TFCC Cartilage Tear Problem...need help please?!
Question: TFCC Cartilage Tear Problem!.!.!.need help please!?
Hi! In the middle of February I injured both of my wrists, likely from working out excessively and/or moving it the wrong way!. The Doctors, unfortunately, did a poor job of diagnosing my injury (originally said it was Tendonitis)!. About a week ago (around 9 weeks into the injury) I had an MRI taken only on MY right wrist!. The Doctor said it was a suspicion of a tear, but it probably has done some healing on its own!. In addition to this, about every tendon in the wrist is sprained!. The left wrist is likely in a similar scenario athough the MRI was not taken for it!. He said i Should get a cortisone shot tomorrow!. What can I do that will effectively work to get me better!. It's hard enough not to work out for 3 months!. I want to at least be pain free (if possible) by the 21st of may (my birthday) and start to do light workouts by then!. Is this possible!? What should I do!? Does physical therapy work on tears!?Www@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
I did the same thing to my wrist!. I went two years with out treatment because of being misdianosed!. Finally last year when I couldn't move my fingers I had a MRI done!. They said that it might be a tear in the cartilage!. They had me go thru 8 weeks of physical therapy!. That didn't help me at all!. In the end I had to have surgery to fix it!. After the surgery I am nearly pain free now!. It still hurts when I type or write a lot but that is probably because I went for 2 years with out treatment!. I don't know if a cortisone shot would work, but I know that physical therapy doesn't!. That only streaghens the muscles, it doesn't help the cartilage!. Cartilage does not grow back so it can be very hard to heal injuries to the cartilage!. Hope you get better soon!Www@Answer-Health@Com
As a PT myself and also having going through a TFCC tear as well as a L-T tear and with a positive ulnar variance (ulna is longer than it should be), I went through occupational therapy, cortisone as well as cast immobilization!.
My tear was just too large, the wrist was unstable because of the L-T tear as well (sounds like you are having a similar issue) and the positive ulnar variance suggested I'd just be in for more injury down the road!.
Eventually, I went through arthroscopy which helped, but didn't really relieve the instability problem!. The next procedure I had was a proximal ulnar shortening, the thought was to shorten the ulnar and fixate it in order to tighten up the remaining ligaments in the wrist!. I am now perfectly happy and find that it's even better than my dominante arm!.
The pain was an annoyance more than anything else, but made it impossible to do certain tasks on my job!.
As a PT, I hate these type of ligamentous/cartilagenous injuries because it's often very hard to predict who will do well and who won't (with PT/OT)!. I went though about 6 months of conservative care before undergoing the first surgery!. !.!.!.I would certainly try all the conservative options first!.!.!.but some problem are simply irreducible without surgical intervention!.
Seek out a good hand surgeonWww@Answer-Health@Com
My tear was just too large, the wrist was unstable because of the L-T tear as well (sounds like you are having a similar issue) and the positive ulnar variance suggested I'd just be in for more injury down the road!.
Eventually, I went through arthroscopy which helped, but didn't really relieve the instability problem!. The next procedure I had was a proximal ulnar shortening, the thought was to shorten the ulnar and fixate it in order to tighten up the remaining ligaments in the wrist!. I am now perfectly happy and find that it's even better than my dominante arm!.
The pain was an annoyance more than anything else, but made it impossible to do certain tasks on my job!.
As a PT, I hate these type of ligamentous/cartilagenous injuries because it's often very hard to predict who will do well and who won't (with PT/OT)!. I went though about 6 months of conservative care before undergoing the first surgery!. !.!.!.I would certainly try all the conservative options first!.!.!.but some problem are simply irreducible without surgical intervention!.
Seek out a good hand surgeonWww@Answer-Health@Com