PeteH*
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2011
- Messages
- 105
Hi all.
Have myself a nasty wrist injury which has kept me from climbing or doing any training at all for almost four months. I'm at the point where it's no better despite regular powerballing (as per physio/wrist surgeon advice) and I'm wondering about second opinions/pursuing a surgical option vs just going back to *very* limited climbing as carefully as possible and seeing what happens. Have read a few posts on here from others with wrist injuries but no long-term outcomes, which is what I'm interested in. Has anyone had successful wrist surgery or diagnostic arthroscopy, or can report longer term outcomes from a wrist injury that sounds similar to mine?
Brief description:
Probably happened dyno-ing to a horizontal pinch indoors; no pain at the time but instantly felt unstable, like my hand and my arm wanted to part company on particular holds. Not bad on crimps (or any holds with the wrist extended), although it feels like collateral ligaments (at either side of wrist) are taking strain that they shouldn't be. Pulling on any holds with the wrist in neutral or flexed (ie bent towards the direction the palm faces) is very uncomfortable in a dull unstable sort of way. Can't even half-crimp bodyweight two-handed. Slopers are basically impossible - they're much more uncomfortable.
I can also reliably cause a lot of pain by forced hyperflexion of my wrist (pushing the back of my hand so that the palm faces the elbow). Most pain feels like it's right in the middle of the wrist, but this manoeuvre makes it hurt slightly more on the ulnar (little finger) side.
More details for the keen:
- I had a partial tear of my scapholunate ligament (volar fibres) six years ago (torquing off a fist jam I think) and had an MRI arthrogram then - I was back climbing within a month or two and have climbed F8a and Font 7C since without noticing much impairment - very occasionally my wrist would feel a bit "loose" on certain holds.
- My MRI arthrogram in December was essentially unchanged from six years ago, which I interpret as either a) I've repeated the same injury, which had healed, but it's worse this time, b) I've torn whatever was holding my wrist stable after the original injury (which never healed), but it's too small to show up on a scan 8 weeks post-injury and/or radiologists don't know enough about climbing biomechanics to diagnose the new injury.
- I'm a doctor (ICU/anaesthetics), which has helped with getting a quick surgical review and imaging, but I'm still not sure I've really got a diagnosis. The literature on scapholunate injuries (and wrist biomechanics in general) is focused on axial loading (e.g. press-ups, pushing up out of a chair) and I've barely found any info which feels relevant to the sort of traction loads we exert in climbing.
Many thanks.
Have myself a nasty wrist injury which has kept me from climbing or doing any training at all for almost four months. I'm at the point where it's no better despite regular powerballing (as per physio/wrist surgeon advice) and I'm wondering about second opinions/pursuing a surgical option vs just going back to *very* limited climbing as carefully as possible and seeing what happens. Have read a few posts on here from others with wrist injuries but no long-term outcomes, which is what I'm interested in. Has anyone had successful wrist surgery or diagnostic arthroscopy, or can report longer term outcomes from a wrist injury that sounds similar to mine?
Brief description:
Probably happened dyno-ing to a horizontal pinch indoors; no pain at the time but instantly felt unstable, like my hand and my arm wanted to part company on particular holds. Not bad on crimps (or any holds with the wrist extended), although it feels like collateral ligaments (at either side of wrist) are taking strain that they shouldn't be. Pulling on any holds with the wrist in neutral or flexed (ie bent towards the direction the palm faces) is very uncomfortable in a dull unstable sort of way. Can't even half-crimp bodyweight two-handed. Slopers are basically impossible - they're much more uncomfortable.
I can also reliably cause a lot of pain by forced hyperflexion of my wrist (pushing the back of my hand so that the palm faces the elbow). Most pain feels like it's right in the middle of the wrist, but this manoeuvre makes it hurt slightly more on the ulnar (little finger) side.
More details for the keen:
- I had a partial tear of my scapholunate ligament (volar fibres) six years ago (torquing off a fist jam I think) and had an MRI arthrogram then - I was back climbing within a month or two and have climbed F8a and Font 7C since without noticing much impairment - very occasionally my wrist would feel a bit "loose" on certain holds.
- My MRI arthrogram in December was essentially unchanged from six years ago, which I interpret as either a) I've repeated the same injury, which had healed, but it's worse this time, b) I've torn whatever was holding my wrist stable after the original injury (which never healed), but it's too small to show up on a scan 8 weeks post-injury and/or radiologists don't know enough about climbing biomechanics to diagnose the new injury.
- I'm a doctor (ICU/anaesthetics), which has helped with getting a quick surgical review and imaging, but I'm still not sure I've really got a diagnosis. The literature on scapholunate injuries (and wrist biomechanics in general) is focused on axial loading (e.g. press-ups, pushing up out of a chair) and I've barely found any info which feels relevant to the sort of traction loads we exert in climbing.
Many thanks.