le risk with fracture

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jane59
jane59 Member Posts: 31
edited June 2014 in Lymphedema

hi before i start i'll apologise for my typing due to a broken wrist. i slipped on the kitchen floor  2 weeks ago & broke 2 bones in my left wrist which also happens to be my bc side. it's been exactly 5 years today since my surgery & my le is very mild & doesn't really cause me much trouble so of course i'd like to keep it that way. last week xrays showed the bone wasn't in the best position so it was re-positioned and re-plastered i should find out on thursday if it has stayed in position or whether or not i'll need surgery. apart from le massage & elevation is there anything else i should be doing to minmise the risk of my le becoming worse?

thanks

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  • kira66715
    kira66715 Member Posts: 4,681
    edited February 2013

    Jane, I broke my LE hand--a scaphoid fracture--in October 2010. I was in a cast for 6 weeks. It sounds like you have a Colle's fracture.

    I broke at a place that was right where my swelling was the worst--the base of my hand, near the thumb.

    What I did: I elevated, worked with the cast techs to make sure the cast wasn't too tight (once the initial swelling came down), I saw my LE therapist and she worked on my arm above the cast. I did stay out of work--with furious employers, but my orthopedic surgeon didn't want me using the hand, and it's my left--dominant--hand.

    When I came out of the cast, after 6 weeks, my hand was disgusting--swollen, gross skin and very weak. I had a splint from the orthopedic doctor that I wore during the day.

    I sought out a hand therapist/OT who is also trained in LE, and she did my hand rehab. She still messed up at times--gave me hand weights and wanted a lot of reps--but overall was very sensitive to my needs.

    I wrap at night. So after the cast came off, I would come home from work and wrap.

    And I saw my LE therapist weekly for a while.

    It definitely set me back--I didn't wear any daytime compression when I broke it, and now I do at times, but things have definitely improved.

    I learned that the periostieum--the lining of the bone--has lymph flow, and I was hugely swollen at first.

    I was going to try and go back to work, due to employer demands--even though I couldn't write or really hold the steering wheel, and Binney said "Make time for this now, or live with it later." I stayed out the 6 weeks.

    Keep the LE massage going, hydrate, treat your pain, elevate and expect to need hand therapy when you get out of the cast/surgery.

    Accidents happen, and why do they happen on our bad side????

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  • Kicks
    Kicks Member Posts: 4,131
    edited February 2013

    Very similar time frame.  Jan. 26 I hit the floor in the hall - not sure what happened but either I slipped off the siìof the flip-flops I had on with socks (not 'toe socks') or slipped/tripped on one of the bones the dog have everywhere or a combination.  Hubby got home so off to UC we went.  Radius and Ulna both broken shortly above the wrist.  Ulna in place but radius a little bit 'off' but within 'tolerance'.  So given splint and sent home with an appt with Ortho on Monday.  He thought the best idea was to keep it splinted and come back the next Monday.  (Surgeon agreed better to not do surgery unless had to with LE.)  Went back on Monday and it had moved all around so surgery was the only option.  Last Thursday had surgery and as far as I know doing great.  Will see the surgeon on the 22nd and see where we go.  The swelling in fingers is gone/normal.  Elbow is close to normal with using my Flexi-Touch.  I've seen my LE guy (and he has talked with surgeon and the concensous (sp?) is to do what I'm doing UNLESS there are changes.  Once healed we'll get busy taking care of anything that need to be taken care.  Pain has drastically dropped since surgery.

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  • jane59
    jane59 Member Posts: 31
    edited February 2013

    thanks kira & kicks for your replies. yes kira it's colle's fracture, luckily for me i'm no longer working. i'm semi-retired but help look after my granddaughters when needed, althought that's on hold atm, don't think i could change a nappy yet.

    kicks i had my fall on jan 28 we'd had a weekend of storms & were cleaning up a bit i came inside to close a window & the mat that i usually wipe shoes on was soaking wet due to wind blowing the rain in, it very rarely gets wet. i took a step (or 2) inside & then i was on the floor i think both feet went out from under me & my hand/wrist took the full force. your break sounds almost identical to mine. mine had only moved a little but enough that it needed to be re-positioned.

    it's feeling pretty good atm so hopefully it's stayed in place

    again thanks girls for your replies

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  • kira66715
    kira66715 Member Posts: 4,681
    edited February 2013

    Kicks! Glad you're healing and have all your supports in place. Sounds like you did a colle's fracture also. They call our fractures "Foosh" fractures: fall on an out stretched hand. Where we break it tends to vary with age.

    I was leaving a night class, and tripped on a low step that wasn't lit, and being a "good" LE patient, had my book bag on my good shoulder, so I broke my fall with my left/bad hand. I knew I broke it as soon as I hit the ground.

    Got home, hugely swollen, bruised hand, and first person I called was my LE therapist. Then my doctor. Obama was in town, so the roads were all blocked off, so I wrapped and went in first thing for xrays and called the hand surgeon from the urgent visit at my primary care's office....

    My LE therapist's former partner is in NYC and simultaneously, she had a patient who fell in Union Station and broke her arm. So we compared notes on our progress.

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