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.