| Hazel's X-rays and Twenty-year Long Road to Total Fusion |
| The daftest thing of all is that I cannot remember what I did to get KD!!!. I believe I bent my thumb as a young foolish student in University in England in the early 1980's to see if I could touch my wrist with my thumb. DON'T DO THIS AT HOME FOLKS!! Anyway, I vaguely remember months later a bad pain in the left, non dominant ( there is a God) wrist. I trecked off to the Doctors, to the hospital, to X Ray, to an arthritis clinic, to six weeks in plaster, to deep heat treatment.....nothing helped. Then an eagle eyed female Doc saw me waiting amongst all the old dears awaiting physio for arthritis and dragged me into the office. "Look here," she said, "you are too young to be sitting out there. I am going to look at these X rays." Lo and behold she found a missed fracture in the Lunate bone, which apparently is EASY to spot. I mean easy to SPOT, not to miss!! My doctor said it was a "classic" casualty miss, and nowadays the rules have changed, and they plaster ALL suspected fractures of the wrist. She couldn't believe they missed it. By this time it had started to crumble away a bit and I endured agonising 'trapped nerve' like pain in my wrist that was sheer torture. Little did I know this pain would be a piece of cake compared to the next 20 years. | |
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To cut to the chase she arranged for me to see a hand specialist who was all for implanting a silastic bone into my wrist. I would be the second person in England ever to have it done and it would mean my staying in England after I had left University. Not wanting this, I came home to Wales and was referred to this wonderously pompous Doctor in one of the largest and newest hospitals in Wales. Here entereth the man who messed up my life! I remember him speaking to his students, not me, and saying it wasn't worth operating and to get on with life but when I got older I might get a "bit of arthritis." Understatement of the year! I got by the next TWENTY YEARS in some pain, a wristbrace and some good old ibuprofen but nothing unmanagable. I started working in a library some 7 years ago and have humped endless books around. In Spring 2006, some severe pain kicked in, the kind Keith said makes a grown-up cry. I mean in a matter of months it went from tolerable to agony. | |
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Now, knowing the state of the NHS here, I was only too aware that if I went to see my Doctor, he would, in turn, refer me to a hand surgeon and there would be a long, long wait. At least a year. The pain by now was awful, like a rat gnawing on a nerve, so, and DO TRY THIS AT HOME IN THE UK FOLKS, I went to casualty in my local hospital emergency department and said I had fallen and hurt my wrist. As a precaution they plastered it, X ray'd it and found some weird anatomy. As the doctor said, "you have a very interesting wrist and nothing is where it is supposed to be!" |
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They referred me to the hand surgeon and he knew straight away it was KD, and seemed to be quite unfazed by it all. He said "I cannot make a sows purse out of a pigs ear." Cheers! I was plastered for months but that didnt help. Then I had a useful arthroscopy which DID help and I recommend this procedure as he cleaned things up a bit, and it helped with the pain. Still didn't kill it though so he recommended total fusion. All he could do was salvage it and during the operation the Lunate disintegrated and he had to hoover it out and my bones were grinding together!! To quote my excellent surgeon, "It was a right mess." Had this done 6 weeks ago. Pain like no other and been a long road, but hoping I am out of the woods as the pain has gone!!!! Still fusing but the rat on the nerve has been trapped, I really hope. Cannot bend my wrist again, but this is ironic as it was in seeing if it bended so far was how I b****d it up in the first place! So, no movement, but a scar Frankenstein would die for, and now a bionic Librarian. | |
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Also in my travels, I discovered the wonders of the Yahoo Groups Kienbock Disease Support Group that made it all possible (especially Keith), really, as without them I would have wept more than I did, plus ice packs, Hitler like elevation salutes and the marvels of opening things with teeth and elbows! My moral is...get it sorted and dont be fobbed off as I was. Stand up for your KD pain and don't let it get as bad as mine. Most of all, confide in the friends on the website and share your experiences, as the truth will set us free! | |
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| Comments or questions in any way concerning Kienbock's Disease are best directed to the Yahoo! Kienbock Disease Support Group. |
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