Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed....

Update:

After typing a couple short e-mails about the accident, my right wrist hurts. My consulting nurse says there's no surefire diagnostic for the wrist other than x-rays (i.e., she couldn't tell me "if you can do this, it's not broken").

This is just the wrong time of year for Santa's tallest elf to have her right wrist in a cast. Pleeeeeeeease pray me up "just a sprain".

Karen, Keeping good thoughts that it's only a sprain that will be better in the morning. However, if it decides to swell up, please get to the DR's office or an ER for that X-ray.

-- Carey in MA

Actually, hie thyself to the MD no matter what!!!!

Cheryl

Umm - that would be true. Point tenderness is a distinct indicator, but not necessarily only with a fracture. Of course, if you can obviously see displacement that would be more than a clue ;^) Did the nurse tell you to do ice not heat - 10 min on, 20 off, and elevate it - as in rest on a pillow if you can, and take some Ibuprofen if you take that.

Also, I highly recommend "arnica" in gel form - the highest concentration you can get - for the bruises. It's a homeopathic remedy, you put it on about 3 times a day, doesn't smell bad, and really helps with the healing. Lots of athletes use it.

Hope it's just sprains, bumps and bruises - and go follow instructions.

ellice

Oh Karen-I do hope this is nothing more than a sprain and you don't have to be encumbered with a cast, or a brace. If it's not better tomorrow morning, please have it looked at so it heals properly and doesn't give you any more trouble.

Lucille

I had an interesting experience with something related to this last week. I was always told RICE, rest, ice, compression, elevation for a sprain or basically for any kind of bruise. Now I was told something just the opposite. I have very fragile, extremely thin skin, and a serious bleeding and bruising problem on my arms. It's not something I can do anything about and it's caused by a combination of meds and my non existent fat layer on my arms. I guess I'll answer the unasked question and say it's not coumadin.

I had an extra large egg sized hematoma form after an IV was removed last week and the nurses in the radiology department went berserk when they saw it and insisted that I go to my doctor and ask him to look at it. Just to get out of there and stop them from fluttering around me, I gave in and went to his office. He glanced at it and remarked, as I already knew, that's a really big hematoma. His instructions, go home and put warm compresses on and off for the rest of the day to reduce the swelling and absorption of the blood under my skin.

The nurses had immediately put ice on it and I most probably would have done that as well if the doctor hadn't told me different. Heat was a big surprise to me. I thought heat was only right for muscle aches.

Also, I highly recommend "arnica" in gel form - the highest concentration

I know little or nothing about arnica and I'm going to see what I can find out. I wonder if it would be helpful for my problem. It's really a nuisance because my skin is so bad that they can't even stitch it, so every little bump is a problem.

Lucille

Since it's my right wrist, and without that hand I don't do much of anything, I won't mess with it if anything goes wrong.

However, I didn't want to sit around the ER for hours and hours unnecessarily, and since I had full range-of-motion, I checked with someone who had been an ER nurse to see if she could tell me definitively "if you can do this, it's not broken".

On her advice, I'm icing/bracing and we'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Since I couldn't knit/stitch/work with the brace on, I fell asleep for an hour this afternoon, and woke up with it less painful. So, that's probably a good sign that it's only sprained.

Very gentle (((hugs))), Lucille. That does not sound fun! Hope the hematoma is at least calming down by this week.

Take it easy, Karen. Hope it's nothing more than a very minor sprain!

There are other drugs that act as blood thinners - besides coumadin. Aspirin is one of those, hence the reason that people planning surgery are told to stop taking any prophylactic ASA about 2 weeks in advance. The RICE formula has been kind of adjusted to depending on the injury. For sprains, or potential hard tissue damage - the idea is to stabilize, and do the RICE thing. But, many people overdo the Ice part, and the compression part. So, you're supposed to do the Ice on 10, off 20 minutes thing for the first 24 hours, then switch to heat, or whatever is indicated. And, now, even with fractures - if it's possible - the theory is to start as much related movement - without disturbing the knitting of the bones. In your case, with such thin skin - too much ice could easily damage your fragile skin.

The heat will definitely have the blood flowing, and is comforting. Ice tends to numb things out. Just be careful with that arm! I feel for you. I'm always afraid to do that to someone when putting in an IV - especially in a moving ambulance. Usually we have enough time to get it in before the driver takes off, but... Stuff happens. Personally, I'm a mess also - not because of a missing fat layer (don't I wish) - but I have very fragile, up at the surface veins & arteries - so - they collapse quickly. I look like a bruised pincushion after one of my 2 day bloodwork infusions.

Well, I hope it helped.

The Arnica is fantastic for bruises. Don't take it in the sub-lingual form

- unless your doc says it's okay with your meds - or if you send me a list directly - I'll look in my pharm references and see what I can find out. I use it a lot with the hockey teams. The other thing I use for the back-aches, muscle injuries is called "Rhus Toxicondron" - which is some derivative from poison ivy. Works amazingly well for more skeletal type aches. The arnica is great for bruising - speeds up healing quite a lot - usually a bruise I'd expect to last a few weeks, will be gone in less than half the time. And it's comforting. Generally it can be found at any health food store, or a Whole Foods, most recently I bought some at Wegmans, or some GNC stores. Just you have to look at the boxes and find the one with the highest percentage of Arnica, IMO.

Hope you're doing well.

ellice

Thanks for the good thoughts. It's almost gone but with the skin problem it'll probably be replaced with something else soon. I'm kind of used to it and don't consider it a very big deal.

Lucille

Good news! After wearing the brace most of yesterday and sleeping in it, the wrist feels much better. We'll see how it feels after I've been using it for a while today.

Don't I know that !!!

Generally I don't have this happen when I do a blood test or an IV. My veins aren't usually too bad. It happened when a student removed the needle and was a bit of a clutz. This problem is more of fragile capilleries so the problem is more of a peripheral one. I know exactly what meds are causing it but they can't be changed and they even suggest I stay on the baby aspirin and just live with the skin problem. It will be better if it ever gets cooler here in Florida and I can wear long sleeves and protect my arms a little. It's really not much more than a very large PITA.

The nurses had immediately put ice on it and I most probably would have done

It's allmost gone so something sure helped. I think it was kind of funny because of the panic by everyone but me. I think they probably were afraid I would sue them, which is something I wouldn't ever even think of for something like this.

Thanks for the good thoughts. I'm fine. Like most older folk I have problems, but so what. The arnica sounds like it might be interesting, but I doubt I would consider taking it internally. Because of the bleeding I can't even take a multi-vitamin. All of them have vitamin E and I'm stuck with taking all the vitamins as individual pills. Too many already and I wouldn't want to add another one.

Good news.>Be gentle and try to not overdo it.

Lucille

Yes, ma'am.

On closer inspection, there's no bruise, so I guess I didn't hit anything solid enough to break it.

Even though the accident wasn't Brian's fault, he's feeling guilty enough that he said he'd come over today to do a couple chores that would require two-handed lifting or odd wrist positions. So, I'll have to do the paid work that didn't get done yesterday, but I won't have to stress it with chores. :)

Update: I did a little dimensional fabric painting today, and just squeezing the paint bottle made the wrist hurt, so Brian is insisting that I *will* see the doctor as soon as he has a claim number from the insurance company to bill the x-ray to.

On the bright side, my client thought of it herself that if my wrist may be broken, I don't need to be doing a lot of typing, and decided to do the last few days of her trial herself. So, I have today/tomorrow off.

I have guacamole and chips to go with the ballgame, and since I'm not working, there will be a margarita to go with it. :)

Sprains can swell a lot more than broken bones, I have found thru personal experience. Neither of my broken arms swelled at all, but when I sprain my ankles, they swell like crazy. Broken bones can cause lots of swelling too, but for some reason not so much on me!

Major soft tissue injuries take ages to heal, frequently longer than bones, some never heal fully. It's impossible to know if something is broken or not without an xray. And btw, the next person who insists "it's not broken, it's a fracture" will make me scream. Fracture is just med-speak for broken, even a hairline fracture means the bone is broken as in not in one piece!

I've managed to type (for a living) with tendonitis flaring in my wrist, and my daughter's term paper the day I broke two fingers. Where there is a will there is a way, and if people are depending on me, I find a way!

Caryn (on day 146 of a migraine, but still at work....stupidity or being a trooper? You make the call!)

Ain`t that the truth! I`ve had a calf sprain for about six months. I know that the cure is rest, but how the hell can you rest one leg when the other one isn`t much cop anyway? I actually did it by over exercising it on one of those pedal exercisers. Grr! Even walking around the house screws it up, let alone trying to walk outside!

Now I`m over compensating with the other (dodgy) leg, which is starting to aggravate the hip I cracked a couple of years ago. Just call me Hopalong!

Pat

Karen, I'm late to the party as usual, but I wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you.

Get better soon!