1.5 Years Post Op

Some people have asked if I think the surgery was worth it. The short answer is yes.

I feel like I have almost full range of motion, (maybe 90-95%?). You can judge for yourself in the pictures below. Given that my Dr. told me I might only regain 70% ROM, I am pleased with the results. In terms of strength, it is a fair amount weaker now than it was before the injury, and gets tired pretty quickly if I try to do any heavy lifting. But it is considerably stronger than it was after the injury, before the surgery (I could not pick up a gallon of milk). Had I been better about continuing my exercises and weights with it in the 4 months and onwards time period, it would probably be stronger. And even if I worked with it now it would probably get stronger still. He did say that the younger you are, and the better you are about your exercises, the better results you will see.

Overall I am pleased with the results so far (not sure if Arthritis might be more likely in the future than if I had never injured it?). Yes it was somewhat expensive, pretty painful for a few weeks after surgery, and an inconvenience for a few months after surgery. But by about 8 months post op I was able to do pretty much anything that I had before the injury, and have not had any real lingering issues. Keep in mind though that if you play an instrument or competitive sports that not having complete ROM or strength might be a bigger deal.

According to my Dr., if I did not have the surgery, then I would have re-injured it within a year, which would probably then have required open surgery instead of arthroscopic, which would leave a bigger scar and lengthen the recovery process. Of course you have to keep in mind that this was coming from a surgeon! The other option was to cast it for 2 months and see if it healed on it's own (which he claimed would more likely cause Arthritis down the road than surgery). And if it didn't heal on it's own, then they still would have had to do surgery, and once again it likely would have been open as opposed to arthroscopic. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who went this route though.

So take a look, and see if you can even tell which wrist it was (hint... see older posts?)!

Physical Therapy

I can't believe it's already been over a year since I had the pins out! Sorry for not updating sooner and not seeing your comments earlier. Hopefully this will still be helpful. For those of you that have since had the surgery, how are you doing?

The week after I had the pins out, I started PT. I went once a week for about 6 weeks. Overall it was helpful. However, there was a lot of it you can just do on your own. I started on my own with a small number of reps and no weight, just passively stretching it (don't force it with your other hand!) but doing it frequently. Basically as often as I thought about it (almost once an hour!). The more the better. Then I worked up to about 3 sets of 15 reps, in each of the 4 directions you can move your wrist, plus wrist circles, starting with 1 lb, 2lb, and finally a 3lb weight (after 6 weeks). I started with a small range of motion, not pushing it with the weights to the maximum ROM that I could, and again gradually increasing ROM with the weights. (Canned goods, or a bottle of water work well for the 1lbs if you don't have a weight). The PT said not to do isolated wrist exercises with more than 3 lbs and not to move up to the next weight size until I could do all 3 sets of 15 without struggling or being sore the next day. I also had some silly putty type clay that I carried around with me and would occasionally squeeze for 10-15 min. to work on increasing grip strength. At PT and on my own, I would also use lotion and massage the areas around the incisions to help scar tissue break down. One thing that I think was very helpful at PT that I could not have done on my own was this machine they had. I'm not sure what it's called, but they had me stick my arm inside it for about 15 minutes, and it was heated and had a bunch of sawdust inside that would spin around while I did my stretching exercises inside. Sort of like a combo of heat therapy and massage.

About 8 weeks after getting the pins out I went back to my Dr. for a checkup and he cleared me, with "full recovery"! He said I could pretty much do whatever I wanted, but that I shouldn't push it initially and to just trust myself and how it felt to decide if I should or should not do something. He might have advised against this, but I was feeling pretty good and about 3-4 months after getting the pins out, so I went and played 18 holes of golf, and waterskied (2 separate weekends). Waterskiing did not hurt, but I could tell my wrist was still very weak, so I mainly used my other hand. Looking back, 18 holes of golf was not a good idea. It swelled up pretty good the next day, but more on the left and right sides of my wrist due to lack of strength and pushing my ROM, not by where the ligament tear/repair had been.

2 months post-op

Almost exactly 2 months after my surgery I went back and they took off my splint and pulled out the pins. It's not as bad as you would expect. The first one didn't hurt at all. The second one, which was in at an angle, just felt like a pinch at the site of the skin, and a little bit of pressure. And it was all over in 15 seconds. And yes, I kept the pins. They just put a bandaid over the holes, and they closed up externally at least within 24 hrs. My whole wrist is very tight and somewhat sore. When they first took out the pins I literally had no left to right range of motion, but I've already gained some back in 2 days. They gave me a neoprene brace like you can buy over the counter to wear whenever I might be in a place where it could get knocked around. But they want me to keep it free as much as possible (just be careful) and do my exercises every hour that I'm awake! I'm supposed to go to PT twice a week for 4-6 weeks now. He said there's usually a 1:1 ratio for time immobilized to regaining ROM, and a 1:3 ratio for regaining strength. In my case, I was immobilized for 2 months, so it should be 2 months to regain ROM and 6 months total to regain strength. And yet he said the goal is unrestricted use in 3 months... so we'll see.

The much anticipated video of the removal of the pins...




The 4 spots where they went in with the scope have healed nicely, but I can feel some scar tissue under the one on the bottom right mainly (probably closest to the ligament that was torn/repaired_.


Where the pins came out, already closed up after 24 hrs.

1 Month Post-Op

I went back to the Dr. today. They took more xrays and put on a new splint. He said everything looks great and that my wrist is healing nicely around the pins. I am now allowed to take the splint off up to 6 times/day to move my hand around some to prevent it from getting so stiff (but this involves undoing and redoing the ace wrap every time). It still hurts (I'm still taking 1 -4 aleve per day) and is still pretty swollen just above the site of the ligament repair, but he said this is normal and in comparison to other people, was not very swollen. He said he could give me some stronger pain meds, but I declined. He also asked me to describe the pain, and if it was the same or a different feeling as before the surgery. I told him it was different, that it just aches, and feels like I have a nail in my wrist. This seemed to be good news (that it didn't feel the same as before the surgery). Mainly it's just annoying and uncomfortable, but I've gotten much more used to it, and at times if I hold very still and think about something else I can't even tell that anything's wrong. All in all the 4 weeks have gone by more quickly than I thought they would. Half way there! I go back in 4 weeks, at which time they'll take out the pins.

10 days Post-op

Friday afternoon I noticed a tiny spot on my thumb that was numb. I took off the outermost ace wrap, thinking maybe it was too tight, even though nothing felt too tight. But by Friday night the numb area had gotten much bigger, so I paged the on call nurse and she told me to come in monday morning (today). 24hrs later, by the time I went to bed Sat night, my thumb was basically back to normal, but I went ahead and went in this morning. The doctor didn't really say what could have been going on, and when I asked he said that something was probably too tight. My speculation was that since I'd had more mobility in my thumb and had been using that hand more, something became inflamed and was pressing against a nerve, or when I moved my thumb the pins were rubbing something the wrong way. So they put me in a bigger, more normal splint, and my thumb is back to being immobilized. While I was there they went ahead and took out the stitches, and told me to come back in about 2 weeks.



"Short-arm thumb spica splint"

1 Week Post-Op

I went back to the Dr for my follow up today. They took the bandage off, had me move my fingers around some, took some xrays, put a splint back on, and told me to come back next week to get the stitches taken out. He said everything looks good. The swelling has gone down a lot and this time the splint is a much lighter weight/smaller splint, and my fingers and thumb have more freedom. So thats's nice. I might actually be able to use 2 hands to type soon. But it also kinda freaks me out because my wrist feels much more exposed, and like I could mess something up. But the Dr basically said my bones aren't going anywhere (due to the pins), even if it hurts or feels awkward. They also made a sort of trap door in the splint, with one part that is removable, with velcro. So if I happen to go for a walk or something and get sweaty, I can access the pins and gently swab the area around them with some peroxide. Very cool. Apparently there is a whole associates degree for learning how to design and make such things... "orthopedic technology". Who knew! I also found out that the pins will stay in the whole 8 weeks (7 more), not 4 weeks like I thought he originally told me. And of course I will need PT after everything is said and done. He said I'll prob only regain 66 - 75% range of motion even after PT. I guess fortunately I don't play a sport or instrument competitively where that might matter more. Oh, and for the grand finale... in answer to everyone's questions of how they remove the pins at the end: they just yank them out.

Seeing the pins for the first time...



4 stiches that will come out next week, one for each spot that they inserted the scope . And of course the 2 pins. (the purple line is from a marker, not bruising, and some of the yellowish-orange discoloration is from the iodine? that they scrubbed my arm with before surgery).




2nd splint: my fingers and thumb have more freedom now, and the swelling has gone down a lot since day3.

3 Days Post-Op

look ma', no knuckles!



2 days after the surgery I switched to just taking Aleve because I decided I would rather be in a little more pain than be dizzy and tired all the time. I think the day after the surgery was the worst in terms of the pain, and the day after that was pretty bad too. But 3 days post-op I put on real clothes for the first time and I left the house to get lunch (I was starting to go stir crazy not being able to do anything!). 4 days post op was the first day I woke up truly feeling better (though still in pain), and the next day I went back to school/work. However, I think I tried to do too much too quickly. I was exhausted that night, and my shoulder/upper bicep started cramping because it was so tired.