Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)
  • Broken wrist – what to expect?
  • paul4stones
    Full Member

    Cast off tomorrow after a distal radius fracture five weeks ago, fixed surgically with k wire. There are a few (old) threads on here about this but I just wondered if anyone had recent experience of recovery times, how soon they could ride again, etc.

    CaptJon
    Free Member

    No idea on recovery, but you’ll have scales.

    spacemonkey
    Full Member

    I think I’ve broken my wrists three times (might be four). No real problems once the casts came off. Strength came back pretty soon.

    Mates who had real bad breaks also recovered well – a couple only had problems during cast time due to realignment issues.

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    paul4stones
    Full Member

    I can see the scales if I peer in the end 🙂 It also feels like it’s rubbed on the inside of the cast so I’m expecting a withered, grazed, scaly arm to appear.

    Thanks spacemonkey, that’s what I want to hear!

    nuke
    Full Member

    I had a distal radius fracture last April…what surprised me when the cast came off was how little movement I had in the wrist in bugger all. Was surprised at that. I still can’t bend my hand back or forward anywhere near my other hand and can’t stand anyone or thing touching the area of the scar…sort of a tingly weird pain sensation, horrible. Despite what I was told, I was back on the bike pretty quickly and I don’t notice the reduced wrist mobility when riding. Do the exercises as advised by the physio…I was probably a bit slack when it came to this

    Back at the fracture clinic tomorrow…broke my thumb whilst riding last Saturday 🙄

    Russell96
    Full Member

    You will be surprised how much it has wasted away. A Powerball will work wonders once you are able to use it.

    paul4stones
    Full Member

    Ah yes, there is this regional pain syndrome thing that I’m the right age for apparently. That sound like your problem nuke? I know a bit about that actually which may help. Good luck with the thumb.

    Powerballs. Are they all the same? Think we might have one somewhere already.

    turboferret
    Full Member

    Same as Spacemonkey, I’ve broken plenty of wrists and arms (although fortunately mainly when youngish) and they’ve all healed up fine. You’ll be weak and with limited movement to begin with, but it should all come back pretty quickly if you keep up the recommended exercises.

    Powerball a good suggestion too.

    Cheers, Rich

    farm-boy
    Full Member

    Coincidentally I’m on the bus on the way home from having my wrist cast removed. Physio said nothing too strenuous for 4 weeks but he didn’t specifically say no riding.

    As above I have remarkably little movement or strength – I was more use in the cast, in fact I was riding to work in it.

    paul4stones
    Full Member

    Ok. Powerball and moisturiser ordered. I’d better take the bus there rather than cycle I guess 🙂

    Good luck farm boy!

    JonEdwards
    Free Member

    Did mine a few years ago.

    Riding back from getting the cast off was a bit wierd. There was this strange floppy thing on the end of my arm that didn’t do anything… (had a brace on too, but still no where as solid as the cast was)

    Jumped in the car, drove down to the Alps and rode singletrack for 2 weeks solid. Just don’t crash on it!

    You’ll be fine in other words!

    duffle
    Free Member

    Ok. Powerball and moisturiser ordered“……….I give that another week!! 😉

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    +1 Powerball – I had a displaced distal radius fracture and it hurt for years after the cast came off. Two months after buying a Powerball the pain had gone and full movement restored.

    To deal with the scales, take a long hot bath and then scratch like crazy (all the pent up itching of eight weeks in plaster). It’s disgusting (you might want to clean the bath afterwards) but remarkably therapeutic.

    Don’t fall on it, but don’t be afraid to use it as much as possible. You won’t break a bone lifting something and the pain will let you know your limits as the bone continues to heal.

    paul4stones
    Full Member

    You had to mention the itching didn’t you! 😉

    sangobegger
    Free Member

    Back to around 70% in 4-6 weeks. But it took me nearly a year to get my hand back to where it was. Lost about 20% of my movement and now (10 years later) it nips in the winter – which is I am told by my doc, most likely early onset arthritis.
    To be fair the break was right across both my bones, so the damage was always going to take a while to sort itself out.

    organdonor
    Free Member

    I had a displaced distal radius fracture a few years back. When I had the cast off, my wrist still felt broken, I barely had the strength to lift a cup of tea!
    Physio said I’d be lucky to get back to 80% movement but after a month of recommended exercises and a strict stretching regime, I was more or less back to normal. I was back on the bike about two weeks after the cast came off.

    maxtorque
    Full Member

    Distal radius break here last year. Spent 6 weeks in plaster / K wires.

    Got out of plaster, went to physio approx 65% of normnal ROM compared to other wrist.

    Two weeks later spent a week in Les Arcs, although i took a wrist support with me (and needed it initially due to a lack of strength) Came off the bike a couple of times, but was protecting my wrist, so no issues (tuck and roll!!)

    Revisited Physio, and they were astounded to find i had regained something like 95% ROM!

    Took at least 9 months however before i could do a proper series of press ups on it, and now, just over 1 year later i still get occasional twinges after a long ride or if it’s really cold

    paul4stones
    Full Member

    Well that is properly weird. All the skin feels so strange.

    Anyway, physio tomorrow and we’ll see. Thanks for all the good news stories and to sorry to hear the bad ones. Sounds like a trip to the Alps is the remedy! Signed off for another 4 weeks which sounds about right judging by the above comments.

    Thanks all.

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