Riding after a wrist operation

fizz

I had an operation to put a plate into my radius bone at the wrist joint after I broke it when snowboarding a couple of weeks ago. Operation went well and I've been given exercises by the physio therapist in order to get it moving again.

I was wandering about doing some gentle sessions on the turbo trainer just to get going again. The physio told me to start using my wrist and she also told me that doing press ups against a wall is good and putting load on it would help it heal quickly.

Anybody else been in a similar situation. I'm quite loaded up on painkillers at the moment and dont want to do to much to soon. I have a physio appointment on the 30th of Jan so I was going to ask the physio therapist then and get some proper advice but just wandered what everybodies thoughts were

thanks

ride_whenever

If you're going to do exercise that you're unsure of, don't tank up on painkillers...


You need to know if it is hurting!

heftyrider

Work it as hard as you can, but pay attention to what its telling you. When its tired and had enough stop!

Was my ankle i did, forcing myself to push through pain to do a few more exercises just set me back. Cousin who did wrist says the same thing.

felgen

The Key here is getting your range of motion back, but without overstressing the fixation. Having said that I have never seen a bent plate.. You say you had a plate put in - what sort of plate and what sort of fracture intraarticular/extraarticular, Barton's type? Volar buttress plate? Locking plate? It actually doesn't change things too dramatically but is nice to know. Once the skin wound has healed about 2 weeks usually- you can work hard on range of motion,but without putting too much load through it. Hence the physio saying press ups against a wall as it helps with the dorsiflexion (bending back). The fracture will be consolidated enough to load it properly at about 6 weeks post operation, though probably would be ok to ride outside if you were comfortable from about 4 weeks. As for the turbo, probably okay from two weeks, but take it easy to avoid bobbing around too much on the bars - so perhaps time spent to work on technique and high cadence...

fizz

Its a

Intra-articular fracture left distal radius

and the procedure they did was

Acumed plating of left distal radius.

I dont know what that means but I have a titanium plate in there somewhere...

I've been for my first physio appointment today, she said I have a good range of movement back already, but I need to rememeber that its only been a week since I had my operation.

I asked her about going on the turbo trainer and explained what it was and she said I was fine to use it but only do short sessions and not put an excessive amount of weight on my wrist and that if it ached I was to stop.

I've still got my stitches in and they are coming out on wednesday next week.

I'm going to give it a try tomorrow and just aim to do 15 minutes max of gentle pedalling and see how I get on, if it aches or its not comfortable I'll stop.

Lazarus

When i broke my wrist , i put tri-bars on the bike which i had on the turbo and put my weight on my armpads, but to be honest training on a turbo in May was no fun. So in the end i wrapped a tea towel around one side of the bars on the top and used to ride the bike that way. Because the bars were obviously a lot thicker with the towel around them i found them easier to grab hold of with my restricted movement and any vibration was vastly reduced.

Should point out that i broke my left wrist which left me able to go through the gears whilst riding .

fizz

Just thought I'd update this

Its been just over a month since I had my op.

I started on the turbo trainer again at the weekend. I did a 15 minute session on Saturday, and then a 30 minute sessin on Sunday

I'm glad I can start to regain my fitness but sitting with weight on my forearm for anymore than 30 minutes is uncomfortable and TBH I'd had enough after 30 minutes it was starting to become unbearable.

I cant take alot of weight through my forearm itself, but the wrist doesnt seem to bad. I dont know what riding on the road would be like. I think it'd be pretty sore TBH with all the vibrations up through the bars and dealing with potholes.

Going to take longer than I thought to recover

heftyrider

It's tough going.

30 minutes is good 4 weeks after. Keep focused on the fact that you will recover.

Richie G

I broke my wrist at the end of October. Fracture was fairly straight forward, so was put in plaster. Once i was out of plaster i did the same as you - using tri bars on the turbo. It's bloody frustrating i know, but just do what you can. To be honest my fitness seemed to drop of that much in 6 weeks that more than 30 minutes simply wasn't an option! I wouldn't worry too much about getting back on the road just yet - like you say, the road vibrations aren't pleasant. Nearly 4 months later, i'm still strapping my wrist for my commute as the roads round here are bloody awful! Personally, i probably tried to get back on the road and putting the miles in too soon, i was consequently ill. Having had that enforced break, i've been pleasantly surprised how quickly my fitness has returned - so don't feel you have rush it. Hope that's of some help.

Rich

fizz

thanks guys that is helpful. I'm just getting a bit frustrated with it all at the moment.

TheDrunkMonk

Don't feel too sorry for him. He's now partly made from Titanium. How cool is that?

We'll soon be on those sportives, robot hand buddy.

terongi

I dislocated my right thumb and ripped out all the ligaments which connected it to my wrist in a crash in June last year.

I had 4 operations to reconstruct the ligaments with a wrist tendon graft. Eton-Littler technique for anyone interested.

My hand and wrist were immobilised until the end of December.

During all that time used tri-bars on the turbo trainer.

Started riding on the road again in January. Every bump in the road was agony until my wrist just seemed to free up overnight one day. Since then still a bit sore but riding is fine.

synchronicity

I broke the end of my radius bone too (or rather an impatient driver did it for me :evil: ).

Never got the full range of motion back. Also I've been left with semi-numbness all down the inside of my thumb.

BUT after about 2 years of recovery I am now able to do DH MTBing without too much fuss. So it will heal, but never fully. It's just a question of time...