Update on My Wrist
Since there’s not a lot of posts/blogs/forums/stories online about casting treatment for a TFCC tear (read: there aren’t any), I decided to document my experiences here. Besides, I’m sure some of my readers are curious as well. All the posts will be categorized with the tag “TFCC Tear Treatment” if you want to find the entire saga easily.
You see, all the info online that I can find, even the stories of others with this malady, have had the surgery or scheduled one. I haven’t found anyone in a cast for non-surgical treatment, but as I understand, that’s the default treatment. If the TFCC cannot heal itself, then you get the surgery. But I haven’t found anyone who’s healed with casting alone.
So we’ll see if this works. If anyone reading has found my site and healed with casting and physical therapy let me know! I’d love to hear your story.
Okay, so not quite one week in my full-arm cast and I can safely say this is a pain. Showering is an adventure with trash bags and duct tape, and yes, I have fashioned for myself a wire hanger itch-scratcher. I’ve bent the wire in half so it looks like an elbow, I’m not ripping up the padding in my cast, don’t worry about that.
My doc’s office didn’t give me a sling so after a few days of intense pain at holding it up, (I was crying, making my kids cry in the process) I went out and bought one myself–The Ultimate Arm Sling, if you must know. Aside from that, the Aleve wasn’t doing anything for me. since it seems as if my doc’s office is determined to torture it’s patients, they said to try Ibuprofen with some scattered Tylenol and some Vit-C, as Vit-C has been shown to help speed healing (I guess).
The sling has helped A LOT, but the cast is so heavy, it hurts my neck to wear it all the time. When I’m sitting I prop it on a pillow and when I’m doing chores, I’ll wear it.
The Ibuprofen and Tylenol seem to have helped better with pain management than the Aleve. Of course the sling is also a big help. When you’re holding up the cast with just your arm muscles, it would seem you are also engaging the ligaments in your wrist, as mine was on fire after just a couple of errands. So be wary of that if you have this injury with a big heavy cast. The point of the huge full-arm cast with the bent elbow is to prevent supination of the wrist, or twisting your arm to look at your palm. But it’s so hot and uncomfortable!
I get this cast off on February 9th, and after that is PT, so we’ll see what happens afterward. I’m wondering if the casting is nothing more than a “smoke screen” for health insurances to cover the surgery, to prove they did “conservative” treatment first. I seriously have not found any stories of anyone in a cast for a TFCC tear. Everyone with a story online talks about surgery.
Here’s hoping this works for me. I have no idea how big my tear is, but I’ve got to wonder if it got bigger over time, as my pain before I went to the doc was getting worse, not better… My fingers and strength in my left hand are so weak now. I don’t know if that’s because the cast is preventing the wrist to compensate for their weakness or what, but just taking the lid off the gallon of milk is a chore. I can’t hold on to anything to chop for dinner, either. Not just because its awkward, but because there’s no strength. And when I try to hold something harder, I feel my wrist pop and slide, like the bones aren’t stable.
That’s a bit scary for me. I have just over three weeks in this thing and I’m only feeling a little worse than when I got it on–with the strength in my hand, and the bone popping. (Gross, I know)
Anyway, I don’t know if I’ll need a brace after the cast but probably, considering I’ll need the PT.
People online talk about how you don’t really heal 100% from this injury, about how your wrist will always be weak. Mine’s been weak since I was 13, now it’s gonna be even moreso? I’m 35 now and already falling apart. Lovely.
Until the next update.
~~Becka
Becka,
I just found your blog and read with amazement your struggle with a TFCC tear that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Like you, I broke my wrist 10 yrs ago. This past year…past 6 months….my right wrist started hurting, a lot. I am in the military, so at first i thought i might have overdid it in the Gym or something (one too many pushups). I thought i could shake it off, but the pain kept getting worse…eventually it got to the pt where i couldn’t push open a door without pain. Sometimes…by the end of the end of the day….i would get to where i could grip a pencil–with my writing hand!
But…no big traumatic fall or injury to explain the TFCC tear. weird. TFCC tear was seen on MRI and hand doc tried splinting it (instead of casting) vice surgery to see if that worked. After about 3 weeks of splinting….the wrist did not feel any better at all. So we decided on Surgery.
I had the wrist arthroscopy last Friday. It went very well from what i can tell…but i was so sedated…what do i know. At least i was comfortable–no pain or anxiety, the drugs were wonderful. They kept me awake for the surgery…just sedated. The surgery was in the morning…i was ableto leave by late afternoon with my wife driving. Rt arm in an above elbow splint…dr tells me splint replced by above elbow cast this week for 3 wks…then 3 more wks in short arm cast then LOTS of PT
Lots of pain Sat an Sun…today was better. Heavily drugged on Percocet. In my case, felt like i had no choice but surgery. I’m 33 yrs old. What was i supposed to do? Live with wrist pain the rest of my life? Not be able to do ANYTHING with my dominant hand anymore? After a few days of splinting and the arm didn’t improve–I knew.
I hope you have better luck. The surgery wasn’t as bad as i feared—now lets see about the recovery….
Good luck. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Nate
NATE,
Thank you so much for your story. I suspect in people like us, a previous break in the joint predisposes us to other conditions, be it this TFCC tear, tendinitis, or arthritis. It seems every forum I go to is some golfing/tennis/weightlifting site.
I couldn’t remember any specific event that made my wrist hurt, aside from pushing myself up off my couch a few times and feeling an odd twang in there.
This must suck doubly for you having it in your dominant hand! At least I’m lucky it’s in my left. I’m glad to hear your surgery wasn’t too hard on you. I have a suspicion this cast won’t help me much. Maybe its because I can’t flex my wrist like before, but it seems like its worse now than it was before. I can’t hold anything in my injured hand for longer than maybe a minute, not a book, not my phone. And I can’t even rotate my wrist.
Even spreading my fingers hurts sometimes. And wiggling my fingers, like when you drum them on a table is a little funky. Sometimes my bones pop when I do that.
I’m not a doctor, but I’m hoping this doesn’t mean I’ll need the surgery. Not that I’m afraid, but that I’m so ready for this to go away! If I’m hearing you and the other websites right, after surgery, you need to be in another full-arm cast for 3-4 weeks.
I’m going batty and it’s just week one of my conservative treatment! If I need to eventually do this again life’s gonna suck. I type. A LOT. And the thought of putting my stories on hold doesn’t jive well with me. Maybe I’ll just have to get used to doing this one-handed.
Trying to keep a positive attitude through it all, but it’s hard at times. I’m usually a very patient person, but not for this.
~~Becka
Hi. I will have to get my dates and actual procedures typed up tomorrow. In a brief summary, I just had surgery #5, yes five, 2 weeks ago today. I am in a full arm splint right now and started in the same type of splint when this began 2 years ago from a fall & landing on my palms. I am 37 years old and at times wish I had never agreed to the initial surgery since it has been downhill since. Do you have an update? I’ll post my story in detail tomorrow.
Wow, 5 times?? ACK. No, I don’t have any more updates at the moment. I see my hand surgeon the second week of Sept. Hopefully there will be more news then.
So, are you having all these surgeries to fix what they didn’t fix before OR to fix what they messed up the previous surgery? I’ve got to wonder if some of my pain now is caused by the surgery itself. I didn’t have pain on the back of my hand or wrist before.
UGH. Just gotta wait until I see the doc again, I suppose.
~~Becka
Ortho Summary:
2/08 Fell over dog, landed on palms.
3/08 Dr. Mike Robichaux ortho eval. Left TFC tear w pos. variant of ulna, 90* full arm splint.
4/08 D/C splint. Mobic. MRI & arthrogram.
05/06/08 Sx – left wrist scope, repair TFC, ulna shortening osteotomy.
10/24/08 Fell in kitchen, landed on right palm. Ortho – x-ray pos. variance of ulna. Inj. Depo-medrol. 90* full arm splint.
02/05/09 Sx – Right TFC repair, ulna shortening osteotomy.
04/01/09 Delayed union right ulna, bone stimulator.
05/26/09 Sx – removal left ulna hardware. Right ulna hardware removed, graft from right radius for 6-7mm neg. var., new hardware applied, left with 4mm neg. var.
07/29/09 Dynasplint for right arm. Right EPL tendonitis. Celebrex.
08/24/09 Carpal tunnel & tendonitis right wrist. Celestone inj. right wrist. Celebrex. Graft sites healed on both radius and ulna.
10/29/09 DRUJ incongruity. 30-40* pronation.
01/15/2010 No chg.
03/25/2010 Sx – Right distal radius osteotomy, removal of ulna hardware, right carpal tunnel release, right 3rd dorsal compartment release w/ EPL transposition, 6-7mm negative variance of ulna improved to 3-4mm now.
06/02/2010 Right DRUJ instability & osteoarthritis. Naprosyn. Rec. Darrach procedure over wrist replacement w/ removal of radius plate.
08/17/2010 Sx per Dr. Eric George – hardware removal from radius, lat forearm hernia repair due to unclosed fascia, uhead ulnar head replacement.