wensday nite i feel off of a 5 ft high concrete block wall. i feel backwards and all 190+ lbs of me landed on my right wrist. ouch!!! well, i went to the hospital that nite and they said i broke my radius and they gave me a trough splint and wrapped it up. thursday i went back to get my real cast and some more xrays. when they took the plint off the area about 2 inches below my thumb was swollen up pretty nicely, and the doc said it looked like my scaphoid was broken, but in two weeks they are gonna take more pictures to really fid out. the question i have is how long of a recovry time am i looking at? i am a very active young man, and just having the cast on for a day is a real bugger! plus, my truck is a straight drive so i cant drive ugh!

thanks for any help guys and gals.

 

Well, back when I went thru school, that bone was called teh navicular, its one of teh eight carpal bones that make up the wrist. Unfortunately, it is not one you want to break. The navicular has a vey poor blood supply. If your lucky, it may heal up fairly well in 6wks or so. Unlucky, up to 10-12wks. However, what we refer to as non-union is common with fractures of this bone, which means the fracture doesn't heal. Lot will depend on how significant the fracture is, a small partial hairline or a larger fx with cleary delineated bone fragments not in good apposition. Initial x-rays can be hard to use to determineextent of teh fx unless it is a more distinct larger fx. Waiting 10d-2 wks and re-Xraying it will give you a better picture, as any of the small tiny, powder like bits of bone along the fx line will have dissolved by then and you can get a cleared idea of the extent of teh fx.

BTW, I certainly hope when they put it in a real cast, they also included the length of teh thumb in the cast. You can leave the thumb free to move in a short arm cast for fractures that only involves the radius or ulna, but with a navicular,or scaphoid fx, teh thumb shuold be included as part of the cast.

Good luck!!!


ps, where do I send the bill for the consult??

 

yea, they put in a "thumb spike" which extends out to where my thumbnail ends. the cast starts about 1.5 inches after my elbow crease, the wrinkle on the inside of your elbow joint, and stops right on top of my knuckles. he used 2 inch white fiber ob the thumb and 3 inch lime green on the rest of it. everything on the back of my and all the way to the end of the wrist hurts, but i got so,e nice hydrocodone to take the edge off, in 500 g tablets, that i take every 4 hours or so.

send te bil to regency apartments for not having a slip proof painted wall and having gates too tall to jump! thanks for the help charliehorse, and i apologize for the crappy typing.