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please help !!!!
can't type - broke right wrist on wednesday and in the emergency room a cast was put on. i am in excruciating pain and on aspirin. need to know how long it takes for the initial pain of the fracture to subside.it's throbbing and paining. p. s.: went back to be x-rayed again and was told the alignment was good and i have to be immobile. But i never expected so much pain under the cast. does anyone know how long it takes for pain to settle down ?
thank you, nadia
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
sorry to hear about that....best to type 1 finger,,,LEFT hand.....good practice....keep it mobile,,,and try Tynelol......not sure if too much asprin is good....
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
Hi Nadia,
I wonder if the cast is too tight, or if a nerve is being pinched. An x-ray will not show that.
If your fingers go numb or change colour, get back to them ASAP.
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
ice
I use ice and like it better than anything else.
if you rub above the wrist that will help you.
I use those ice packs for lunches for $1.00 ..they work.But since you have a cast on a softer ice pack made with ice and plastic bags or bag of frozen pees.
Soft pillow support for sleeping too.
It will pass.
Lovebird
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
hello everybody.....thank you for your replies to my urgent question.
yes, i did go back after two days and the x-ray showed good bone alignment and dr. said cast is not too tight.
But Ron, do you know approx. how long it takes for the initial pain to subside ??? Could the pain be from ligaments or muscles which could have been damaged when i fell ????
re; ice - its hard for the ice to penetrate thru the
fiberglass cast.
re: aspirin - believe me, i don't like taking it.
but they want me to take tylenol with codeine
which i wouldn't do.
looking forward to hearing from you.... nadia
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 13:46:48:
Hi Nadia,
sorry to hear about your wrist. It could take 2-3 days, 2-3 weeks It's hard to predict. Hopefully it will subside soon.
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 13:46:48:
Hi Nadia,
I don't beleive that the pain is supposed to be that
bad for that long.
Has anyone suggested a nerve calming med such as
tegretol, neurontin or other antiseizure med?
You might be wise to take pain meds and ask about an
MRI to see if a nerve has been entrapped at the break
site. Don't let this go on forever. The nerve could
die quickly.
You could even ask the doc if it is too early for
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy to set in.
Here is a link to read... see what fits.
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/stress_fractures.html
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
Nadia,
The most likely (and most dangerous) thing this can be is that the cast is too tight. This frequently happens when the cast is applied too soon after a fracture--less than 7-10 days after the injury--(especially in a place like the wrist).
This is an emergency and the doc who applied it has to be contacted at once. If they do not take your complaints seriously, in MY opinion, you should go to the ER at once and suggest this to anyone who sees you.
Let us know what you learn.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Ron [1013.2318] on June 04, 2006 at 23:29:21:
Hi Ron,
To be honest when I crushed my ankle in a car accident I wouldn't have described the pain as "excruciating" either before it was operated on or after. I'm not sure it's supposed to be that bad at all for any period of time. It was actually kind of numb for a while, of course it was a long time ago and memories of such things aren't to easy to recall but I don't think it was ever "excruciating".
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on June 05, 2006 at 06:40:36:
dear Dr. Stoll, i did go back and the orthop. dr.said that the cast is not too tight.
Today is the first day that the excruciating pain is starting to subside. as a matter of fact I didn't have to take an aspirin today. Of course, its very tender and uncomfortable and i have to keep my arm very still and elevated.
Do you feel that a week should have gone by before the dr. put the cast on ?
thank you Dr. Stoll.
Nadia
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by nadia [2279.1351] on June 05, 2006 at 18:59:00:
Thanks, Nadia.
I was very concerned that this too tight cast be ruled out.
More than 20 years ago a huge study proved that best results were obtained when a cast was not placed until the initial swelling was gone. I think it was a Harvard study where they only placed casts on Tuesday!The average time was a week with a simple ace bandage in the meantime.
Of course this was not true for an open fracture.
I hope the doc that said the cast was not too tight is correct. If the skin is necrotic when the cast is finally removed, he was wrong--of course then it will be too late.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by nadia [2279.1351] on June 05, 2006 at 18:59:00:
Hi Nadia,
The belief is that bones should be set or realigned ASAP because they begin to heal immediately. Whether this should be done with a cast before the swelling goes down probably is a matter of the doctor's opinion, I don't think it should be, it can be realigned with a splint or a bandage rather than a cast.
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on June 06, 2006 at 07:19:41:
is so TRUE.
I had a total leg reconstruction done when I was a teen. They put me in a 3 sided cast from ankle to hip and wrapped gauze tightly around it to hold it on for that very reason he speaks of. It was plaster, not fiberglass, and therefore very heavy and uncomfortable --but when I asked (OK,complained--LOL) about it they said they had to do it that way to avoid too much compression.
I went home 7 days after the surgery and as it was, the cast wound up being too tightly wrapped for the amount of swelling I got once I was up and around more at home...I had blood pooling in my calf and was in excruciating pain. They told me to come in right away and pried open my cast, elevated my leg for hours and put me in a new cast that night. I didn't get a 4-sided fiberglass cast until almost 2 months after the surgery.
Glad you got it checked out--I actually passed out in the emergency room and when they brought me back with ammonia under my nose I heard them talking with my parents about how serious a too-tight cast can be. Better safe than sorry, right?!
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by lissa [2032.8] on June 06, 2006 at 09:29:08:
Sorry, Lissa, but the facts do not agree with your assessment.
The first 10 days after ANY fracture is made up of reabsorbing the damaged calcium (etc) and cleaning up the debris. THEN the healing of the fracture begins.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! Facts are so bothersome! Archive. posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on June 07, 2006 at 06:40:31:
Hi Walt,
Can you explain what you meant by it wasn't true for an open fracture? The tip of finger was broken off and it's distorted, it was set after 8 days. I know that's a tiny bone compared to others but I don't know if that's why, or the way it broke.
In Reply to: Re: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! Facts are so bothersome! Archive. posted by lissa [2032.8] on June 07, 2006 at 08:49:39:
Lissa,
An "open fracture" is when the bone has broken the skin at the site of the fracture and it is treated very differently from a "closed fracture" where the skin is not broken.
Hope this helps.
Walt
In Reply to: URGENT - excrutiating pain in wrist !!! posted by Nadia [2279.1351] on June 04, 2006 at 05:16:43:
I had a friend who broke his ankle. After the Dr put on the cast, the ankle began throbbing and my friend was complaining of extreme pain. I went down to see him and it appeared the circulation was being affected from swelling. I then broke parts of the cast and the relief he experience was immediate. The throbbing ended and the discomfort was gone. When we got to the doctor, he said that was the right thing.
If you are in such pain after beinbg set for a cast, go see a Dr, ASAP. If you have to break the cast. It's simple to reset casts.
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