# Wrist Fracture Recovery. What's your story?



## Extremo (Apr 1, 2012)

*Wrist Fracture Recovery?*

I suffered a distal radius fracture while hitting a drop on July 15, 2018. The surgeon put in a volar plate with 8 screws that same night. I also had a complete scapholunate tear and a complete ulna styloid fracture with some damage to my TFCC. The ulna styloid was not fixed, and my ortho seems to think the scapholunate tear was a prior injury, because it was pushed back together but has since separated again.

16 weeks later, I'm still having severe pain and stiffness in my hand. My flexion and extension is about 25% of normal. My distal and ulnar deviation is about 10-15%. I can now fully squeeze a piece of medium density memory foam but not much else than that. I'm worried about regaining my grip strength and ability to ride at the same level again. PT seems to just irritate it at this point and I'm worried about this pain turning into CRPS.

So I'm wondering how other's wrist fracture recovery has went. Is this somewhat common with this injury?


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## brandonsaccount (Jan 24, 2018)

I had the same thing happen on July 3rd, 2018. I had a plate installed a few days later. After about 8 weeks it was doing alright, and was doing projects around the house fine. Then at some point I started getting a shooting pain at the base of my thumb and soreness on the top of my wrist. After the 3 month period, I started trying to ride again. Each time left me sore so I took a break for a couple more months. Now it's been almost 7 months and I still experience a fair amount of soreness after riding, and my range of motion has greatly reduced. I'm really hoping it heals up by the time the snow melts around here.


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## Lucy Juice (Dec 29, 2010)

Extremo, how's your wrist these days? 

Found this thread looking for grip recommendations post wrist fracture... 

Had an open/compound ulna fracture and simple radial fracture (both distal) August 2018. Plates put onto both within hours. Loooong ass recovery; as of January, my ulna still wasn't quite fully healed. I graduated PT in January, as well, but still have TFCC pain occasionally. Those are generally damaged in these fractures. PT told me to proceed with caution in the gym (where I felt the most pain), and if it's still painful in another 6 months, my surgeon might have to do a little cleaning up when he takes my ulna plate out (probably November) or I can try steroid shots. Thankfully, the pain has improved. 

Still doing all my ROM exercises and PT strengthening but staying right underneath the pain threshold. I've been on the gravel bike but not the MTB yet (though I'm cleared to ride, trails have been muddy here). The ulna plate gives me trouble and it gets achy with big temperature swings, but it's getting a lot better. I can do planks, pushups, and I'm working towards hanging/pullups again. 

So... anyone have enduro-ish grip recs for small hands the first season back after a major wrist fracture? :lol:


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## Extremo (Apr 1, 2012)

Hey Lucy,

It'll be 8 months tomorrow ( a little over 34 weeks). The last 4 weeks I've seen the most progress. The nightly pain has started to go away and my range of motion is increasing to about 95%, which will probably be my new baseline. My grip strength is returning and I'm lifting weights again in the last few weeks. The first 7 months seemed hopeless, but it's really turned around lately. I haven't gotten on a bike yet because we still have a lot of snow on the ground here in NH but I feel I could ride XC trails without any issues. Strength and stability-wise I still have a little ways to go. I'm only about 70 percent from what I was at so I don't know how soon I'll be back on the downhill bike but again the progress is increasing more rapidly than it was in prior months so it could be sooner than I anticipated. I'll keep you posted. 

As for a good thin grip, I've found the Danny McCaskill Lizard Skin model is a narrow diameter. My grip is weaker the larger the diameter I'm holding so I'm avoiding grips with a lot of chunk to them for the time being.


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## driven916 (Jul 24, 2009)

Extremo/Lucy - how has recovery been going? Are you back to MTB yet? Any pain or discomfort from the repaired wrist?

I had an intra-articular fracture of my radius at the wrist which required surgery (11/20/19). I now have plates on the top and bottom of my wrist. So far recovery has been going well and doing physical therapy twice a week. Range of motion and grip strength are improving but still limited on how much force the wrist can take.


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## Extremo (Apr 1, 2012)

Hey Driven,

As of right now my wrist is probably as good as it's going to be. Every wrist injury is different. In mine, the scaphoid and lunate are no longer connected which allows both bones to rotate a bit preventing them from sitting correctly in the radial head. Hopefully you won't have that problem since you didn't report a scapholunate ligament tear. The other issue I have is DRUJ instability because the Ulna styloid broke off. Because it's not there there was nothing for my TFCC to heal back to. So while my hand is in the supinated or neutral position the ulna passes to the front of the hand. Fortunately in the pronated position, the position I grip the bar with it stays in place with no issues. The only issue I have with grip strength is my ring and pinky strength is only about 90%. The therapist says it's due to the DRUJ instability and will probably never fully return. I've just adapted and don't cover the front brake as much so I can get a full hand on the grip (being my left hand)

My therapist said it would be a 2 year recovery and I'd never return back to normal. It's been 18 months and I'm just now to the point where I don't notice the pain and discomfort on a daily basis. I feel almost back to normal but do have a bit of pain after long days on the bike. Just hang in there and do your therapy. It's just a very lengthy process.


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## driven916 (Jul 24, 2009)

Thanks for the update, Extremo. I'm glad to hear that you feel almost back to normal. It sound like your injury was very serious and at least you can still ride. Hopefully your condition can improve over time. Yeah, I've accepted that it can be a lengthy process so my focus is on healing properly on order to get as close to what I was prior to the accident.


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