on the fatty meaty bit at the bottom of my thumb.
I rolled over, and my hand/wrist really bloody hurt, and within a few minutes it had turned a lovely shade of purple under the skin, and it hurt like hell to put it back in my glove.
For the rest of the ride I couldn't change gears properly but could ride still.
Anyway, I figured I'd just sprained it and so have tried to rest it since, used ibuprofen and hot/cold compresses. It's still bruised, slightly better, but still hurts when I do things like change gear in the car, hold a plate in my left hand, open doors, things like that.
Could it be fractured, or would the pain be unbearable? Can I self refer for an X-ray to check? Even if I did, would they be able to do anything?

I've been Manning the F Up all week but I'm just bored now.

When I broke my scaphoid (bottom of thumb-ish) I thought I had just sprained my wrist, badly but just thought it was sprained. After a weekend I went to casualty 'cos it was no worse, x-ray showed a clean break.
Now though I would ring NHS direct, let them tell me to go to hospital and then it is not my fault when I get there 🙂

What did they do with it Tracker? Prodding and poking around my hand the pain does seem focussed on the scaphoid

scaphoids are usually justa 6 weeks plaster but do give the symptoms you've got pook 🙁

They can fail to heal due to a porr blood supply though and then it gets complex.

If you press between the two tendons at the base of your thumb at the side of your wrist and it hurts like buggery I'd get off for an x-ray – if not then maybe go to your gp first?

My scaphoid never realy got better and sometimes gives me real grief. Crashed a motorbike in Perth W.A. and broke my left ankle and the scaphoid, they just stuck my foot in plaster and sent me on my way, using crutches was interesting.

Good luck with it hope it heals up.

Yep, sounds like Scaphoid fracture. I had 8 weeks in plaster with mine – when I fell I got back on and finished the ride, thought it was just a bad sprain and slept on it. Thought my GP would give me some strong painkillers and that would be it but she sent me off to A&E. Don't ignore it, as wwaswas says it can lead to poor blood supply.

Yes a pathetic fall can break your wrist… I did my schaphoid and radius tripping over our back step. It wasn't that painful, well, not as bad as I'd imagined a broken bone to be. Mine was in a pot for 8 weeks, but they plaster right to the end of your thumb, which makes doing stuff like eating dinner interesting. I had to get people to cut stuff up for me at first!

So a bit of diagnosis then….

if I press the area and it hurts like hell, it's probably broken?

I thought the scaphoid took so long to heal as it has a poor blood supply, dont think it causes poor blood supply.

Why would you not just go to the doctors? 😕

it might be – they often end up plastering a suspected scaphoid anyway and then re x-raying a fortnight later – it;s difficult to diagnose.

grumm – Member

Why would you not just go to the doctors?

cos i don't want to waste their time if it's just a sprain.

it might be – they often end up plastering a suspected scaphoid anyway and then re x-raying a fortnight later – it;s difficult to diagnose

True. That's what happened to my brother. His wasn't broken in the end.

I would definately have it looked at as you can't be sure without an xray.
I fell of my bike a couple weeks back. Thinking I only strained my wrist I didn't bother going to casualty that evening and managed to drive home too. There was no tenderness at all, neither was there any brusing, just a bit of pain when moving the wrist. It hadn't inproved at all by the next day so I popped into casualty just to check, not thinking it was broken. However they said it was a clear break on the xray so now its in plaster for 8 weeks.
Get it checked out, as if you ignore it and it ends up not fusing back properly I think you can have allsorts of problems later on.

Top Scaphoid plaster tip:

They usually stick a plaster of paris cast on immediately post injury, but if it's an old injury, you may well get a fibre glass cast straight away.

When the nice lady or man is putting the cast on, ask if you can press your palm gently against a bar or some other round surface. Makes riding a bike a bit more comfy while you are recovering…

With a fibre glass cast you can, if careful, give your arm a wash then use the hairdrier to get the water out….

toptip that crikey, I'll have to do that when I get my cast replaced! Thanks

I suppose the same logic could be applied to a rounded object fro driving the car…

They put me in a cast Pook, think it was 8 weeks in total, straight into a plaster cast, went back 2 days later, they cut off plaster cast, Doc looked at original x-ray, said "well it's obviously broken" and had me back into a fibre cast.
Broke it Thursday, day off work with it Friday so picked up my first ever motorbike (GT-550, loved it) which was tricky to ride with a "sprained" wrist, hospital Monday, washed bike for next 8 weeks.

You get a choice of colours too…

Did mine a few years ago. Had 10 weeks in cast!! Did it playing football, slid, put hand down and just the bump broke it. Lots of nice colours and plenty of swelling. Hurt like mad!!!. Go and get it checked out Pook. If not and it heals wrong, you could end up in a world of pain at a later date.

And Crikey, i had a bright green cast on mine!! Why not normal colours?????

Nice colour that crikey.

When I broke my wrist road-riding (I went over the bars when the chain jammed), I knew I'd bust my wrist as it was the size of a large melon before I'd even managed to stand up. That took a lot of MTFUing!

I knew the lady who put my cast on and she said she had a lot of pink left….

Good idea for a day or two, but 8 weeks later was wearing thin.

I broke one of the bones in my hand (spiral fracture) in a stupid bike accident.

I thought it might be just bruised, as did a first aider at work the next day. But a manager who used to race motorbikes identified it immediately as a break and told me to get to A&E.

I reckon you might as well go straight there. If you go to a GP they are just going to send you for an X-Ray anyway to confirm whether it is broken or not, so you might as well cut out the middle man…..

ok so I went to the docs yesterday to ask his advice. He did loads of little stretch tests on it, making me grip, bend, push and all that malarky. He then said
"Right, it's one of two things. Either a broken scaphoid bone, which is hidden right in there, or you've sprained the tendons in your wrist and they're now badly bruised. This test will find out which it is. I'll warn you, if it's broken or fractured, you're going to feel a little bit of pain. Well, a lot. It'll really hurt"

He then did the test wwaswas described up there ^, but with a bit more accuracy and a lot more pressure. And it was ok.

Pulled and sprained the tendons of my wrist, all badly bruised, but touch wood, no break.

Glad I got it checked – thanks for all your input everyone!

Glad it isn't broken, he give you a timeframe for healing?

He said just to keep an eye on it for the next couple of weeks, and to keep using ibuprofen gels.

Fingers <painfully> crossed it'll be ok!