I've been told it's the most common fracture. Mine was a "straightforward" distal radius fracture (English: thumb-side forearm bone fractured just below the wrist). No operation or re-setting was necessary.
And yet after 6 weeks in plaster + 2 weeks after the plaster was removed my wrist still hurts a fair bit and I can only bend it half of it's original range. Seen specialists - they say all is good, just need time.

if anyone had a similiar fracture i'd like to hear about your experience, IN PARTICULAR, HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO RECOVER TO NEAR ENOUGH TO NORMAL TO GET BACK ON THE WATER??? Did you do anything to recover faster? Did your wrist regain its original bending range AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?

i "fractured" my wrist many years ago on a motorbike - before physio abundance
did light weightlifting daily and gradually increased weight over time
when measured a couple of months later, it was over 90% back

now my other wrist hurts :-) :-(

nowadays = PHYSIO !!!

I fractured mine a few years ago.
Was a messy break, most of the Doc's in the public hospital were saying it would require surgery. But the head of the emergency ward looked at the x-ray and said "I think I can jerk all that back in place".

He did, set it, 6 months later could still hardly move it and was in heaps of pain after a day on the tools.

Went back and was told "Its as good as it will get"

I ended up going to a specialist in Sydney, he x-rayed it and said it had been set on a bad angle(who did this to you?) which is why I had limited movement and pain.

Long story short, he re-broke it, took some bone from my hip to extend one side of the bone to straighten it, added a plate and scews to hold it all together.

End result,,I have full movement again, but still occasional pain if I put it under heaps of pressure.
Moral of the story,,,, get a few different doctors opinions if you dont get full range of movement back or are getting pain after 6 months.

lotofwind said...

I fractured mine a few years ago.
Was a messy break, most of the Doc's in the public hospital were saying it would require surgery. But the head of the emergency ward looked at the x-ray and said "I think I can jerk all that back in place".

He did, set it, 6 months later could still hardly move it and was in heaps of pain after a day on the tools.

Went back and was told "Its as good as it will get"

I ended up going to a specialist in Sydney, he x-rayed it and said it had been set on a bad angle(who did this to you?) which is why I had limited movement and pain.

Long story short, he re-broke it, took some bone from my hip to extend one side of the bone to straighten it, added a plate and scews to hold it all together.

I reckon all that felt really nice and pain free. Not!

Thanks guys for sharing your experiences. At least now I know 2 weeks out of plaster is nothing and I need to be patient- the doctors I saw where not very forthcoming with time estimates.

"Played football one Saturday, and wrist hit he ground and bent normal distance. man the pain was horrible. Didn't break it again, but it ensured I had full movement from then on"

mineral1 - it is really good to hear it won't break if bent the full distance - I was wandering what would happen if it was forcefully bent like that. The pain must have been unbearable though - mine hurts like all hell if I try pushing it past its current range.

lotofwind - after reading your story I do feel lucky... although I'm not there yet - I guess I'll wait and see.

I broke both my wrists at the same time and it was 1.5 hours to the hospital NOT FUN !!!!