Alright so my wrists and fingers and elbows have been messed up for over a year now. It started in the wrist though.
My left wrist is the really bad one and I am now suspecting a TFCC tear. Last time I went to a sport ortheopedic doctor and he told me it was tendonitis and that I could keep climbing (it was like a 90 second appointment, it was like pulling teeth to get him to sit in the room long enough to ask him a question). I kept climbing (although not as hard and not as often) and it is not getting better.
What clinic or doctor do I go to in order to pursue this further? It sounds like a MRI is the best way to diagnose. I hope I don't have to do surgery but I am so sick of this. I just need to do something besides cutting down on my climbing (and then climbing again every 2 weeks and making everything worse). I have been trying to do rehab like reverse wrist curls, flexbar (for my elbows but I feel like it makes my wrists work), dips (which was supposed to help the oppositional muscles but I feel like it makes my wrists worse).
Any advice please?
Aerili
·
Jul 21, 2016
·
Los Alamos, NM
· Joined Mar 2007
· Points: 1,875
You need to see a hand and wrist surgeon. They can perform a manual test and if they think symptoms fit they can order an MRA.
Flexbar is unlikely to do anything for your problem, it's designed for elbow tendonitis. Dips are potentially aggravating to a TFCC tear and certainly won't do anything for rehab anyway (wrist in extended position is usually a pain-provoking move). Where exactly did you get your rehab ideas, I'm wondering?
There are a lot of other things that be effed up in the wrist. Only a surgeon with special training in the hand and wrist can figure it out.
Avoiding surgery is the best first step, but I had surgery and it was the only thing that helped me. The wristwidget helped me limp along until then.
Yup go see a specialist. I tore my tfcc clean off my ulna when I shattered my elbow. And after having my ulna shortened to match my radius and having the tfcc reattached with a pin in the ulnar head last August I've finally been climbing hard again(11&12s) both trad and sport. A specialist will get you squared away with a quickness. For your rehab after the healing process, I highly recommend using a rice bucket religiously. What a difference it's made for me!
I had a TFCC tear about 10 years ago well before I started climbing. My pain started in my wrist and spread up my arm into my elbow and shoulder. Most doctors focused on my elbow and shoulder when evaluating. It took me 2 years+ in and out of therapy to convince a doctor to MRI my wrist. The MRI showed what I suspected all along, that I had a bad tear in my TFCC. I ended up opting for surgery because therapy had not helped.
I highly recommend finding a good orthopedic surgeon who specializes in the hand and wrist. Other doctors just don't fully understand these types of injuries. My doc gave two options, one that I could continue without surgery, which was not an option because the pain and discomfort had become debilitating. Two, have the surgery with the downsides of less cartilage (the surgery is mostly to remove the damaged cartilage) that could lead to other problems in the future and difficulty with exercises that put pushing stressing on my wrist like pushups and bench press. The upside was no more pain.
The surgery went well and I am to this day mostly pain free. I do get discomfort from pushing related exercises, but generally can avoid it. I'm not an avid weight lifter so this is not a problem. I actually took up climbing because of these limitations. I have never had issues with my wrist in 2 years of regular climbing.