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Broken Wrist | Recovery Experience 26-Feb-2009 At 12:09:59 PM prb

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I demolished the wrist-end of my forearm: a snapped ulna and comminuted (ie. gravel-ized) fractures
of the radius. Evidently I mangled the soft tissue so badly as well that there was discussion of
amputating the arm below the elbow. As in your case, I had screws in and casts on for about 3
months. A couple of times doctors told me "you won't be climbing on that arm again", but they
probably weren't climbers. Two hours after the final cast had been removed I was at Morialta self-
belaying up grade 9's. I remember I couldn't flick open a krab with my right hand and coiling the rope
was a joke! It seemed to take 12 to 18 months to get the arm back as strong as the left, but some of
that was probably in my mind. The arm's good now with only a little stiffness in the wrist and no
arthritic pain as yet (after 6 years). I reckon the best thing you can do to rebuild bone and tissue and
get flexibility (important to retard arthritis) back is climb and climb hard (but if you've done your
scaphoid and the other funny little wrist bones you may want to get expert advice!)

I agree with the doc that normal after a year would be a good result. It helped me to aim to come back
better than normal and climb harder than I did pre-fractures. Good luck with it Teeds.