Wrist Recovery - Attn. Cruncholi and Targo

[AlisonK]

I had promised Diane (Targo) to give her an update on my recovery from my surgery to my wrist removing a ganglion cyst. So I thought I would post for you.

It's been 3 1/2 weeks and things are progressing nicely. I got my brace off after 9 days. For the first 9 days I couldn't do much of anything except a couple short bike rides on the recumbant bike. Now for the last week and a half I have been resuming my cardio workouts (step and running no kickboxing yet). I have a brace I can wear to support my wrist while I excercise. For strength work I have mostly done floor work and just for the first time did do some of the standing work in the PS legs tape with 3lb barbells. Im not supposed to do any lifting until the end of this month after I see my doctor. So the good news is I haven't lost much of anything in the way of cardio endurance etc. I have lost strength in upper body for sure. My left arm (the one I had surgery on) is visably smaller than my right arm and just atrophied a great deal. I guess that will be my biggest challenge to recover it and make both arms equal again. Anyway, I hope this helps and if you have any more questions let me know. I can also email you if you want me to a few more weeks from now to update you .


Cruncholi (and anyone else who might have had an injury to their arm or wrist): My question is did you have alot of atrophy in your arm that had the surgery? Was your right arm alot weaker? What do you do to regain strength in the weak side? Extra reps for that side ? Or do you start out by only working on that side till it catches up to the stronger side? Im curious how to go about this when I can resume lifting.


I hope this wasn't too long and rambling. At least I have my typing muscles back and can start joining everyone on the board again hehe

Thanks,

Alison

 

[ebh87]

Hi Alison!

Glad to hear that things are going well for you!!
When I broke my wrist, I didn't do any weightlifting for about 6 weeks. I think after about the first 4 weeks or so, I used 3 lb. weights and did Gilad's Step & Tone while wearing my wrist brace. After the 6 week mark, I resumed lifting with the brace. I really didn't feel that my muscles atrophied and was able to get back to my regular weights rather quickly. I really didn't treat the injured arm any differently than my other arm except for wearing the brace which gave me a lot of support. I was very nervous when the doctor told me I could begin lifting without the brace - I felt very dependent on it.
Be patient - everything will be back to normal before you know it!! Take care!
Erica

 

[Cruncholi]

Hi Alison!

It's good to hear from you! I'm glad you are doing well. Sorry for the delay in responding--I was on vacation.

My situation with muscle atrophy was a bit different than yours and here's why... I am right-handed and my ganglion surgery was on the right wrist. When I had the surgery, I had just finished a season of college tennis (I play with the right arm) and had been playing competitively for about 5 years, so my right forearm/wrist and arm was always much larger and stronger than my left anyway. As a result, by the time I was able to fully resume using my right arm it was still slightly bigger than my left, even after almost 2 months of recovery! To this day, my right arm is a lot bigger than my left!

I don't remember having to do anything special to get the arm back in shape. I just lifted the most weight I could without feeling wrist pain and let it happen VERY gradually. For you, since you are right-handed, you may want to very slowly and gradually try to work up to your old weight in the left, and in the meantime do not try to increase your strength in the right arm until your left is back up to speed. That may help to prevent any greater imbalance. You may feel that you don't want to stop training your right side though, so you'll have to be your own judge.

Let me know if you need any more info and keep getting better!

Cruncholi

 

[targo]

thanks for the update on the wrist. my surgery was moved up so i actually had it about two weeks ago. i got the cast off and the stiches out this week and now i have pretty much thrown my brace away. the pain is pretty much over but i am real stiff when it comes to bending my wrist. are you having the same problem? i can barely move my wrist down towards the inside of my arm. i don't know when i can start weightlifting again. but like you, i have started doing cardio again.

thank you for the update. it's nice to know someone has gone through this gauntlet before me.

diane

 

[AlisonK]

Hi Diane,

Sorry to hear you had to have the surgery but Im glad it went well!

Yes I have the exact same problem with limited movement in that wrist. It's been four weeks for me this week. It is getting better and better each week but still slower progess then I hoped for. But today I did Bodymax (no upper body just the step and circut portions and abs) I was able to use 3 and 5lb dumbells and a 9lb bodybar. It doesn't seem like much but after using no weights I really did get a decent workout. It just felt good to do something. I couldn't go any heavier with my wrist but those weights felt good today. I was told not to do upper body stuff until I get back to my doctor at the end of this month. That will be 6 weeks total.

So hopefully since I am a few weeks ahead of you this will give you some encouragement. Oh one other thing the doctor told me to do was massage the scar area everyday so that the stiffness and lump there will dimish faster. This does seem to help I just massage it eveytime I sit down to watch tv or something.

Keep me posted on your progress and any tips you may have. Best wishes on a speedy recovery!! :-jumpy We can be green with envy at all the people having fun with the new slow and heavy tapes together!! x(


Alison

 

[targo]

I was told by someone to rub vitamin E on the incision so that there will be a minimal scar. I have been using the vitamin E from my actual vitamin and a 1000 milligram tablet lasts about four applications (I am using it instead of the recommended lotion when massaging the wrist). At the very least I have a very shiny wrist.

And yes, I agree about the envy part. I just ordered by DVDs and I wonder how long I will just have to watch...

Oh well, I always have my step

Thanks again,
Diane

 

[targo]

I hope everything is going well with your recovery. Just a quick update:
After seeing a physical therapist twice and just not being happy with the treatment I got, I switched therapists. After just one visit to the new therapist, it has made a world of difference. Instead of the therapist basically ignoring me and seeing her five other patients at the same time (I am pretty sure I had been sent to an insurance mill), my new therapist spent an hour manipulating my wrist and I gained 20 degrees of flexibility in 60 minutes!

I just wanted to let you know just in case you weren't getting the results you wanted. I didn't know what a physical therapist was supposed to do for this type of injury until I talked to someone who was aghast at my previous care. Now there looks like there is light (and flexibility) at the end of this tunnel!

diane