Wrist Pain

[Jeff Riegler]

So I was on my last set, last rep on yesterday's WOD (Push Jerks). I failed on that last rep, and as I went forward to ditch the weight, I felt a large "pop" in my left wrist. The bar went forward, crashed into the cage and I felt kind of silly.

As I was pulling the plates off the bar, I noticed that there was a little pain, but nothing significant. So I went off to finish my workout, which was going to be a few rounds of 500m rows followed up by a minute of jump rope.

The rows were going fine until I reached down to tighten the strap on my left foot. YEOW!!!

I packed up and headed for home, wondering if I should go to the hospital. I seemed to have full movement, just a twinge of pain when I moved it in a certain direction. I got home, went to pull out the dog food to feed the dogs and YEOW!!!

That settled it, I went to the ER. An hour later I was discharged with a splint on my left wrist, a prescription for anti-inflammatory, and a referral to an orthopedic. The x-rays showed no broken bones, but they of course will not show any ligament damage.

I was really bummed, as I've been making great progress in the gym and I really don't want this to slow me down.

Here's a question though - the ER doctor said to wait two days and if I still feel pain to go see the ortho. Should I really wait two days, or just make the appointment so I know what's going on?

FYI - typing with basically one hand isn't easy!!

[Elliot Fuller]

I'm not the best with this sort of thing, but it sounds more like a nerve issue to me. Usually when I experience ligament, tendon or muscle injury, the pain isn't quite so acute to the point where I have full range of motion w/o problem yet one exact position causes pain. Know what I mean?

It depends on how bad the pain is, I guess. And I suppose if you heard an actual pop, it may not be nerve related. If you're pain-free in the splint, I think I'd probably wait the couple days and go from there.

[Dan Hollingsworth]

The wrist is a complex joint, actually it's a complex of multiple joints. Lots bones, lots of tendons, lots of ligaments...alot of things can get jacked up there. Having said that, more often than not these types of issues are usually not that serious and given a little rest will resolve. I think the advice to wait a few days is good advice. If we all ran off to see the orthopod when we experienced musculoskeltal pain the wait time to get an appointment would be about 2 years Point number 2 is that rushing off to see an orthopod may not be the most appropriate thing either. Orthopedic surgeons are just that, surgeons. Not all joint injuries are surgical cases.

I don't know what the laws are like in Florida, but many states have direct access to physical therapy. If that's the case in FL, then that might be the first logical step for you. If you go to see the orthopod, unless your hand is just barely hanging on by a thread or there are bones sticking out of your wrist, you're not going to get surgery right away. They will likely evaluate you, maybe schedule you for an MRI if there is an obvious pathology and likely send you to therapy for a few weeks and say come back if it doesn't get any better. May be in your best interest to skip straight to the therapist, then if it doesn't get better go to see the orthopod.

Again, I think that the advice to wait a few days and reassess is the best plan and if it's not improving take further action.

[Jeff Riegler]

Thanks guys.

As of this posting, it feels a little better but I still really can't do much with it. I'll see what happens.

I don't believe that here in Florida you can go directly to physical therapy. I wish that I could always go directly to the place that I need to go first, and not deal with general practitioner.

You know when you have that ear ache, or some type of illness and you know that all you really need is a Z-pack?