Colles Fracture Saga

[Tunnelcat]

Well, I alluded to breaking myself in another post, so here's what I did to myself 2 days before Thanksgiving. A Colles Fracture of the left wrist.





It doesn't look bad at first until you realize my the top 1 inch of my radius bone now has a backward tilt of about 30 degrees, which throws the whole hand joint backwards. It should be straight in the lower picture.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00412

This is what happens when you're not careful walking along on a catwalk in the attic and you accidentally step OFF said catwalk. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I landed across 3 trusses or essentially sideways 2X4's, so I received three impact points along my body. For my clumsiness, I got a contusion on one leg, the outline of a 2X4 on the side of my head and a Colles or Distal Radius Fracture of my left wrist due to the fact my entire body weight smashed my wrist between my side and a narrow piece of wood.

After seeing stars, feeling mucho pain and pulling myself up and yelling down to my husband that, yes, I was injured, I realized that I'd broken my damn wrist. The hand was so twisted out of alignment that I immediately grabbed my hand and rotated it back to some semblance of alignment before the pain would really kick in! It went crackle, crackle as I did it. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Must have been the shock. But at least it wasn't so BENT SIDEWAYS!

Since my husband has cataracts and can't drive at night, I had to drive myself to immediate care clinic for X-rays and a splint. The X-rays showed that I had shoved the top of the radius bone back into itself on the topside of the hand, telescoping and crushing the bone, so I would need surgery to locate it properly. I had to wait a week for the swelling to go down before a bone doctor could do surgery. Yesterday, I finally had three titanium rods drilled into the broken bone halves to hold them straight and align the joint. I hope it stays in place and no infection occurs. The rods are not permanent, they will be pulled out once the bone knits, in 6 WEEKS! I don't want any more surgery.

It sure is a b**ch to type with one hand! At least I have use of my right hand, which is my dominant hand, fortunately. My poor husband had to do all the turkey cooking since this happened right before Thanksgiving. What a pain. You just don't realize how many things you need 2 hands for until you lose the use of one! I can't cook, clean, fix anything around the house, tie shoelaces or even floss my teeth! Just getting dressed is a challenge. But the real frustrating thing is that I can't play games on the computer with only one hand and I was right in the middle of Bioshock before I did this!

Be careful kiddies. This is a common type of fracture that you can get if you fall and put out your hands to stop yourself. It's also common in car and bike accidents. Older women who have bone density loss get this one as well.

[Krom]

Ouch. I have also through various injuries been without the use of one arm or the other for periods of time. While it does catch you off guard how much you need both hands for some tasks, it can also surprise you how quickly you adapt and can perform the vast majority of daily tasks with one good hand.

Anyway, I hope your wrist fully recovers with no permanent loss of use.

[Tunnelcat]

That's the worrisome thing, loss of full function. There's also the chance of arthritis in the damaged joint. It's a common side effect down the road.

[Octopus]

That's the worrisome thing, loss of full function. There's also the chance of arthritis in the damaged joint. It's a common side effect down the road.

That's not good.

[akula65]

I had to take a fall protection course for one of the jobs I have had in the past. Your predicament shows why the experts recommend that if the potential fall distance is more than just two feet, you need to be using an appropriate fall protection mechanism (harness, etc.).

[Tunnelcat]

Well, live and learn the hard way. Damn this hurts today. Sleep sucks. I'm really pissed off and depressed at the same time right now and it's my own stupid fault for being careless. What slays me is that I've been skiing and biking all my life and not once have I ever broken a bone, then I do it crawling in the attic.

[Octopus]

Yup that's gay.

[Tunnelcat]

How's that?

[dissent]

definitely ouch. hope your treatment goes well.

[Octopus]

....i mean, that sucks (not good).

[[]V[]essenjah]

Yup that's gay.

LOL, I wouldn't put it that way then.

Hope you heal ok Tunnelcat. Just keep your head up and your faith in healing. My mother broke both of her ankles a few years back. She described it as being more painful than labor (she has had 5 kids so she would know). She worried for a long time about being able to walk again but she walks fine. She makes little mistakes here and there and moves her feet too low to the ground but I think it may be more a psychological thing. A lot of healing involves what is going on in your head from what I have seen. Never have had a break though so I can't say I'm exactly experienced in that though.

[Lothar]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your injury, tunnelcat. I'm especially disturbed that your injury likes to have relations with other girls' wrists.

[Tunnelcat]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your injury, tunnelcat. I'm especially disturbed that your injury likes to have relations with other girls' wrists.

LOL Lothar, I would take that even over a broken wrist any day! At least it would be less painful, uh maybe, since I'm not sure how female to female wrist relations would work. Thanks all for your guys support though.

I just had the temp cast off today and got a good look at those pins that stick out of my hand. OMG! GROSS! There are 2 of them on thumb side of the radius bone and 1 through from the top, crisscrossing each other to keep the top of the bone in place. Just icky looking! They look just like bent over nails with little rubber caps on top. And they're going to pull those things out without anesthetic when the bone heals. Shivers!

At least the doc put on a fiberglass cast that covered up the whole mess so that I don't have to look at it! As a bonus, it weighs way less than the plaster temp cast did. Felt like carrying around a rock. I hope no infection gets into those holes in my skin around the pins. My radius bone is now going to be 2 mils shorter when it's healed.

One thing that might help is I own an electromagnetic bone stimulator, that came courtesy of my husband's bike accident 2 years ago where he received a broken ankle. He developed a non-union (the bone pieces wouldn't knit together) in the ankle break and insurance (of the idiot red light running driver that hit him) paid for one. The little battery operated unit that fits around the ankle or wrist cost $4000! Why put it to waste. They use these things in Europe to speed up bone regeneration right from the start. Insurance companies in the U.S. only pay for them in cases of a non-union.

[Sergeant Thorne]

Shivers!

That sounds accurate. Sorry to hear about your injury, tc. I hope it mends up well for you.

I hope no infection gets into those holes in my skin around the pins.

Every heard of a liquid band-aid? Something you spray-on, and then it sort of gels. I wonder if that would be an answer, if it's something to be concerned about.

[Bet51987]

...I hope no infection gets into those holes in my skin around the pins.

Tunnelcat, I would call your doctor tommorrow. He should be prescribing antibiotics and daily cleaning of the pin entry points with peroxide. Pin site infection is something to be concerned about.

Get better soon...

Bee

[woodchip]

Wrist injuries are something that don't heal fast. When I was stationed at Camp Pendelton, a buddy of mine broke his wrist and was in a cast for a couple of months. hope your wrist heals faster than that.

Now, just why were you walking in a truss attic anyway?

[Tunnelcat]

Now, just why were you walking in a truss attic anyway?

I was just finishing up the wiring on a ground fault circuit for an outside plug underneath a roof eve to use for plugging in my Christmas lights. It was a problematic to plug them into the porch plugs all the time, long extension cord hassles. I had previously installed 2 X 6 boards as catwalks to get from one end of the attic to the other for maintenance reasons. I didn't want to crush insulation every time I walked up there.

Well, when I get healed, I'm going to be installing a few more boards and a rail for safety, but it will be at least a year before I do that. Originally when I installed the boards, I didn't think I'd need more for footing since I don't usually go up there often. Complacency got the better of me. But all my wiring work was for naught since I can no longer get on a #$%@ ladder to install the stupid lights! I really was in the mood for outside lights this year.

Bet, Sergeant, I asked the doc about those very pin entry points yesterday and he said that infection is usually NOT a problem and if it occurs, he will prescribe antibiotics then. He's done enough of these that he should know, right? LOL, uh huh! Doctors don't like to prescribe antibiotics prophylactically anymore, but he at least pumped in intravenous antibiotics during the pin installation surgery to kill any cooties that are normally floating around in the bloodstream, which is standard practice. Besides, they are presently not accessible to me since they are UNDER the cast, not exposed to the elements, so I can't even touch them. He did say not to get the cast wet, so on goes a garbage bag every time I shower. DUH! I'm watching for infection signs though. My biggest problem right now is the ITCHINESS under the cast right around the arm. It's going to drive me bananas by the end of 6 weeks!

The weird thing I've noticed is that the fingernails on the broken hand are not growing hardly at all compared to the good hand. I'll have to ask the doc about that one.

[Kilarin]

Yowch! So sorry to hear about your injury! I'll be praying for a quick recovery!

[Tunnelcat]

You guys are all great, thanks.

More worries, the back of the injured hand skin is now numb. Only noticed it when the cast was off last. Doc seemed surprised at first when I said something. Said it was probably a nerve pinch due to the swelling. Better not be one of those pins through the nerve or I'll be pissed. So far, the finger tips still have feeling.

Be careful with yourselves you guys. This is a dangerous injury that can go really wrong in a flash, so take stock from my mistake.

Damn, I want to play Bioshock some more!

[Tunnelcat]

I bet most of you guys have never seen what an electromagnetic bone stimulator looks like. This little medical device cost an insurance company $4000 two years ago!



This one is specifically designed for use on ankles or, conveniently for me, wrists. It generates a magnetic field between the antenna flaps, which in turn generates a small electrical current in the bone. There are also implantable ones that work more efficiently, but frankly, I don't need any more cutting.

Bones apparently generate electrical currents between the separated pieces when they are broken. Healing begins when new cells, osteoblasts, follow these fields and migrate between the broken sections to rebuild the area. Adding more current to the injury has been found to speed up growth. I'm glad my husband still had this thing. There's no need to waste it so I'll see if it reduces my healing time.

[Octopus]

I'm sorry to hear you're not better yet. But that's interesting. So electromagnetism heals broken bones faster. Being in a cast a few times, that's something I wish i knew earlier.

[Tunnelcat]

Well, you'd better wish that if you break a bone in the future, do it in Europe, where they use these things from the start of the injury. In the U.S., the insurance companies will only pay for these things in cases of a non-union, my husband's case, where the bone hasn't knitted after a month. That does happen. One of the hazards of breaking a bone. What a royal pain!

[Octopus]

I'm not a doctor.
gross pic
Part of my finger became very infected and I can't afford health care. So I took a pair of dog nail trimmers and cut part of my finger off. Before I did this, to numb the pain, I tied off my finger at the base. I sterilized the tools with a lighter. After the infected part was gone i went on Youtube to find out how to bandage a wound properly.

Before all of this i did try going a local clinic for help. I spent a whole day looking for a clinic that wasn't full for the next two months. The one that was available said they wouldn't touch my finger because i needed a surgent. Then i was charged 50 dollars then asked to leave.


If the infection is stopped by my self-surgery, and should recover completely as if nothing had happened.


Someone i chat with frequently online recommended me this shirt.

[Tunnelcat]

Thought I'd post some final gross pics for your consumption. The pins (little stainless steel nails) were taken (pulled, no anesthetic used by the way) out today, so I brought my hubby along with his camera to take some pictures that will remind me in the future the price of getting a broken bone. The X-ray shows what the pins were holding in place under the skin, the top end of the radius bone.

The skin on my hand is also pealing badly and I have to wait 10 more days for the final cast to come off so that I can SOAK this thing in a NICE HOT BATH!





Here's a video of the PA pulling out the pins. It didn't really hurt in a sense, but I really went EWWWWWWWWWWW as the first pin was pulled out of the bone, it was just a CREEPY feeling! It was very strange sensation to say the least. Also, I really hope the feeling returns to the skin on the back of my hand now that these things are history.

[Bet51987]

Wow, it looks really good and there's no evidence of any infection either. I'm glad you're healing well...

Bee

[Octopus]

It hurts to look at

[Tunnelcat]

Thanks Bet. But I REALLY, REALLY can't wait to soak it in a nice, hot bath! Get rid of all the ITCHY, DIRTY peeling skin! 10 MORE DAYS with a cast, then a removable splint. When the cast was off, I noticed that I really can't bend it backwards yet. It's going to take some therapy to loosen the wrist joint up again. Bummer.

[Grendel]

Pic looks like somewhere in the the Cv Clinic

As for the bending, that's \"normal\" -- if you don't use a joint it'll go stiff Had to do some extensive therapy after having a broken leg in a cast for 4 weeks..

The pins didn't look too bad to me, guess having had surgery that got stapled takes the edge off.

[Wheeze87]

Crikey, thats some pretty impressive alien architecture in your wrist right there! And amazing how useful a pair of pliers can be in a surgical sense!

That video did look a bit yucky, i can't imagine how extrcating metal pins from bone can be relatively painless!

Well, i'm sorry to hear about the injury, but glad to see you are fixing!

[Duper]

Lookin good Tunnel. Glad the treatment worked! that's some pretty cool tech. Did they do that on the Hill? (you're in Portland right?)

I had wrist surgery about ..er 2 years ago now? And if they cut into the back of your hand or wrist, it's not likely the feeling will return. With me, they severed some surface nerves and removed one large one that supplied the wrist area with feeling so i wouldn't suffer phantom pains.

I had something called Kienbock's disease. In short, one of the large bones in the wrist (more specifically the Lunate bone) died and collapsed. this allowed the other 7 bones in my wrist to shift causing arthritis. (I'm convinced 10+ years of Descent did this to me. It was my keyboard hand. ) The went in, removed the dead bone and fuzzed the other two large bones and ran two titanium screws through them to keep them together as they healed. I lost about half of my downward flexibility and all of my lateral right flexibility and about all the surface feeling of the skin on the back of my hand in an area about 60-70%. THAT feels weird.

Sounds like you should regain all your flexibility with therapy. Incidentally, I still need to stretch my wrist a couple years later. I do it without thinking about it these days.

Great pictures btw! Love the probes stickin out!

[Tunnelcat]

Grendel, Duper, the picture was taken at Corvallis Clinic and I had the surgery done at that new surgery center they built right next door. Pretty fancy place they've got for surgery, all new and shiny and hi-tech! But there's a hitch, if you get any surgery done there, they want payment for services rendered UP FRONT before surgery. I had to cough up $2121.50 right before I went in just to use the facility. I'm out of luck for getting future surgery there since they dropped my insurance company from their list of insurers as of 1/1/09. So if I'd done this after 1/09, I would've had to go up to Good Samaritan Hospital, and they charge more I hear.

OMG Duper, it sounds like you had a WORSE problem than I did! I guess I should feel lucky I didn't break mine worse or have complications, yet (knock on wood). From playing Descent you say, hmmmmmm. I guess I'll keep my foot pedal setup for throttle control whenever I play Descent to save my left wrist. It sounds like a REALLY NASTY thing to have happen and all from blood loss to one little bone. How well do you get along with it now? Are you still able to use a keyboard with that hand?

Titanium pins sticking out reminds me of my mother. She had a botched bunion repair job done on BOTH feet, which resulted in both big toes swinging out, looked like thumbs sticking out. Well to fix it, they had to fuse the big toe bone joints together at a slight upward angle (to be able to walk). To do that, they installed these long titanium screws to hold the joints rigid until they fused together. These screws stuck out of the ends of the big toes like little lances. She couldn't wear shoes for weeks and had to be very careful no one hit them (someone did once, OUCH!). Just creeps me out thinking about it.

Wheez87, it didn't really 'hurt' to have the pins pulled out, it just felt like something inside 'pulling'. That's what's creepy, you feel something sliding inside and a slight pressure sensation in the bone. Of course, it didn't help he at first 'slipped' with his 'surgical pliers' (looks like the ones in my own toolbox).

My husband screwed up when he took the video. Our camera has the capability to shoot in Hi-Def, but he for some reason didn't do it. He later said that it takes a long time to render a Hi-Def video and he thought that it would be better to do it in low res. In hindsight, since it took such a short time to pull the pins, it would have been a decent length of time for a short Hi-Def video and a better crude-out factor.

My wrist swelled up last night, probably from fluid that leaked out of the holes that the pins left in the bone. It's a little tight right now in this cast, but I only have 9 more days. Thanks guys for your moral support.

[Wheeze87]

Ha, It would have been cool to see that in Hi-Def, but don't worry, i reckon its still pretty good quality (mustbe a pretty nifty camcorder). Must have been a very strange sensation anyway *tries hard to imagine LOL*

Hope the next nine days are smooth sailing for you

I had to cough up $2121.50 right before I went in just to use the facility. .

Yikes, thank god for the NHS eh?

[Tunnelcat]

NHS? Not here in the good ol' free market U.S.A. IF If I didn't have SOME form of private health insurance, in other words, if I was an uninsured 'cash customer', I would've had to cough up $6100 before surgery! That doesn't include the around $350 I have to pay each time I have to have the doctor look at it, X-ray it and get the cast changed, four times so far! I'm estimating that this little 'accident' is going to cost me, out of pocket, around $6000 to $7000, even with insurance coverage!

[Krom]

Remember the rule of all insurance companies is to always deny the claim the first time. It is pretty much a war of attrition to actually collect your promised benefits from an insurance corporation. Its frustrating, infuriating and occasionally seems worse than the condition you were treated for, but if you keep on driving thorns into their sides eventually they will cough up what they owe you.

[Wheeze87]

I'm just saying that It always takes me by surprise when i hear that a friend of mine across the pond ( I live in the UK) has had an injury and requires treatment, that they have to pay so much for it! whereas here, if you break the hospital will fix you.

My housemate has just been in a horrific car crash, last weekend. She has broken both her legs, with multiple fractures, and a compound fracture to here left femur. Her left knee was in a bad state as well, and apparently they had to perform plastic surgery on it (re-constructive i assume!)

When i went to visit her, i remembered about your injury, and was just thinking about how much it would have cost for my friend to get patched up in the U.S! scary thought

(BTW. My friend is doing VERY well in after her crash. She is in high spirits, and got through all the necessary surgery without a hitch! So it's all good.)

[Krom]

Wheeze: in the US your friend had better have medical insurance, because she would be looking at a minimum of $30,000-$40,000 just for the first day surgery. Having that severity of injuries, for follow up surgery, treatment and rehabilitation over a course of a couple years could pile up into $120,000 or more here. I can give a educated guess of expenses because my brother was in a pretty severe accident several years back and had his left arm badly broken.

Recovery might be a long and often uphill battle for your friend, but it will work out if she sticks to it and never gives up.

[Duper]

OMG Duper, it sounds like you had a WORSE problem than I did! I guess I should feel lucky I didn't break mine worse or have complications, yet (knock on wood). From playing Descent you say, hmmmmmm. I guess I'll keep my foot pedal setup for throttle control whenever I play Descent to save my left wrist. It sounds like a REALLY NASTY thing to have happen and all from blood loss to one little bone. How well do you get along with it now? Are you still able to use a keyboard

It wasn't that bad. 2 weeks off of work scarfing Vicodin (with ibuprofen rather than Tylenol - i'm allergic) the first couple days post op were the worst. the muscles didn't take kindly to being pushed around and cut. They were spazming like crazy. I quit taking the vicodin after 6 days. I was beginning to itch all over and getting gittery. Aweful feeling. i was able to manage the pain with regualr ibuprofen at that point.

Yeah, I still use a keyboard. I don't play nearly as much as I used to. .. 4 hours every night. : )

And I only lost about half of my forward flexibility. I'll post a pic later. Over all, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Yikes on those expenses!! I only had about 2k to pay for my part.

[Tunnelcat]

Krom, I haven't had any charges rejected by my insurance company. I have a $7500 deductable that has to be fullfilled BEFORE they will pay most of the bill. I can't afford the more luxurious insurance plans since premiums have been going up about 20 to 40% a year for the last 5 years. However, since I broke this thing BEFORE Jan. 1st, the deductable was reset as of the first of the year. So that means that the surgery charge and other charges that came before Jan. 1st went towards the 2008 deductable, but of course those never made it over the $7500. Now that it's 2009, I have to start all over with the full $7500. Worst timing possible on my part.

The only reason I pay about $1800 a year for insurance is to get the negotiated rates that they wrangle or force out of all the medical providers. Otherwise I would just nix the insurance and pay cash for medical care with the money I saved by not paying those exorbitant premiums. If you don't have any insurance, the average cash customer is raked over the coals for about 3 to 4 times the rates that the insurance companies pay. Most hospitals and doctors assume that cash customers are deadbeats, so they try to get as much money as possible from them. Another problem is that as a cash customer, you can't shop around for the cheapest rates for health care because most of these providers WON'T publish their rates, for the previous reason, to get as much money as possible to pay for those who can't pay and to make up what the insurance companies and Medicare don't pay enough for either. We have a form of socialized medicine, those that can pay are paying for those who can't, but not in an equitable way.

[Tunnelcat]

It wasn't that bad. 2 weeks off of work scarfing Vicodin (with ibuprofen rather than Tylenol - i'm allergic) the first couple days post op were the worst. the muscles didn't take kindly to being pushed around and cut. They were spazming like crazy. I quit taking the vicodin after 6 days. I was beginning to itch all over and getting gittery. Aweful feeling. i was able to manage the pain with regualr ibuprofen at that point.

Yeah, I still use a keyboard. I don't play nearly as much as I used to. .. 4 hours every night. : )

And I only lost about half of my forward flexibility. I'll post a pic later. Over all, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Yikes on those expenses!! I only had about 2k to pay for my part.

Glad to hear you turned out relatively OK Duper. I'd like to see your pics. You're lucky you can scarf Vicodin at all. I get the shakes, chills and really bad nausea on the stuff, so I can't take any opiates at all, Vicodin, Percocet, Morphine, etc. except for Tylenol 3, which has a little Codeine in it. Still makes me a little nauseous. I'll be really screwed if I ever get intolerable pain.

[Foil]

Now that it's 2009, I have to start all over with the full $7500.

I'm not so sure; I would do some serious checking into that, TC.

I worked in P&C (Property & Casualty) claims for a couple of years, and I'm almost certain that even in medical insurance, deductibles are tied to the DoL (Date of Loss), even if the paid services are done later.