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Wish me luck...(Injury Update)

DH Diva

Wonderwoman
Jun 12, 2002
1,808
1
Well, Monday I go in to get the results of what I hope is my last Cat Scan on my hand/wrist. This will determine if I can come out of my latest cast/contraption. My casts the last two months have been very weird. They have been multiple pieces, removable, and have had spring loaded attatchments to help stretch ligaments and tendons that have shrunk or are shorter because of the reattatchment. They have all been very uncomfortable.

My last Cat Scan looked okay but there were still at least 8 cracks visible in my scaphoid. The screw doesn't look like it had shifted though so thats good. And it looks like the bone graft had started to fuse with the original bone. My radius looked good and the head looked like it was once again attatched (no fracture lines were visible).

The biggest problem right now is all the soft tissue that was damaged. According to the doctors, my hand was completely sheared off my wrist, and the only thing holding anything together was my skin. They had to reattatch every tendon, ligament, muscle, and some of the nerves. Some of the nerves were stretched but still connected and most of those appear to be working correctly. I am still having some issues with activating certain movements in my hand. I try and move one way and something else moves another. So I am doing therapy to try and re-train the parts of my hand that still work. My pinky, ring finger, and middle finger all work fine. My forefinger and thumb are still not looking too promising. My forefinger moves through about a third of it's range of motion, but after that it's twitching and pretty inconsistent and it still can't bend all the way down. My thumb moves a little, but not much at this point, and not where it's really needed to be usable.

My actual wrist joint has just enough motion to not consider it fused. Foward I can bend it maybe 10 degrees (of 90), backwards it bends 20 (of 90), and side to side about half of what it should be. I should find out tomorrow if anymore gain of motion should be expected. My doctors keep telling me I'm lucky to have a hand at all, but I honestly don't feel that lucky right now. I guess we'll wait and see what they say on Monday. Any good vibes would be much appriciated. If this is as good as it's going to get I'm going to be a very sad monkey.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,037
7,554
wow, good luck. that's intense, especially about it being connected only by skin.
 

Tully

Monkey
Oct 8, 2003
981
0
Seattle, WA
I'm sorry to hear that your injury was that extensive. Good luck--I hope you'll ge able to ride again (hopefully, before too long).
 

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
You and Biggins should hang out :)

That doesn't sound too good, but hey, it could always be worse. Thats how I look at things.

So I may be totally out of the loop here, but, what happened?
 

DH Diva

Wonderwoman
Jun 12, 2002
1,808
1
GiantDHRider said:
after your rehab, do you still plan on riding downhill? best of luck to you. glad it was your hand and not your noggin or spine.
I'm sure I will still ride DH and freeride. I don't know if I will be able to race yet though. If your racing, you really can't go to an event and check out the course and be thinking, will my hand hold up to this?? If I can't do it 100% I don't know if I want to do it. Especially at the pro level. I also need to figure out some equipment issues. Right now I don't know if I will regain enough motion to be able to use a trigger or grip shifter. I tried out the new sti style mountain levers from shimano at their booth at Interbike. They had bikes set up on trainers that you could try and I could actually shift and brake, but would I be able to keep enough grip on my bars on rough terrain?? I don't know yet. It's going to be a year of trial and error. I know I won't race next season, but I'm sure I'll spend it figuring out how to ride again.

And yes, the one thing I can be thankful for is that it wasn't my neck. I still don't know how I didn't break it. I must be REALLY flexible because I landed square on my head from 15 feet up, and at the speed you exit the alter boy at (35ish???)
 

willpowa

Chimp
Sep 6, 2004
99
0
Don't sweat it! When I was 16, I went over the bars into a batch of broken beer bottles, took a shard of glass into my forearm that severed several tendons along with alotta nerves. Didn't have any movement from my wrist down for about 2 months, then it took about a year to get 50% movement/strength back, and so forth...All told, it took about 2.5 years to get back to the high 90th percentile of coordination and strength, with my index finger being the slowest to heal ( it still tires more quickly than the others). I'm 29 now...rarely think about it anymore!
Granted, my injury pales in comparison to yours, but it's a story of healing and longevity that might be applicable.
Don't be too impatient, you'll be kickin a$$ before long!
 

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
Feb 13, 2002
1,087
17
Seattle, WA
GOOD VIBES!

You'll ride again. They all do.

Positive thought will do amazing things. Tell your wrist that you love it and that you're sorry you gimped it and that it would be super awesome if it could heal up right.
 

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
Best of luck to you. I found postive thinking not only helped my efforts but also improved the resolve of my PT to keep working towards my goals. Putting away the bikes and focusing on other things also kept me from getting too frustrated early in the rehab process. Think of every PT exercise as a race and pin it.
 

DH Diva

Wonderwoman
Jun 12, 2002
1,808
1
Tomorrows the big day!! Thanks for all the well wishes! You guys and gals are the greatest!