When are my wrists going to get better?

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Had quite a nasty off end of October. I fell to my right and put both hands down as I fell.

The gravel rash has gone but the aches in the wrists haven't. The left wrist was x-rayed in A&E with nothing found.

Progress has been a bit sore but I still have some limited flexibility. I tried riding last week and as my weight is put through my wrists it was uncomfortable.

Are there any exercises? Am I being impatient?
 

vickster

Legendary Member
You should pay to see a private physio to get a full assessment and physio programme. You'll find stuff online, but it's always better to get an expert to assess and show you what to do. Be £50 odd well spent IMO

Joint injuries often take ages to heal but a 'helping hand' is never a bad thing
 

Turbo Rider

Just can't reMember
1st the joke....when you stop w*nking...ahem....but now that that's out the way, it may take a while. I smacked my knee with my bike frame during my first (and last) clipless moment and found that having gone to sleep, I kept waking up with knee pain and that I had to stretch it out for at least a month or two and that was a relatively light collission. You could try sitting down and holding your arms down towards the floor, then rotating your hands clockwise & counter clockwise, just to make movement a bit easier and to loosen up the joints a bit. Besides that, try pushing your palms back as far as you can tolerate and holding it there for a while. Nothing too strenuous, just light movement and then just go for short rides until they wear in again. Broke a wrist years ago and those sotrs of things seemed to help me.
 

Rooster1

I was right about that saddle
At the age of 44, I am finding any muscular damage is taking an age to recover. Back in the summer, I made the mistake of being a goalie against a mob of teenagers - I tried to save a ball that was travelling at a 100 mph, it bent my hand right back.
It still aches now - 5 months later.
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
Probably not helpful but, I broke my right wrist in July 2010. I've had a lot of physio, OT and other things that the NHS have tried. I've seen my back-cracker for some private wrist type treatment but it still hurts.
I have adjusted my hand position on the bars and am considering tri-bars, maybe in the spring when the PX comes back out.
Sometimes pain just stays with you and you have to get on with it.
 
This is probably not going to help you much. I hurt my wrists back in 1993 after a minor fall at work. Just thought I had sprained the left wrist but it didn't settle down. X-rays showed nothing other than a previous (unknown) break had 'healed nicely'.

I had lost all rotational movement, so putting your elbow on a chair arm, i was unable to rotate my hand from Palm up to Palm down. A physio decided to concentrate on getting that movement back. I spent the next 15 years with my wrist in a permanent support preventing that movement because it caused my wrist to dislocate 20-30 times a day. It was 7 years before I could ride a bike again and even that had to be chosen carefully and modified to my needs.

It had taken 11 operations some with 4 or 5 different procedures happening in the same op for me to retain most use of the wrist and hand and it to stop dislocating.

I'm guessing physio have given you some exercises? Make sure you do them faithfully bit do not over do them. Also if you are under a physio have they given you the go ahead to restart cycling? One of the things the various physios I was under suggested was that i take my pain meds an hour before I tried cycling and kept distances short. It took a while, ok years, but with patience and some hard work and tears i was eventually able to set off the cycle around the world but only on a custom fitted bike. A 2 week tour the previous summer on my commuter mtb proved to me the value of a custom fitted bike.

Patience is probably what you need right know and those finger exercisers that climbers use... They are great for fiddling with whilst watching TV and building up strength slowly. The gripmaster ones they curiously helped my wrists over time.
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
If it's any help, It took about 3 months before I got full pain-free movement back into my wrists after a very similar off in 2011. It was a complete recovery though with no lasting effects.

Probably could have been sooner if I'd been to get some exercises to do.:shy:
 
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raleighnut

Legendary Member
@SatNavSaysStraightOn when will you stop getting injured? you seem to have lists of bloody injuries! :tongue:
Cheers Ed
Just wait til you've got a few more miles on the clock, injuries that kids bounce back from don't half start building up once 'Father time' has started doing his bit especially (as My Mother puts it) "you will keep riding bicycles".
Mind you even after putting on a couple of stone due to my injury I was still the fittest/skinniest in my family at my family 'Christmas get-together' meal last week apart from my nephew who is the other cyclist in the family (He's the one I built an 'as new' Raleigh Persuit frame up into a bike for his fourteenth birthday nearly 7 years ago)................................I hate the skinny little bleeder. :biggrin:
Wot jealous Moi.....................................Yep :whistle:
 
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