My Wrist

[Ben90]

I'm 20 years old and have been roller skating since I was 12. Falling happens quite often since I am always pushing the limits. Over time it seemed my wrists were getting progressively worse. After the problem got really bad, I subconsciously stopped falling on my wrists and just let my body take it, which has been working out decent.

Over time the problem slowly faded away as I adopted this new falling "technique". I stayed away from obvious problem things like push up position and things seemed to be getting better. Id say a year has passed since my left wrist has last been trouble-sum.

Yesterday at work I managed to bring back the pain somehow. There was never any impact or event that I can pinpoint where it started hurting, it just started again. Since I fear my wrist has been permanently damaged from skating I come to you health experts to see if there is anything I can do to reverse the damage.


This is basically the painful area. Most of the pain comes from bending the wrist at certain angles and not using any of my hand muscles. Pushup position and the opposite of that are what makes it hurt. Bending it sideways feels fine.

Since it seems to be a soft tissue issue that is not related to muscle (ligament/tendons/cartilage) would doing certain exercises strengthen this area or just damage it more?
It has had time to rest in the past since it has been in a cast for a few months from an unrelated scaphoid injury, although it didn't seem to do much. Hopefully I have given enough information and I know I really should see a doctor, but I'm seeing if this is something really easy to diagnose.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

When was your scaphoid injury? Did the MD warn you about potential risks of avascular necrosis (AVN - essentially the scaphoid loses blood supply and dies). The scaphoid is the most common bone to suffer from AVN, especially post-injury. To be perfectly honest, I would suggest you see a doctor. If it's not AVN, thank God and get a prescription for PT. There are so many things in that area, it's not even funny - radiocarpal joint, triangular fibrocartilage complex and the ulnocarpal joint, all the carpal joints in between the radius, ulnar, and each other, all the capsules and ligaments, and well over 10 muscles crossing the wrist. You're gonna need to see someone in person to approach that level of complexity properly. BUT FIRST RULE OUT AVASCULAR NECROSIS!

 

[Ben90]

I fractured my scaphoid late december 2009. I remember my doctor telling me that since the scaphoid doesn't get much blood flow, it could potentially have problems healing back to normal. When I got my cast off he said everything appeared to have healed perfectly.

I don't feel anything abnormal pressing that bone or any others as hard as I can. Obviously I can't reach the bones in the inner wrist, but its a good sign to me at least that my scaphoid doesn't hurt in any way. Poking and prodding around, it really feels like a soft tissue thing.

Do you think I would cause any major problems if I grabbed a 5-10 pound weight and started doing wrist curls and see if there is any improvement in a couple of weeks. The overall time line of this is so long that I'm not worried of the wasted time of not seeing a doctor for a while, just of making something worse.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Ok, so it was a while back then. It really depends on the problem. Let's say it's a ligamentous issue, doing curls isn't going to help anything and the stretch on the ligament could aggravate the injury. If it's a joint issue (potentially joint surface or joint capsule), you could just be moving the joint where it does the most damage. I'm not trying to say it's any of these, but non-specific exercises aren't likely to make it better and have a risk of making it worse. If you're truly concerned about it, you should see someone. If the pain lasts for longer than 2 weeks from this point, you probably should get it checked out - pain for that long isn't normal. Something's off.

 

[Ben90]

Well thank you very much for your time. I guess I'll be getting it checked out soon, hopefully it won't be too expensive.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Well thank you very much for your time. I guess I'll be getting it checked out soon, hopefully it won't be too expensive.

No worries - wish I could examine it myself to help you out more.