Broke my wrist. Any tips?

9 years ago I broke my distal radius, broke a wrist bone, fractured the top of the ulnar head and dislocated my hand up into my arm. Bad cycling accident. Ended up with a plate and 7 screws to put it back together. I hated the idea of not playing and I told my surgeon I'm a drummer I need this hand and range of motion. He did his part. I didn't do ANY drumming using that hand until my therapist told me I could. I showed him what was involved and the motions and followed his guidance on getting back to playing again. Kept up with all the exercises and before I knew it was playing again. You will need to ease back into it once you get the clearance to start playing again, fatigue and lack of strength will be very noticeable but it will come back pretty quick. Just don't over do it in the beginning.. Best of luck and sorry to hear this happened to you. Just keep working the weak and and feet, really good time to work rudiments between your hand and feet.

beatdat said:

So, what do you guys think I should do, wait until the cast is off and I've had a little physiological under my belt before I start practicing again, or force myself to get to working on my feet and non-dominant hand until then?

Click to expand...

Well since you asked; I think you should have been playing the drum set with one hand this whole time. At rehearsals and live on stage.
So the fills suffer a little, but no big deal. You should have been playin' and groovin' this whole time.


.

konaboy said:

9 years ago I broke my distal radius, broke a wrist bone, fractured the top of the ulnar head and dislocated my hand up into my arm. Bad cycling accident. Ended up with a plate and 7 screws to put it back together. I hated the idea of not playing and I told my surgeon I'm a drummer I need this hand and range of motion. He did his part. I didn't do ANY drumming using that hand until my therapist told me I could. I showed him what was involved and the motions and followed his guidance on getting back to playing again. Kept up with all the exercises and before I knew it was playing again. You will need to ease back into it once you get the clearance to start playing again, fatigue and lack of strength will be very noticeable but it will come back pretty quick. Just don't over do it in the beginning.. Best of luck and sorry to hear this happened to you. Just keep working the weak and and feet, really good time to work rudiments between your hand and feet.

Click to expand...

That's brutal. Glad to hear you're all right. I'll definitely follow the physiotherapist's advice to the letter. I've also planned to take a stick and a pad the first time I go in to show them what's involved in playing...so it's probably a good time to get at it again.

Hollywood Jim said:

Well since you asked; I think you should have been playing the drum set with one hand this whole time. At rehearsals and live on stage.
So the fills suffer a little, but no big deal. You should have been playin' and groovin' this whole time.


.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I needed that laugh. Really. But seriously, I've been really tired the last few weeks. I forgot to mention it previously, but I found out after the doctors set the bones that one of the drugs they administered to put me under was fetanyl. Wondering if there's any residual still in me.

beatdat said:

Thanks, I needed that laugh. Really. But seriously, I've been really tired the last few weeks. I forgot to mention it previously, but I found out after the doctors set the bones that one of the drugs they administered to put me under was fetanyl. Wondering if there's any residual still in me.

Click to expand...

Well if you don't feel like playing then you shouldn't. That is the most important thing.
I'm not trying to make you feel bad. If I overstepped my bounds, I'm sorry.
A couple of years ago I drilled a hole in my thumb. I strapped a drum stick to my middle finger and played a few gigs. It hurt a little.
I'd play with one hand if I had to.


.

Hollywood Jim said:

Well if you don't feel like playing then you shouldn't. That is the most important thing.
I'm not trying to make you feel bad. If I overstepped my bounds, I'm sorry.
A couple of years ago I drilled a hole in my thumb. I strapped a drum stick to my middle finger and played a few gigs. It hurt a little.
I'd play with one hand if I had to.


.

Click to expand...

You didn't overstep anything at all. I took your post with a grain of humour. That's why I thanked you for the laugh. I truly needed it.

And I admire your dedication.

I put in about 600 hours of practice last year, and loved every minute of it. I'm dying to get back into it, but part of me is telling me to wait. Only thing is beginning to worry about how much this is going to set me back.

Having broken my heel about a year ago to this day,it takes about a year for the occasional pain(dull ache)to subside.

So expect the recovery process to take a while.

As for therapy,it's just another word for painful.

Hopefully you won't lose too much mass to atrophy.

What really sucks is the cast and trying to figure out how to scratch and itch.

Well everyone has given you all the good advice. With all the advances in prosthetics I'd chop off that arm and get a cyborg arm that will perform supernatural feats-you'll be the envy of every drummer. Maybe wear a helmet so you won't get a head injury your next fall. That should about cover it. When I broke my hand the cast drove me crazy but what freaked me out was when I removed it my hand was as smooth as a babies butt-no lines a palmist would say I have no future LOL.

The two things I'd offer are to get as much sleep as you can, and to be very disciplined in doing the exercises that the physiotherapist prescribes.

Good luck, I hope you heal up quickly! I broke a bone in my neck once...so boring.

pgm554 said:

Hopefully you won't lose too much mass to atrophy.

What really sucks is the cast and trying to figure out how to scratch and itch.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty thin to begin with, but the most disturbing thing so far was not the "obvious deformity" that the doctors had to correct when setting the bones, but how skinny my arm looked when they took the plaster cast off before putting the fibreglass cast on - I was shocked at how much my arm atrophied in just 3 weeks.

Truth be told, the itching doesn't bother me all that much. Somehow, I'm pretty good at ignoring it until it goes away.

GetAgrippa said:

With all the advances in prosthetics I'd chop off that arm and get a cyborg arm that will perform supernatural feats-you'll be the envy of every drummer.

Click to expand...

I tore my ACL twenty years ago - not a small sprain or twist - but a full blow out of my knee trying to downhill ski for the first time. Never had surgery to fix it. It's gotten worse over the years, to the point where it's begun to affect the other ligaments in my knee. A couple of years ago it just "collapsed" while walking normally. Had to go to the hospital and eventually had an MRI done. Never heard back from the doctors - I'm pretty sure they took a look at the MRI and said "nope, nothing we can do short of a full knee replacement".

How long do you think until the technology is so good that a knee replacement will allow for full use of the knee (I'm talking being able to play hockey again, practice martial arts, etc.) without having to use a brace? 5 years? 10? 20? I mean, some of those prosthetics are pretty amazing, so the technology can't be too far off, no?

One Up One Down said:

The two things I'd offer are to get as much sleep as you can, and to be very disciplined in doing the exercises that the physiotherapist prescribes.

Good luck, I hope you heal up quickly! I broke a bone in my neck once...so boring.

Click to expand...

Yup, been sleeping a lot (and eating more than usual). I'm actually looking forward to physiotherapy.

But, that has to be the most cavalier attitude to an injury I've ever heard...puts Monty Python to shame: https://tenor.com/view/monty-python-gif-5626961.

I had the cast removed yesterday. The doctor initially said 6-8 weeks, but it was only 5 weeks and 3 days, so that's good. On the other hand, my wrist is really stiff and it's sore in a couple of spots, but I have a cool adjustable splint to wear for now.

I'll be starting physiotherapy soon, but I've been massaging my wrist and stretching it a bit.

I tried holding a stick, but it was weird... my hand felt a little foreign to me. Still, I was able to do the fulcrum exercise Tommy Igoe does towards the beginning of Great Hands For a Lifetime. Good stuff.

Can't wait to get back into it.

I fell roller skating and sprained both wrists the right worse. Lasted a year. I suggest after healing, cut a broom handle, drill a hole in the middle. knot a rope with a weight, hang your arms over a bar and roll up the weight twisting the handle frontwards then backwards. Those hand spring exerciser things also helped. I also learned to never put wheels on my feet again.