Recovering from a wrist injury (broken scaphoid bone)

[John Kreese]

Is my golf swing doomed?

Anyone out there broken their wrist/scaphoid bone? I just got an x-ray the other day and found out I have a nonunion (has not healed by itself) scaphoid waist (middle of the bone) fracture in my left wrist. Surgery is in two weeks.

It broke the first time 3 years ago when I was snowboarding - a few days later it was fine and I thought nothing of it. I fell on it again the following year - I again laid off it for a little while and it seemed okay. I've dealt with nagging dull pain since then; however, it has never been enough to keep me from lifting weights, swinging a weighted club, playing as much golf as possible, or any other physical activity as I have lost no strength or mobility. This past winter I began seeing a chiropractor in hopes of permanently eliminating the problem. After a couple months of having the wrist adjusted (in hindsight probably freshly broken) every week and not improving I decided to have an x-ray. My surgeon will do a small bone graft and insert a pin lengthwise in an attempt to get to bones to heal back together. As stated before, the fracture is nonunion, which means the bone has been/stayed fracture and is not healing by itself (no surprise to me considering the abuse it has endured while broken).

Has anyone had any experience with this (or any similar) type of fracture or surgery? How long did it take to heal? Were you able to fully recover strength and mobility in that wrist? How long before you could start golfing again? What was the overall effect on your swing?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated...

[Bomb and Gouge]

No way man, you're not screwed. Unless you think you are! You gotta remain positive and rehab it completely and PROPERLY!

 

 

Not totally related but: I broke a few bones in my hand...and I've been able to get better every year since it healed.

[ktbfsu]

i broke that bone....along with another bone in my wrist....and tore two ligaments (a guy fouled me from behind in a hoops game)....the ligaments i tore were the schapholunate and lunotriquetral (hope i spelled those right). i was casted initially for the bone breaks....got that cast off....started playing hoops again.....noticed something was still very wrong....went back for an MRI....and they discovered the ligaement tears. had the ligaments surigically reparied.....including having pins permanently installed....and was casted again for a LONG time.

 

i eventually returned to hoops, weightlifting and golf (with divots - that took some time simply due to fear).

 

the human body has an amazing capacity to recover even though you think you're toast. before you know it, you'll be back out there "digging it out of the dirt" without fear. i'm sure willis magahee didn't think he'd be toting the rock anymore after the OSU/Miami NC game....but you bounce back. hang in there.

 

ps - on the play when i broke my wrist and tore the two ligaments, i made the layup and the free throw, and played the rest of the game....albeit knowing something wasn't right. :-)

[ezra76]

I broke the navicular bone in my right wrist snowboarding over 10yrs. ago. It never healed and is now still in 2 pieces. It doesn't seem to bother my swing but it's also been like that since I started playing. I think it would be a lot worse if it was my left (I'm right handed) since I've worked on taking the right hand out of the swing anyway. It hurts sometimes when I swing harder as my body pulls the right wrist over hard after impact.

 

Take your time with it and hopefully it will recover just fine. I broke my ankle very badly in 2003 and have 2 plates and 6 screws in it. I don't even know it happened today. I wish I'd had the wrist operated on when it happened but the doctor didn't see the fracture and after over a year when I went back and it was found, it was too late to do anything about it they said.

[John Kreese]

Didn't mean to sound overly negative in my initial post (crappy situation though) - I'm hoping to turn this mishap into a positive. I haven't hit a ball since late December and likely won't be able to until mid/late summer or fall, at which point I'll go straight to lessons (Scott Sadler, btw, great teacher in downtown Chicago). My swing was actually pretty good, but starting with a blank[er] canvas might be kind of nice...