Broken Metacarpals

[ali-b]

I have 3 broken metacarpals, the ones that run down the back of the hand, connecting the wrist to the first knuckle joint.

Now, depending on who you ask (doctors, physiologists, physiotherapists, google etc etc) it takes somewhere between 4 weeks and 3 months to heal up. The fracture clinic is taking the slab off this thursday and didn't actually say they were putting anything else back on.

Now, my actual question is...has anyone had broken metacarpals and how long did they take to heal?

Cheers,

A.

[BanditBitch]

I am presuming you have a back slab on, (half a pot), which they put on to allow the swelling to go down,before they apply a full plaster.

So they will more than like put some sort of full plaster on, when you go back, providing the swelling has gone down.

[Skunkcap Freddie]

i broke one on my right hand, the one that connects to the smallest finger. it was clean break.

it took 3 weeks to join together again. it was still badly cracked, but i was fed up with a cast. so i went without one. it was painful to put pressure on my right hand for nearly a year afterwards. and was quite a long time before it didn't hurt when i wacked it /punched somthing/someone

[ali-b]

hi,

I had a back slab on, which they took off last week and replaced with a fibreglass slab on the underside which pushed my wrist back and held my fingers (sort of) straight (the name of the slab began with V, but i couldn't read the rest of it)

They just said that this one would come off next time. I just wouldn't have thought that the bones could heal in such a short space of time.

A.

[Skunkcap Freddie]

they do heal quickly. but its gonna be right and sore for a while to come

[Motkram]

I bust one in my thumb as in the piccie; I was in plaster for ages.

They first tried to hold my thumb in place with the cast, one week on I went for a check up and was told that it was not healing correctly, and suggested surgery.
Surgery done and thumb wired in place- four weeks in a cast
Wires removed (with pliers, I shit you not)- two more weeks in a lightweight cast.
____________________
Part-time GSXR1000 pilot>Micron Serpert system+K&N, PC111, Sigma slipper clutch, Brembo m/c+Galfer discs, Gilles rearsets, Translogic Quickshifter.

GP125>GSF400>VFR400NC30>YZF600R>YZFR1(1998)+KLR250>YZFR1(2003)>CBR900RRY>YZFR1(2002)>GSXR1000K1+RGV250

[ali-b]

I must admit I'm getting really quite fed up of having no right hand, so in one way, I'd kinda like having no replacement cast. Having caught my fingers several times over the last couple of weeks, however, means I'm a bit nervous of going without 'armour' of some kind...

A.

[WildGoose]

i broke my fifth, in a bike accident

never had a cast, just like a supporting splint thing

healed quickly, but they broke it again to try and manouvre it straight but failed

hurt for a good year afterwards to put pressure on or make a fist

got a bump in my hand where it hasnt healed straight and a lump on my palm that is uncomfortable to put pressure on due to the bone at a weird angle
____________________
So in other words, he stopped you for being flagrantly in posession of a motorcycle in direct contravention of the Hippies, Darkies and People Whose Face I Don't Like The Look of (Police Powers) Act. 1976

[swampy]

I broke one in my left hand a couple of years ago falling down some stairs. Mine was pretty much pain free within a month, looking at some of the other replies here I was quite lucky..
____________________
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Hunter S Thompson
"Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death..." Hunter S Thompson

[nrml76]

You have 5 metacarpals, which all act as natural splints for each other. If the fracture starts healing and is no longer mobile, the slab/splint can come off.

[Nath]

Broke the one for my little finger, due to punching a window (I have a nasty tendency to hook my punches)

Didn't bother going to the doctors, just let it heal on its own. Probably took about 2 weeks till I was able to grip things normally, but took well over a month for the mend to stop being sore. Because I didn't go to hospital to have it set properly, the two sides of the bone both protrude up creating a weird lump, and the knuckle is lower than it should be due to the bone being angled down.

That was the second time I broke that bone. I did a similar injury six months earlier, from punching a window exactly the same However that time it must only have been a fracture as I couldn't wiggle the bone around, and because it looked pretty normal after the swelling went down.
____________________
Hard livin', hard luck.

[syl]

[ali-b]

I thought you had lots of metacarpals, like every bone in your hand is one and they just number them. I broke (I think) 13, 14 and 15???

No splinting together unfortunately as they're in my hand not my fingers. So I guess another couple of weeks in my cast

On the plus side, I've managed to straighten my fingers out (the tendons had seized up curled) with lollypop sticks and cable ties

I feel quite lucky that I didn't have to have pins from those pictures

And embarassingly, my fingers stink!

A.

[Skunkcap Freddie]

lol. stinky knuckles.

were've i heard that before

[syl]

[Flip]

Broke loads of them. Takes a few weeks.