# Severe wrist injury including scaphoid fracture



## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

Although I contributed in a previous thread, I thought I'd share the history of my accident in the form of a blog. I'm into my 4th week and will continue to update my progression. This should also serve as informational in regards to scaphoid fracture and healing time (or not as the case may be)

zeppidy | adventures and misadventures


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## Stillcole (Jul 31, 2013)

Awesome, I too am having an issue with this and this helps


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## markmyers (Feb 11, 2013)

lucifuge said:


> Although I contributed in a previous thread, I thought I'd share the history of my accident in the form of a blog. I'm into my 4th week and will continue to update my progression. This should also serve as informational in regards to scaphoid fracture and healing time (or not as the case may be)
> 
> zeppidy | adventures and misadventures


Ho Lee ****!! That is so gnarly. Godspeed sir. Makes my wrist sprain seem like tinkerbell. heal well


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## tedlove (Jun 23, 2011)

Dear god that first picture is gruesome. heal well man. I hope you can at least get on a trainer and get some cardio, cause that will surely help both physically and mentally. 

What is the outlook from your surgeon on the long term use of the wrist?


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

1o weeks later I got pins out today. will update blog tomorrow.

and yep,very wise tedlove. i bought a kurt kinetic trainer


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## Luis M. (Jun 9, 2013)

Wow, that pick of the protruding bone was crazy !! I wish you a quick and full recovery(physically & mentally), this experience must be extremely tough. I had a bad fall and hurt my wrist too, but good lord, yours looked as bad as could be! Sincerely, best wishes.


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

cheers Luis.

the mental game of 'what's the endgame going to look like' is very frustrating. i'm just doing all of my advised physio and keeping the faith.

your comment helps!



Luis M. said:


> Wow, that pick of the protruding bone was crazy !! I wish you a quick and full recovery(physically & mentally), this experience must be extremely tough. I had a bad fall and hurt my wrist too, but good lord, yours looked as bad as could be! Sincerely, best wishes.


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

4 month update

zeppidy | adventures and misadventures


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## SATalon (Aug 24, 2013)

Good luck man. My scaphoid break ended up being a "non union". They even tried a vascularized bone graph to get blood to the other piece...and that still didn't work. So now I've got a screw holding it together. 

Worst part is that the self taught doctors destroyed the cartilage between the scaphoid and the radius bone...leaving a bone to bone contact point. Just make sure your doctors are residents at the VA. You should be fine hopefully.


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

Thanks man. what's VA?

Yeah I got a screw in the scaphoid at surgery, 5hrs after the crash. Because my scaphoid was physically displaced, exposed out of the body there is more chance of a non union than union even with a screw. But I can hope! My reading on bone grafts applied down the track is that they are not that successful, particularly in people with my circumstance of such extreme bone displacement. Will be interesting to see what the x-ray reveals in a little less than a month and what my hand surgeon will recommend.



SATalon said:


> Good luck man. My scaphoid break ended up being a "non union". They even tried a vascularized bone graph to get blood to the other piece...and that still didn't work. So now I've got a screw holding it together.
> 
> Worst part is that the self taught doctors destroyed the cartilage between the scaphoid and the radius bone...leaving a bone to bone contact point. Just make sure your doctors are residents at the VA. You should be fine hopefully.


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## SATalon (Aug 24, 2013)

VA...veterans administration. I'm a vet. But what I can tell you from experience, is that even though I've got a constant level of pain my wrist, I've become accustomed to it. Occasionally there's a sharp pain...but mostly a dull throb most of the time. Sometimes it will ache more than other times, and there's more strain in my hand when I do certain things. 

For example, I've been involved in martial arts and fight sports for upwards of 30 years. I had to take a couple years off, but with some adjustments (I had to switch to orthodox) and patience I was able to take it up pretty well again. Just can't punch too hard with the left. Weightlifting can be done, but I'm limited on the weight I can press. Biking strains the wrist pretty good too, mountain biking moreso than road obviously. Long story short though, is that even with a non-union you'll be able to to do some athletic things, but you'll have to adjust a bit.


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

This has been the most helpful responses that I've received, I really thank you for it.

I've had no luck in trying to find info on 'living with a non union', so that there exists some decent life with activity is awesome to hear.

I currently have a sensitivity in the thenar eminence region of the thumb. But because I tore through that area and had significant soft tissue damage, I can't tell whether its healing pain from that or from the scaphoid....one masks the other in a sense to confuse the source of it.



SATalon said:


> VA...veterans administration. I'm a vet. But what I can tell you from experience, is that even though I've got a constant level of pain my wrist, I've become accustomed to it. Occasionally there's a sharp pain...but mostly a dull throb most of the time. Sometimes it will ache more than other times, and there's more strain in my hand when I do certain things.
> 
> For example, I've been involved in martial arts and fight sports for upwards of 30 years. I had to take a couple years off, but with some adjustments (I had to switch to orthodox) and patience I was able to take it up pretty well again. Just can't punch too hard with the left. Weightlifting can be done, but I'm limited on the weight I can press. Biking strains the wrist pretty good too, mountain biking moreso than road obviously. Long story short though, is that even with a non-union you'll be able to to do some athletic things, but you'll have to adjust a bit.


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## SATalon (Aug 24, 2013)

FWIW...I'm also in the process of transitioning into nursing. ; )

The TE region of the hand continues to bother me as well. After a good day of mountain biking it will be sore for a couple days following. Also if I've had a good session on the heavy bag or in fight training hitting pads. Basically I'll get a sharp pain upon contraction of the hand (e.g. picking up something or squeezing something). It subsides with rest however. 

For a good while, you'll have peripheral pain in various parts of your hand and arm...even your upper arm, apart from where the actual injury is. Similar to how a shoulder girdle injury causes pain in the deltoid musculature even though ground zero of the injury is to the deeper fasciae and tendons. 

Give it time. Apart from an auto-destructive condition, the body will almost always do what's best for itself without man's intervention whenever it can. So trust that your body is doing what it needs to to heal. The best thing you can do is rest the area, keep it as clean as possible...and EAT AND LIVE AS HEALTHY AS YOU CAN DURING THE HEALING PROCESS. You body will require nutrients to heal, and it's important that you're getting the protein necessary for rebuilding your muscle and bone tissues. Don't smoke either. It causes vasoconstriction thereby further inhibiting the healing process.


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## Hammie (Aug 1, 2013)

Damn, that it is one ugly mess.

Two weeks ago, I messed up my arm/wrist area when I shattered the tip of both my radius and ulna in an MTB accident.

I have a nice 6-7 inch scar and a metal plate and over a dozen screws permanently in my arm at my wrist. There was more damage to my radius and that is what the plate is attached to. The ulna had one or two chips and my Dr. felt they would fuse back with out issue. I had my surgery on 9/9. Start PT on Monday.

My surgeon is known as the best in the area. Hopefully, I will not have major issues down the road.

Good luck to you and your recovery!


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

update!

Hand injury, week 34+ | zeppidy


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## melster (Sep 11, 2009)

Good news! I broke my wrist in 2009, though it was nowhere near as bad as yours. I rarely even think about it anymore, and I can bench press almost as much as before my injury. Range of motion for me is about 90% of what it was before, but the change is negligible. 

Basically, I'm trying to say that given some time, your body will do wonders with healing. Keep your head up and have faith!


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

thanks man. good to hear you picked up too.

yes, it seems to get better all the time. i've certainly come a long way from a dark place.



melster said:


> Good news! I broke my wrist in 2009, though it was nowhere near as bad as yours. I rarely even think about it anymore, and I can bench press almost as much as before my injury. Range of motion for me is about 90% of what it was before, but the change is negligible.
> 
> Basically, I'm trying to say that given some time, your body will do wonders with healing. Keep your head up and have faith!


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

*Update:*

Unfortunately, 2.5 years following my accident my wrist worsened to the point where I had to get a full wrist fusion. I have two new blog entries if anyone is keen to read:

https://zeppidy.wordpress.com/


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## tedlove (Jun 23, 2011)

lucifuge said:


> *Update:*
> 
> Unfortunately, 2.5 years following my accident my wrist worsened to the point where I had to get a full wrist fusion. I have two new blog entries if anyone is keen to read:
> 
> https://zeppidy.wordpress.com/


Sorry to hear man. You able to ride with the wrist fusion?


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

tedlove said:


> Sorry to hear man. You able to ride with the wrist fusion?


So at 10 weeks out from surgery I've got go ahead to ride on bike paths. IF the fusion improves in another 2 months then I'll get go ahead to mtb. But even now, my wrist feels fairly weak and it's a confidence thing that I'm not ready to ride at all. Want to build up strength a bit before I commit to ride at all.


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## tubbnation (Jul 6, 2015)

Hey dude, this wrist thread grabbed my attention as I had a wrist injury many, many years ago, (not nearly as severe as yours) - and, I wanted to check to see how you were doing these days...

I hope things are progressing.


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## tony92231 (Oct 13, 2015)

Broke mine last year, took 10 months of physical therapy too recover


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## lucifuge (Jul 1, 2011)

woodchips said:


> Hey dude, this wrist thread grabbed my attention as I had a wrist injury many, many years ago, (not nearly as severe as yours) - and, I wanted to check to see how you were doing these days...
> 
> I hope things are progressing.


Thanks for your interest. The fusion worked really well, rock solid. Do have some tendon issues, but all up I'm stoked. I can totally mtb now and do it almost daily. Massive turn around from ground-zero...literally.


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## tubbnation (Jul 6, 2015)

lucifuge said:


> Thanks for your interest. The fusion worked really well, rock solid. Do have some tendon issues, but all up I'm stoked. I can totally mtb now and do it almost daily. Massive turn around from ground-zero...literally.


That's awesome, glad to hear!


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