| Brenda's Kienbock's Disease Story |
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I have had a lot of trouble with my right wrist for years. I had carpal tunnel about ten years ago and had surgery about nine years ago. It
took me a long time to get over it. My doctor even invented a new piece of equipment to do the surgery, which meant that I only
have a very small scar in my wrist, in a wrinkle. I continued to have some problems. They never did figure out anything, except my arthritis, since I have it everywhere, along with many other bone and joint conditions, which cause me to be in severe pain most of the time. I had injections, splints, etc., and then in 2000 I started having catches in my wrist that would cause terrible pain in my wrist that would only last a few minutes. ( one footnote, I had complete knee replacement on my left knee and have had to use a walker and crutches for over three months. I also use a cane for balance due to other disorders). In January of 2001, I got one of the catches and it would not go away. I waited a couple of weeks before going to my Ortho because I thought maybe I had just sprained it, but it would not go away. As soon as he xrayed it he knew what it was, but he immediately did an MRI in his office to comfirm it. He came back to me and said, "Brenda, this is really bad." He scared me to death. He explained about the disease and put me in a cast to try to go conservative with me, again because of my other problems. This continued for almost a year, including a bone growth stimulator, and many xrays, MRI's, CT's, and a bone scan. After the bone scan, it was determined that the bone was dead, and my doctor decided to do an Ulna Lenghtening, instead of a Radial Shortening, because he said I had so few good bones, and he did not want to mess with a good bone. I had the UL on January 25, 2002. I got a little relief for a short period of time, but have never been without pain at any time. At this time, I am trying to get my doctor to fuse the wrist. He still wants me to wait. I have another appointment on July 16, so we will see what happens then. Just as another footnote, I have Cervical Spondylosis, or Ankylosing Spondylitis, and they think that some of that causes some of my hand problems. I have Overuse Syndrome in the left hand, that includes a Ganglion Cyst on the Lunate, Dorsal Capsular Inflammation and Capsulititis whick makes it hard now to use the left hand, so at the moment I have real problems with both hands.
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