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.
So I am very interested in reading this because I'm 2 months post op from my 3rd wrist repair surgery. The first one was to remove a cyst, then a year later I had no relief so back to another surgeon. He immediatley diagnosed a scapholunate ligament tearing, which was too big to repiar arthroscopically. So I was opened up and the ligaments were stitched together and re-enforced by 3 external pins which were removed 4 weeks later. (ouch)It was apparent that they were not ready to come out. So I go back to basketball and play through the pain because the doctor tells me I'm fine just some post-op pain. Eventually he sends me to a pain sepcialist who gives me a cortizone injection (my 2nd since the cyst removal) Another MRI later, the doctors still convince me the pain is not related to the ligament or anything done in the surgery (typical surgeon) Not satisfied, my parents take me to at least 5 more wrist specialists who all say to go back to basketball. Finally this past November 2009 we go to our final doctor. Still in constant pain we are all fed up. The doctor immediatley sees the large gap on the x-ray. I had to get a tendon taken from my arm and have it made into a new ligament, have a bone shaved, and another ligament cleaned up. I have 3 pins (which will be taken out in days at the hospital!)and 2 screws which will stay in forever. Sorry if I babbled, and you found this uninteresting but I don't often hear about people with this injury!
ReplyDeleteHow is your wrist now? I am heading in on Friday 4/9 for the same surgery.
ReplyDeleterichardgegg@yahoo.com
Hi, I had surgery for full tear of ligament in March 2010. I would appreciate emails of how good people recovered and what range of movements they now have.
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance
Rod (rodney_minter@dodo.com.au)
I had the same surgery, minus the pins, in March of 2010, so I have the four little scars on the back of my hand. I was in high school when I had the surgery, and now I am in college. My scars get me a lot of strange looks and a lot of questions. I have resorted to telling people that it is a snake bite. I'm interested in hearing about your experience with people's reactions to your scars.
ReplyDeleteMelissa (smartmissa@yahoo.com)
Surprisingly enough not many people have noticed (or at least commented) on my scars. I'm hoping they will continue to fade with time. At least we have a fun story to tell when people do ask. And I definitely agree that it looks like a snake bite!
ReplyDeleteI had that same issue i had a car accident and I had went 4 draft and they kept telling me my wrist looked great and I knew it wasn't I was in so much pain and I was loosing my grip strength and finally I got a MRI and I found a orthopedic that was listening he did a arthroscopic surgery and that didn't fix it and he went back to do open repair on the scaphalunate ligament an put pins in and fused the scaphoid and lunate carpal joints together there's still a lot of pain and I lost a bunch of my range of motion
ReplyDelete