How painful is a broken wrist?

As the title, had a nasty crash whilst riding today and went down very hard on my left hand. Knuckles cut and bruised through my gloves and wrist is pretty sore. I have some movement, but not very much, and some swelling though it’s not a balloon. It hurts to push in the middle of the back of my hand and also by the inside edge of my wrist by the base of my thumb. Like a lot, and I can’t twist or push with my hand. I’m loathed to go to a&e to waste their time for what could be a sprain..soon, armchair doctors assemble. Anyone broken their wrist?

Broken three and they didn’t hurt very much

You have three wrists?! 😉 I was hoping you’d tell me it was agony

When I broke my wrist a couple of years ago I thought it just a sprain – finished the ride and drove home. It was when I went to eat a baked potato and realised I couldn’t use a fork I thought something up. Adrenaline is an amazing pain killer.

Went to hospital and turned out I had broke ALL the bones in my wrist.

For me the real pain came in the following days – even bashing the stookie off a cushion would cause eye watering amounts of pain.

Take yourself off to the walking wounded clinic to get checked out.

If you think it might be broken go to a&e
Best to get it checked.

Base of the thumb could be a scaphoid, which almost always needs treatment because it won’t fix on its own.

Google it for something to read while at a&e.

I broke the wrist-ends of my radius and ulna once, didn’t hurt much, more of an ache really. Could still move things pretty well and wasn’t sure it was broken. As I was a kid my mum dragged me to A and E anyway, kicked off until they x-rayed me, and it turned out to be two fractures. I’d get it checked out if you’ve got any doubts.

painful.
particularly after the adrenaline wore off, then there was a further 40hr wait for surgery with my arm swinging about from a hook and not near enough pain meds.
surgery, plate, screws

to be fair, you could see how broken it was, there was an s bend in my forearm

A bit sore at the time but 8 years on with repeated falls and tumbles its freeking agony. I basically struggle to move it much these days and if I so much as jar it even slightly its eye watering. 2 separate visits to consultants and they’ve both just told me I will have to manage it somehow as there’s nothing they can do. Makes me wonder if I’d had it looked at when I first did it would I be going through this now??

SCRUFF9252. What’s a stookie? Serious question

I suspect that I broke mine last year. I did nothing about it though as a pot on the arm would have ruined my holiday 😳

Hurt like a bastard for a few weeks and movement has been limited, but getting better in recent months. Still can’t separate two pieces of paper using my fore finger and thumb.

Couple of years ago i came off and broke :oops:my wrist…didn’t hurt that much and it was only when i was home for a while i figured it didn’t seem ‘right’ so popped down to my MIU (Been consistently impressed with the two (Caterham & Horsham) i seem to regularly end up at 😳 ) who confirmed the bad news. Id get down MIU (or A&E if MIU is closed) if i were you

Broke mine years ago. After probably re-breaking it a few times and a few trips to the gp to be told it was a strain I eventually had it x-rayed and diagnosed. Was recommended for surgery probably 6 years after the break but when they cut me open the surgeon decided it was now fixed so I just have a funky scar. Didn’t really hurt much at any point, just uncomfortable.

These days I go to the minor injuries unit. They seem happy to do x rays with hopefully minimal strain on the nhs.

My mate fell off on Saturday and hurt his wrist.

Finally went to A&E on Sunday to be told he had broken it and got a wrist cast. No driving g for four weeks.

He has to go back tomorrow for further x-rays and discuss possible surgery, but will need a cast above the elbow regardless.

Yes, this is the guy who clipped the wing mirror of a parked car on his way to a velodrome session. I’m being very sympathetic. Though I’m not sure I trust him to bring up my god children. 😉

crapjumper – Member

SCRUFF9252. What’s a stookie? Serious question

A stookie is a plaster cast.

I’ve broken 2. Both times I found at first not too painful. First one I road out of Gisburn Forest and drove home before getting too concerned.

Second one I rode down a big hill, and then the next day scrambled up a big hill before finally thinking it needed sorting.

However not getting them checked apparently made things worse….

Get it checked asap

Pretty much every time I’ve broken a bone, people have come out with homespun wisdom along the lines of “It can’t be broken, it obviously doesn’t hurt that much”. Get it checked! If I’d got my hand checked when I broke it, they’d have fixed it and it’d have healed straight instead of all wonky and scrapey.

(disclaimer- the time I actually got it diagnosed as broken, turned out to be the third time I’d broken a hand- they did an xray of the “unbroken” hand for a comparison and found 2 ropey old breaks. I’m obviously very stupid)

Also, loath means reluctant, loathed means felt disgust for or extreme dislike.

Fractured mine last year (scaphoid I think but not certain), some swelling but not balloon-like. Had a cast for six weeks or so.

I wasn’t sure I needed to visit A&E either so waited until the morning. They told me it’s busy whenever you go, no point waiting.

Minor Injuires unit not an emergency department. You’re not going to die of a fractured wrist.

I thought that I had sprained mine for 5 days- treating it with a compression sock and alcohol, until someone shook my hand.

*ouch*

Get yourself checked out.

@Northwind-blame that on autocorrect. I’m almost as mortified about that as I am about being sat here in the minor injuries clinic…

3am on the day after I’d done my second scaphoid I wanted to chop my arm off. The previous year and the other hand felt just like I’d sprained it.

Broke mine last year in three planes and compressed the bone. Now has a plate and tells the weather.

To be honest, compared with the other 12 fractures it wasn’t too bad. But then I didn’t move it once it was set and then subsequently operated on!

Nothing wrong with having an x-ray. Mine was pointing in the wrong direction, so it was an easy diagnosis. All I can say is than goodness they were carbon drop bars and not alloy, because I never let go and broke the bars with the impact. I don’t want to think of the extra forces on my wrist had an alloy bar not fractured.

As above. Not necessarily that painful. It doesn’t have to be a large fracture to be significant. If there is disruption of the joint surface surgery may be needed. Go to your minor injuries if there is one, a&e if there isn’t (many places don’t have miu’s drac)
When I broke mine 11 months ago, it was sore, but I was able to pump up the tyre that burped in the crash with it, and ride home. There was some swelling around the base of the thumb but not much else. I had to have surgery to smooth out the 2mm dent I had put in the joint surface. The fracture line was only 1cm long in total hence not much pain.

Pain is a poor indicator for fractures, you’ll need an x-ray. Minor injuries or GP referral will be your best bet.

Not a GP referral if you want someone to look at the pictures the day it is taken. It takes a week for me to get X-ray reports. I would tell you to go to a&e if you came to see me I’m afraid (no minor injuries)

Useful link for finding your nearest minor injury unit:

http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Minor-injuries-unit/LocationSearch/551

When I broke mine it was quite obvious, and the x-ray showed I’d broken a number of bones – didn’t hurt, but then gas&air is quite good pain relief 🙂

Luckily no cast, just metal-work and 8 years on I’ve more movement in the one I broke than the other.

Thanks all. Just back from minor injuries clinic in York who were brilliant. Had xrays and luckily no breaks, though they have asked me to go back in 10 days as they weren’t 100% on my scaphoid and want to Xray it again. Hopefully it’ll have improved by then and wont need it. In the meantime I’ve been given a very fetching beige splint to wear.

Jusy been temporarily casted today from a broken scaphoid. First break ever. Fortunately/unfortunately it doesn’t hurt compared to the radial head break in my elbow on the same arm. Fun times ahead.

Go back for the repeat X-ray regardless. Scaphoid fractures don’t always show up on the first X-ray so you should have a second one if it is suspected. Standard practice to bring you back. Missed scaphoid fracture can cause serious long term issues.

Back when I was at school, on holiday in Wales I slipped on rocks at the seaside and did the classic of putting my hand out to stop myself. Was I bit painful, but carried on playing around on the rocks.
Next morning, however, the pain was excruciating, no matter how I held it, and it had swollen to the size of my bicep, and I have very skinny wrists!
A trip to the local hospital saw me with a cast on my arm, and exemption from sports at school for the rest of the year.
The actual injury was a small chip off one of the carpal bones, but the actual pain was far more than the tiny injury would have suggested, probably as much down to bruising as the fracture.

Yep get it checked, broken bones in both hands. Not pleasant. Due to late presentation on one of them it’s never going to be right again and I endured a week of hell with it. Also broke my schaphoid about 10 years back and that is coming back to haunt me for not getting it fixed.

Broke both mine though not at the same time. One was very, very obvious the other just a bit sore and a bit swollen.

Go get it checked out.

Go to your minor injuries if there is one, a&e if there isn’t (many places don’t have miu’s drac)

Many places do though if there isn’t one then yes it goes without saying to go to an emergency department.

Broken bones are rarely terribly painful in an agony context. I still managed 14 laps of Donington with a broken wrist.

I recently broke my elbow at BPW and my other arm was way worse pain.

I broke mine last year, didn’t get it seen to until 7 weeks later and it had virtually healed.

Mainly out of stupidity, but it’s done now. The more painful part was the tendon damage, it’s 10 months now and I can just about manage 1 press up, so it got quite weak & inflexible.

I broke my scaphoid and another bone, ended up just strapping it up hard, and carried on riding for the rest of the season. Not my best idea

When I did mine I got intravenous morphine as it was displaced and yes, it hurt like buggery. Not really at first, that was more shock as the middle of my forearm was bent but afterwards once the adrenaline wore off. The morphine didn’t stop it hurting but I was high so I didn’t care. At 4am though when it did wear off it was bloody agony and as I was waiting for an op it was nil by mouth, so no extra top ups of pain relief. Finally got the surgery about 4pm so that was a long day indeed. Managed to do 3 bones in one sitting, radius, ulna and scaphoid. That was about 14 years ago and healed up pretty well although it aches when it’s cold.

Scaphoid break here, sore but not painful unless I tried opening jars. Didn’t show up on X Ray’s till 2 weeks later and I’d been treating it as a sprain. Ended up with a Herbert screw and bone graft to fix it 🙁