Facing My Own Everest. One Hand, One Day at a Time

If you recently fractured your wrist or you're caring for someone who has, and you want to know what to expect after surgery and during rehabilitation, I hope you'll draw comfort from my experience. After a fall that broke my right wrist, I find myself facing my own Everest, so I improvised and learnt to cope with my non-dominant hand. 

February 12 (2016): I had surgery for a distal radius fracture and  distal ulna fracture, commonly known as a broken wrist. A titanium plate was fixed to my radius (the larger bone on the thumb side) and a K-wire to my ulna styloid (the head of the smaller bone on the little finger side). 

The K-wire's out!

April 28: I went in for day surgery and had the K-wire taken out under local anaesthesia.


Today, 5 months post-op: My non-dominant left hand has grown so used to picking up the slack sometimes I forget the right one's on the mend.  With my left hand, handling a fork and spoon, switching TV channels and opening doors has become as natural as kaya on toast. That's one unexpected icing on the cake.

As for my healing right wrist, about 90% of the post-op numbness and tingling pins-and-needles is gone, little is left of the tight muscle twitches and stretches I had to endure up to 2 months post-op, and my scars are fading into  works of art, except where the healed ulna scar was reopened to take out the K-wire. The scar is now slightly raised and thick. My surgeon said it's a hypertrophic scar, and the tiny knot of dissolvable surture used to close the wound that's popped out from it is a reaction to the surture. I can now lift the kettle to make coffee and recently went back to lifting my 2kg dumbell, thanks to exercises prescribed to regain wrist stability and strength. 

After nearly 20 outpatient visits and therapy sessions and an ongoing wrist strengthening home exercise programme, my recovery is on track, although I still have some way to go. I still sleep and wake up to a right wrist and fingers that stiffen up when when not used. My grip is weak and there's still some ulna-sided tightness, tingling in the base of my palm near the thumb and the odd ache after the grip and weight exercises. 

What I've Learnt From A Broken Wrist

As I write this, it has been exactly three months since I fell and broke my right wrist. I've had my fracture attended to in two hospitals, endured two rounds of surgery and countless therapy sessions. 

My life changed after a fall in February. 

I was taking a stroll after dinner and slipped on a pavement where puddles of water had collected from the rain earlier. I fractured the two bones in my right wrist. Somehow the bananas I was carrying fared better than I did. 

It happened overseas and I had to stay overnight at the hospital so the orthopedic surgeon could temporarily fix it. Through an external reduction procedure, he manoeuvred my displaced bones back into position and immobilised my arm in a cast, until I could have surgery back in Singapore.

I've had my fair share of bumps and falls in the past. My passion for the outdoors plus my flat feet have scored me the odd tumbles here and there. I once fell off a Segway and seriously sprained my upper right arm. I've parasailed, snorkelled, trekked and cycled, torn my skin and sprained my ankle more than once. 

So I'm used to bruises, cuts and sprains. Broken bones, hell no! There's always a first time and I hope this is the last.

A broken right wrist is one hell of a curve ball, especially when it's the hand I depend on for simple tasks I'd taken for granted. The hand I use to eat, drink, write, swipe my iPhone and iPad, hold my computer mouse, brush my teeth,  wash my face, switch TV channels and open the door. 

You get the picture.

My broken wrist, before and
after surgery

I was unlucky to break both the radius and ulna at the distal (wrist) end of my hand. My surgeon diagnosed it as a distal radius fracture and distal ulna fracture. The radius is the larger of the two bones of the forearm. It rotates around the ulna, allowing us to rotate our hand, turn our palm up or down, bend and straighten our wrist and elbow.

At the time, I felt no immediate pain even though my wrist was bruised, swollen and lost its colour pretty fast. My forearm felt numb and looked grossly odd, bent near the wrist. Not a pretty sight.

The impact of the fall had compressed the median nerve which controls sensation and movement of the hand. 

It's also the reason that until today, I still feel pins and needles in my fingers and wrist, and I wake up each morning to a tingling wrist, stiff fingers and a tight grip-like kind of feeling in my forearm that takes several minutes to ebb away.