Single-Handed Combat

Modeling my new Donjoy CXT wrist brace in a mirror while playing with a friend's Fish-Eye lens

'Bout a week before Christmas, I went to visit my wrist-doc again (Dr T), since I'd had absolutely zero medical attention since I saw the first surgeon (Dr L) back in February, when he added me to a 1-year waitlist to see Dr v.S in Toronto because he didn't feel brave enough to tackle the damage.

When I last saw Dr T, almost year ago, she'd told me this anecdote about another patient who'd screwed up his shoulder, it was unstable and that he'd never sought proper treatment/therapy for it. 10 years later he wanted to get it fixed up, but in the interim he'd practically not used it all... but it was too late to do anything. "I don't want that happening to you" she'd said to me, worrying that my near-constant immobilization would lead to a similar story. Well, maybe that guy could go a decade without a shoulder, but at that point (5 months to the day) I had zero intention of just waiting around doing nothing, hoping for my hand to get better on it's own. Obviously the PT & OT got me nowhere, and I have to wait for surgery for any real progress to happen. I assume my pain lessened in the winter because the broken bone had fused, and I'd gotten back into playing guitar, and weaned myself from needing gross-support or immobilization for extended periods of time. I think I made it through most of the summer without any splints or braces much at all... and a good portion of the fall too. But in late October and into November, I felt found I was regressing, more pain, more immobilization - and heading right into that trap of disuse.

And I sure didn't want that.

Hence the visit to the sports-doc. She agreed that it was a bad sign, and while I posited PT as likely being useless, she agreed but countered that it couldn't hurt - figuratively at least. I'll see about giving that a shot.

My other qualm was that while I typically have no neurological problems impeding the use/control/sensation of my hand, the wrist joint is so unstable, I frequently 'pop' something and am left in quite a bit of pain for several days afterward, leading to immobilization and disuse. (Starting to pick up on a theme here?)

Some research later, and I've picked up a Donjoy CXT functional wrist brace Unlike the casts & splints I've been encumbered with previously, this very sci-fi looking hardware lets me functionally use my wrist (to some degree) while providing protection and limiting range of motion.

And two days into having it, it's like a breath of fresh air. There's a lot of things I couldn't do at all before, but now that I can brace my hand against the brace, I can actually do! While I still can't grip, since it doesn't support my wobbly thumb, I can push against things with force (transferred to the hinge) and carry stuff! Yay! It's an experiment that's going well, and I'm doubly happy about it because it's cost me about $525 so far. (Would've been $750+HST if I'd bought locally...)

Of course, it's been pointed out that every silver-lining has a cloud... The 1st surgeon (Dr L) never actually sent a consultation report back to Dr T after he saw me in January. This has me greatly concerned because it might also mean the referral to the second surgeon (Dr v.S) may not have been sent either... which would mean I've just wasted the past 10+ months thinking I'm a waitlist I'm not. Stay tuned for news on that front: Dr T requested the consultation report, hopefully that'll spur some motion and resolution... we'll see - these things take a lot more time than they should. My phone hasn't rung yet.

I do think this new brace looks pretty bad-ass on me though, don't you? No room for LEDs, but maybe I can get some EL wire tape and Tron it up...