| Shelly's Stage 1 Kienbock's Disease Story, and Her Recovery From a Radial Wedge Osteotomy |
| I began having a nagging pain in my right wrist in 2005, so I began wearing a wrist brace that I purchased at a local store. The pain was most noticeable in the ulnar side of my wrist. An MRI at that time just showed a partially torn ligament on the thumb side of my wrist. My hand doctor placed me in a hard splint from my hand up to my upper arm for three months. He intended to immobilize the arm and included the elbow because he did not want ANY movement in the wrist. After the three months, my wrist felt fine and it was back to life and work! Then in July of 2007, I was at work at the hospital when that same wrist was twisted by a confused patient. I was sent to a hospital doctor, who did an X-ray which was showed everything to be fine. I decided that since the pain was similar to what I had experienced in 2005, that I would get an appointment with the hand specialist as soon as possible and get it checked. I was lucky to be seen right away. I described the pain to my doctor, who looked over my hand carefully, then looked up my 2005 assessment. He ordered an MRI, explaining that this pain in his assessment was NOT the same as it was two years before. I should add that my wrist had been bothering me again prior to the incident, and I was wearing the brace off and on again. With two children heading off to college, I wanted to work more and could not imagine the thought of having lifting restrictions again and not working for three months. Little did I know how thankful I would be for this pain alerting me, as to what could have been a much worse scenario.
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This is Shelly's original diagnostic xray (left) and ensuing MRI (right). This is a good example of why an MRI is necessary to diagnose Kienbock's disease at its onset. Notice that the xray shows nothing terribly unusual, but the MRI clearly shows the problem in the lunate bone, Stage 1 Kienbock's disease |
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| The pain in my wrist was mostly in the ulnar side of my wrist. I had an experience at the hospital where I helped pull up a patient, and a pain shot up the top of my arm about half way up the forearm. Then I lost the strength in my arm. I could not grip or lift anything that day. I went to the hospital’s doctor and he explained I had a condition called Kienbock’s disease. I went to see the hand specialist that afternoon. The end of that day was the beginning of my leave of absence. | |
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Left) "This one seems to show blood vessels. I would love to see if there is one blood vessel or two in my lunate" |
| Right) "a little off-center view MRI: off to the side but looks interesting between the 2 bones. I had a bone spur there and a little cartilage damage according to the wrist doctor, aka mild arthritis" | 
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| The group of doctors in my area has five board certified hand surgeons that work together. The doctor's standard procedure is to meet and discuss patients and their X-rays and then make a group recommendation. My doctor and his group recommended a radial wedge osteotmy, or RWO. Luckily, my Mom found the Yahoo! Kienbock Disease Support Group. I read in the group's postings how rapidly Kienbock’s disease can progress, and the pain was really increasing quickly! It was really getting rough getting to sleep at night! I had surgery August 14th, 2007, 30 days after the initial injury. I expected the surgery to be easier to recover from than it was. I had a lot of pain and despite elevation, some continued swelling. After three weeks, I was only taking pain medication about 3 times a week, but there were days when I could hardly wait until I picked up my daughter from her sport at 5:00pm so I could take that pill!!! I had been taking medication for arthritis in my neck, but I had to stop that one week before surgery because it was a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and bone heals by inflammation. | |||
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Ten days post radial wedge osteotomy. The change in the inclination of the radial head can be clearly seen | |
| The physical therapy I attended was extremely painful, particularly on the ulnar side of the wrist. I was told that everyone that has wrist surgery had this pain on the ulnar side of the wrist. I wasn't seeming to progress very quickly. My ROM had increased a little bit, but not at all what I had expected it would be by now. At three months, the X-ray showed that the bone had not healed. There was a non-union of the bone. Physical therapy was halted, and my doctor ordered a bone growth stimulator. I wore the bone growth stimulator for 75 days! I was advised to do very little. No lifting anything heavier than a pencil. No house work....so no sweeping with a broom. No doing dishes. No laundry. No anything! I was really fortunate to find a nursing position that required no lifting and was able to do something other than....well, nothing! I was of course doing a bit more than nothing, but not nearly what I was doing prior to surgery. | ||
3 months post-opnote the lack of new bone growth at the osteotomy site |
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| After 75 days using the bone growth stimulator, I finally had bone growth. I started physical therapy again. My arm is very stiff and weak from 6 months of not using it. I am still advised to take it easy. I can lift 5 pounds as long as I wear the brace. I can do light housework, which my husband is thankful for. I continue to have tightness and stiffness, but the pain is gone!!! | ||
6 months post-opfinally, bone growth can be detected after 75 days with a bone growth stimulator |
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"I feel fortunate to have found the Yahoo! Kienbock Disease Support Group on-line. The support I received is beyond explanation!!!" --- Shelly Schmidt
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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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