How painful is a broken wrist?

I reckon more cyclists break scaphoids/wrists than collarbones, just gets diagnosed far less often. Can carry on riding with a bandage and watching out for potholes. Not so easy with a floppy arm.

Mate of mine had his fixed a few years ago after the bone started dying off. Reckoned it’d been broken nearly 10 years earlier and never fixed/diagnosed.

Plan was to fix it with a graft and pins but the Surgeon asked him if he wanted to ride mtbs or road bikes in future if they needed to fuse the joint. 😯
Luckily enough he just has an odd looking wrist instead……

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

Sorry disagree with this.

I went to a minor injuries in Scotland which was nurse led. The nurse x-rayed me, couldn’t see the fracture. She sent the image to the nearest hospital for the useless F1 On Call doc to review, who couldn’t see a fracture either.

I then sent a picture of the X-ray to Mrs FD (ortho surgeon) who said it was fractured. 2 days later I went to A&E in Leeds where it was re x-rayed, and seen by an Ortho Surgeon and guess what, its fractured.

Minor injuries is good if its minor (ie doesn’t need a specialist) if you have potential broken bones you need to see some one who knows what they are talking about… or take your chances and risk having a less mobile wrist for the rest of your life.

Yet the OP went to a MIU and has been treat correctly. 😆

Yet the OP went to a MIU and has been treat correctly

Read what I said above 😀

Yeah I presented at A&E – no other option
My 10 year old scaphoid was diagnosed as fresh (TBH I didn’t know it was broken back then) Missed another fracture and had 5 examinations before somebody manged to get it right.

The part where you disagree? 😕

Sorry Drac, no disagreement just that hands are a bugger to diagnose so slagging off minor injuries vs A&E is pointless

Precisely Mike which is why they usually do a follow up with a review, either a senior radiographer or consultant. Funcy just queue jumped that part, who can blame him.

Managed to do a complicated fracture of the radius and ulna when I was at uni that needed pinning and plating. It didn’t really hurt, and I’d have not bothered with hospital if someone hadn’t forced me into a car and driven me there.

This is STW though, so expect a few hundred posts of ire based on the fact that A&E is reserved solely for people who are clinically dead on arrival and that anything else is wasting their time.

“You THINK you’ve broken your wrist?! Take this herbal remedy and make an appointment to see your GP in a year if broken shards of bone are still sticking out of your arm. And even then you’re probably wasting their time.”

Depends how badly, broke my left when I was a teenager on a dry ski slope, was more concerned about my scuffed knee, but the swelling got worse and worse, but I was quiet happy to walk around A&E waiting to be plastered.

Broke the right in a cross country running race a few years later, that hurt a lot more, but I had to walk a few miles back to school so I had more time to think about it.

Broke the left one again 5-6 years ago, much worse, rotational fracture or something, I think they said my two forearm bones twisted over each other or something – instant football swelling and seriously painful, painful enough for me to pick up my left arm with my right to check for damage and remove my watch before it started to cause problems with the swelling, didn’t even notice I’d lost the end of my right elbow and was pissing blood everywhere until later on, but when I did… shit the bed.

I had similar a month and a half back.

Fell hard on the wrist, knew I’d done something to it, finished the lap of the trails I was on, went home, got a bath and some food, didn’t want to go to A&E.

Woke up and there was a fair bit of pain and a moderate amount of swelling and although I could move fingers and stuff, there was clearly something up as the weight of carrying my hand, let alone picking stuff up, was quite painful.

Turned out I’d broken both radius and ulna. Everything was in place though, so treatment was just a splint for 3-4 weeks and no MTBing for 8 weeks (well, they told me not to fall off for 8 weeks). Back on the road bike 4 weeks after, with a bit of pain over bumps (And a big fear of falling which would almost inevitably re-break the same wrist), and it’s getting more rare to get any pain over bumps now. Need to finish the project bike I started off soon now!

Go to A&E, sounds like there’s a good chance you’ve broken something, they will do some checks prior to taking X-rays too.

When I did my 6 months as a&e sho 22 years ago they made a point of showing us all the X-ray of the calcaneal fracture that one of the previous sho’s had missed…. Funnily enough I didn’t see another one while I was there…
Nurse in Sheffield Minor injuries unit correctly diagnosed my broken collar bone, my broken wrist, my wife’s metatarsal fracture, her friend’s tibial plateau fracture etc etc.
When I attended Sheffield northern general a&e with my 4 part proximal humerus fracture, which was to go on to need 2 operations the a&e reg said it was a soft tissue injury before sending me round to X-ray. His examination was only cursory and he hadn’t detected the obvious bit of bone moving about. He then spotted one of the fractures on the X-ray, the second fracture also wasn’t spotted by the (non upper limb specialist) consultant in fracture clinic, only by the shoulder specialist I saw the next day. The third fracture (3 breaks=4 parts) was only discovered during the surgery to plate it.
I’m not sure what my point is, other than sometimes it’s hard to see fractures in X-rays.

You mean it’s down to the individual not the department Docrobster? How very odd.

Precisely Mike which is why they usually do a follow up with a review, either a senior radiographer or consultant. Funcy just queue jumped that part, who can blame him.

Not quite, I guess its the one perk of knowing the NHS, and the other half being an Ortho.

Sometimes MIU’s etc can get it right, a lot of the times they get it wrong, because they are not an expert in that specialty. So then the specialist only gets to see it at 10 days plus, at which point things have got worse, bones started to fuse meaning ops more necessary.

OP was asking for advice, so the best advice is to get to see the specialist if you can (if you suspect a break or requires x-ray), and that isn’t going to happen at MIU or Minor Injuries.

Lots of people think the NHS would save money if services were made consultant led, however no one as yet has done the work to confirm it….

Quite the opposite drac. Those Drs that didn’t see the fracture lines on the X-ray (or saw them but didn’t realise it was not two views of one fracture but two different fractures) didn’t have to get it completely right because the department pathway made sure I was always going to end up seeing the upper limb surgeon. The minor injuries unit is part of that pathway so I’d have ended up with the same outcome if I’d gone there. (Only reason I didn’t was it isn’t open at 11pm)
The detail that is missing from FD’s story is what would have happened if they were staying in Scotland. Review clinic with a consultant and fresh X-rays if still tender in a few days or just discharged. In other words features of the department not the individual are what prevents cock ups generally. But obviously the individuals managing the department have to get that right, as they can’t prevent f1 docs missing X-rays.
(I’m quite surprised an f1 was allowed to make that call. Times may have changed but when I was a pre-reg house officer we were not allowed to make discharge decisions. Hence no prho’s worked in a&e.)
I suspect the difference is rurality. It’s s risk of going to out of the way places that we all take.

Funkydunc. Both times I went to miu’s I was seen by orthopaedics the next day, and by specialist in that part of the body the same or next day again. Surgery within 4 days both times. It’s possible but probably not in a small local health system. Hence the move to trauma centres I guess

I think we’re singing from the same song sheet Doc.

Slight hijack while there is medical people around.
I’m in alps. Broken elbow and wrist. In a massive cast. Got note for flying etc.

What do I do when I’m home? A and E? GP for a direct referall to bone people?

Worth contacting someone now to arrange something?

chrisdw – Member

Slight hijack while there is medical people around.
I’m in alps. Broken elbow and wrist. In a massive cast. Got note for flying etc.

What do I do when I’m home? A and E? GP for a direct referall to bone people?

Worth contacting someone now to arrange something?

In my experinance you’ll need to speak to GP first about a referal, I was an out-pacient for 12 months with broken bones, they discharged me with a friendy “if you have any problems you can just make an appoinment and come back” but when I tried I just got red tape and attitude from the admin staff.

Yes your GP should be able to sort you out with a fracture clinic follow up.
I agree Drac 😀

So 1 week on the pain in my scaphoid area has gone, and have decent range of motion without pain. However the outside of my wrist is incredibly tender to touch and if I try to squeeze my hand, as in a hand shake, there’s a very sharp pain. Done a bit of googling and feels like it’s the triquetrum area that’s at fault. Second most common area to fracture after the scaphoid. Feels like I’m going to need those follow up x-rays.. 😐

So.. The outcome of follow up appointment was that I have chipped my Triquetral bone, which is opposite side to the Scaphoid. Doesn’t really hurt that much and not in a cast luckily. However, I’ve had a letter asking me to go in as they want a look at some ligaments. Undecided whether to cancel or not, as not in much pain with it. Any thoughts?

However, I’ve had a letter asking me to go in as they want a look at some ligaments. Undecided whether to cancel or not, as not in much pain with it. Any thoughts?

Take the treatment, the things that they can do now are a lot more than the choices later

I’d far far prefer an untreated broken bone than untreated ligament or tendon damage. Bones heal after a few weeks and usually give minimal issues.
Tendons/ligaments can give decades of painful issues and lead to the need for quite serious surgery and long term recovery.

Take the appointment. Get it seen to.

Before it does start hurting.

@ghostlymachine sound advice BUT if you don’t have a fracture which requires immediate treatment you get shoved into the queue for orthopedics. I damaged my arm & shoulder on 12th June but didn’t actually break any bones, my referral from the GP (which was like getting blood out of a stone even though I can barely move my arm) has a first review set for 15th September!

I’m fairly sure, from experience, that I have rotator cuff damage but not having private health care I just have to wait. As I’ve had another x-ray to confirm no fracture I can at least see my local sports physio and try and get the arm moving again.

I know, from first hand experience, how good the NHS is if you have a life threatening injury but if you don’t it can take a very long time to get anything fixed.

I came off the road bike on Sunday afternoon and after a long, bloody, rain swept ride home decided the elbow was a bit to painful for my liking. A trip to A&E left me in a cast as a precaution as my wrist and scaphoid area were painful to the touch. Glass removed from elbow and a big nappy pad on my butt cheek. Cant feel anything now in the wrist area but bloody hell the shoulder muscles and arse cheek are sore.
Cast off this Friday hopefully for another x-ray to say all is well. Just started working again a month ago so this couldn’t have come at worse time.

Wife wants the bikes all on ebay.

So verdict was… GP sent me to A and E.
Initially very rubbish. Game me a fracture clinic appt over a week later when they didn’t have any idea what was wrong other than what I told them. Went back the following day after the GP phoned ahead and told them to x Ray me again.
I’ve got an MRI on my wrist on Thursday to see if it’s actually broken as the consultant wasnt convinced from the many many xrays I’ve now had.
Elbow cast has gone. Almost got full movement back. No pain just a bit stiff.