wrist injury - lack of weight bearing and tendonitis

[wendy howard]

Hello,

Thank you for writing. If you have ECU tendonitis you should have the following symptoms:

Pain at the insertion of the tendon at the base of the pinky on the back of the hand... to touch.

Pain in the morning - stiffness and ache.

Sometimes clicking with rotation.

Pain with mousing, writing or typing.

Pain free weight bearing and grip.

Treatment: no stretch to the wrist into flexion (common night time position)

Wrist cock-up splint at night for the time it takes to become pain free at rest, pain free to touch and pain free with motion.

NO strengthening.

Direct ice 2 minutes throughout the day as much as you can tolerate.

I wonder how you developed this as there is a high correlation of TFCC involvement with ECU tendonitis.

The weight bearing test will tell the story. What are your numbers?
Extensor carpi ulnaris - Ganfyd


I hope that helps. Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.

[1toddy38]

what is tfcc?

I cannot weight bare at present as I am only 3 weeks after the operation. It is very tender to touch at slightly hotter that the rest of the hand/wrist.
I have slight rotation but not alot as yet. It began to hurt when I was in the back slab and bandages and I put it down to chaffing but this continued after they were removed and the gp said it was infection. After taking anti-biotics this did not get better so the specialist said it was ECU.

He advised that as the bones were missing it was rubbing and causing the inflamation and he may need to remove the tip of the ulna.

[wendy howard]

Sorry-

Wrist replacement surgery has a completely different protocol post operatively. You have at least 12 weeks of rehab and recovery. I would recommend that you find a CHT certified hand therapist in your area. You can find this at the International Hand Therapy website.

The ECU tendon can be treated for you with lots of ice and splinting to prevent end range motion. I would suggest that you are careful with early strengthening. Find out what your grip strength is.. if it under 45 lbs. then you cant really function without hurting it. You will see a great improvement in your function after 45 lbs. of grip. It is too early post operatively to do much except protect it.

I hope that helps.

Wendy

[WristWIdget]

This could be a bunch of things-- It likely is the extensor retinaculum problem. In the extensor retinaculum cases, the weight bearing is oddly affected but only at the higher ranges of weight bearing. For instance-- if your age is 21, male, 6'1, normal weight bearing should be 100 lbs. You will not see the extensor retinaculum issue until you are at the 80-100 lb range. You can also test this by making a fist with the long finger tightly flexed. Then flex the wrist into wrist flexion and while the hand is flexed, lift the long finger against resistance.
Give it a try and let me know what you find.

- - - Updated - - -

Get some tape on the wrist or the wristwidget and see if your pain goes away. You cant do the weight bearing test this soon after surgery but it should be a part of your post op care. The TFCC is related to the ECU and often if you have a primary TFCC injury, the ECU takes on a load and becomes irritated. Make sure your post op brace does not compress the ulna as this is a common problem that impairs the healing of the tfcc and causes a ton of pain.