Hi everyone;
first of all thank you very much for this great resource and the work and effort you put into providing high value information to the lay community.
I would love to get your input on a specific sports related injury. I’m a 28 male with a approx. 6 year background in general strength training without any special goals (eg. powerlifting, strongmen etc). 10 weeks ago I injured my wrist during a very unlucky attempt to put away a barbell when I somehow managed to rotate my fully extended wrist under load wich produced a noticable pop. Next day I had severe pain in my wrist, to make a long story short I saw an orthopedic surgeon with specialization in hand surgery who quickly diagnosed my with an injury to the TFCC without any clinically instability to the distal radio-ulnar joint. I got an MRI that confirmed an partial tear of the superficial as well as deep portion of the TFCC; the surgeon strongly advised against surgery since this may only produce additional irritative scar tissue in this very narrow articular space and hence gave me a prescription for a splint that I wore for ~ 6 weeks 24/7.
Fast forward I’m now 10 weeks post injury and I’ve made some good improvements, I switched the full cast for this thing called “wrist widget” (you can look it up on amazone, they claim it to be more specific for this kind of injuries) and it seems to help alleviate my symptoms. I still do have discomfort in my wrist especially with rotationg movements and when bearing any weight on the ulnar sided wrist but I’m functional in day to day life.
Trainingwise I fortunately am able to do most of my workouts without major limitations; after the injury I switched to dumbbells since the torgue produced by grabbing the barbell would cause wrist pain but now I can basically do even pressing movements such as bench or overhead with a properly wraped wrist painfree altough I do notice the day after upper body workouts my wrist tends to be more sensitive (not necessarily more painfull).
Long story short given the very special nature of my injury I don’t expect you guys to have any further information on TFCC rehab but in terms of general wrist injuries (esp. ligament/cartilage) I’d be very happy to have your thoughts and input.
Mainly do you consider those sort of injuries as comparible to other musculoskeletal injuries, (eg meniscus tears) with respect to rehab advice such as improving external factors (sleep, nutrition, stress) and modifying training in order to maintain the highest level of acitivity possible given the injury.
Do you guys have any special recommendations when it comes to wrist injuries in general? Did you coach clients with similar injuries in the past and what are your experiences esp. regarding duration of pain and discomfort until full recovery (I made considerable improvements in the first weeks but since then discomfort appears to stay on more or less the same level).
Thank you very much for your input and support, I highly value your thoughts on the topic!