Hello again, finally made it to 'north of Tucson/south of Phoenix. Will be here until mid April then back to home in North Central Washongton; Okanogan valley.
What a journey this broken radius has been. Mentioned I had surgery on August 8th, had the plate and screws "Installed!" And had carpal tunnel release also as the surgeon said it was good to do that along with the surgery since often the tendons contract ??? I sense that's where my problem lies. The was pain before the surgery, obvious from the broken radius...and moderately severe. Although there wasn't numbness until after the surgery. For the first two weeks I thought "must be normal" but when it continued I vegan questioning. At my last visit with the surgeon; September 30th, he agreed there must be a problem. He stated he could have cut or nicked a nerve or ?He gave me a prescription for nerve testing and I'll make an appointment for that tomorrow. I also have not started PT as he wanted me to wait ??? But said to start when I arrived here so I'll schedule that tomorrow as well.
I am so frustrated! The numbness with an unexplainable pain is causing me to be irritable, depressed, frustrated, angry......... I've ordered the compression gloves to be awaiting my arrival but they beat me here so was returned! I reordered and hoping for a delivery early this coming week. Reading your reply has given me hope and some direction and I'm hoping for as positive an outcome as you described. I hesitate to be very active with my hand (thankfully not my dominate hand) because it flares up the pain and numbness. At over 2 months post surgery, I'm still using narcotics!
I am so open to suggestions so fire away ! My husband and I are here, Florence Az, working at an RV resort for the winter season and I'm concerned that my hand will hamper my performance. My job is taking care of their plants which shouldn't required too much manual labor and I can prune and plant with my dominate hand. We'll see!
Thank you for your helpful responses...nice to know I have someone who can relate😳. I'd be happy to give you my direct email if there is a secure way to do that. So far I don't see a place to do that.
Thanks and sending positive thoughts your way!
Shirl

I think there's a way for us to do private messaging. I've had a couple of hectic days but will try to clarify within the next couple of days. I'm in Oregon so maybe when you return to home ground we're not so far away from each other. Hang in there. Hope you've received the gloves by now and that they're giving you some relief. And the sooner you can get going with PT/OT the faster you will start to see results. If I don't get back to you by Saturday give me a nudge.

One other thing before I conk out. Re. Your docs comments about the numbness and pain - the "nerve might have been nicked" comment is word for word what I got from my surgeon when I told him what misery I was in! I think they must learn this stuff in medical school in the class titled "How to cover your (behind, but not so politely)." Not helpful or informative and certainly not designed to give you hope!

Remember, I broke both bones and I'm o.k. now. So don't give up hope.

Hi All

Want to report on my break!

I severaly broke my distal radius and chipped my ulna in right hand. 10/26/14

I have surgery 10/28/14, installed a plate and 6 screws.

So, I am out of the casting and have a splint that I wear sometimes. Pain is none when still but when I move the wrist obviously it still hurts as the bone is still healing and tissue ect still healing. ROM is coming back but obviously slowly.

Anyways. Things are going decent but. My main issue is my numb thumb. The left side of my thumb is numb and tingly. I am about 7 weels post op.

Sunflower, how is your numbness doing?

Sunflower - Any luck on regaing feeling in fingers? my thumb is still numb 6 weeks after op. JW THANKS!

I haven't heard anything from Sunflower since her last posting from Arizona. I hope this means she's doing well.
Knutson, Sorry you're having to deal with this. It took almost 4 months and strictly following my OT therapy before I got rid of all the numbness. In my case I had not only the thumb but also the index and middle fingers which were numb and painful at the same time. As I posted earlier, wearing a full-coverage Isotoner compression glove (bought from Amazon) was a turning point for me. Have you tried that yet? Have you been given Theraputty to use as part of your therapy? I used it daily twice a day as part of my therapy and it helped a lot. I also found using good old kitchen-variety rubber bands very helpful - I bought a bag of assorted lengths and tension levels from the Dollar Store and sorted through them to find very small ones to use between two fingers, and longer less-tension ones to place over all my fingers. For the small band I place it over two fingers, or the thumb and pointer finger, and stretch the bend repeatedly. For the larger band, I place it over the tips of all five fingers and thumb and stretch it out. These are actually standard carpal tunnel exercises that I hadn't done for years but resurrected. Worked really good. I think the thing about all three devices - glove, theraputty and rubber bands - is that using them both strengthens the muscles and ligaments while also improving circulation in the affected areas. Just a word of caution, though, if I tried to move too fast to increase the levels of difficulty, I paid. I had to start slow and increase difficulty slowly.

At this point my R wrist, the broken one, actually feels better than my L, which doesn't have the advantage of the carpal tunnel release. However, if I'm faithful at doing my exercises daily (usually in the evenings while watching TV) both hands and wrists feel good and very functional.

If I can be of any further help, don't hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes to all for a Happy New Year!