Skating with a broken wrist?

papagena said:

Thanks to both of you! One question - how did you / your friend cope with tying laces?

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IcyEdges said:

You're welcome! I just sucked it up and tied them.
There's no easy way around it, as much as I despise them the lace hooks to do your laces may come in handy in this regard. :confused2:

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papagena said:

Thank you, Icy Edges!

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glam said:

Well, the risk is that if you fall again and the wrist isn't fully recovered, you'll re-injure it and then it can break really bad and could need surgery. I personally would let it heal properly before going on ice again.You can really fall on the ice doing the simplest things, it doesn't matter how good you are, so why risk it (unless you're training for a big compettition or something).

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papagena said:

Thanks for your input! I am not training for a competition- am just a low level beginning adult skater who gets great joy from being on the ice.

As to injuries, though, my doctor actually told me the opposite - as mskater says, that I couldn't injure my wrist further because it is protected by the cast. He did say of course that I could fall and injure something else.

As I also have the flu right now (despite getting a flu shot) I will not take class this week, and we have off for the holidays for the following two weeks. So I have 3 weeks more til the next class, which will be 4 weeks post-injury. Of course I may consider practicing earlier than that at an uncrowded session. I will just have to see how I feel. I think one key for me will be whether I can just suck it up, as Icey Edges says, and successfully tie my skates.

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IcyEdges said:

You'd be more likely to fall and injure something else if you aren't careful and well there's always those pesky ruts, than to reinjure your arm worse. The hard cast is there for that. That's the point of them making you wear one in the first place (so it doesn't get reinjured no matter what you do.) Go skate! I think you are a low enough level skater that you should be fine. All I suggest is that you def. go on a pretty uncrowded public session to enjoy the ice again (since your class will be on break).
I wish you luck and happy healing!

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karne said:

I wouldn't recommend it - but I am so clumsy that you can almost guarantee I would fall and break the other wrist

If the doctor thinks it will be okay, and you're reasonably confident in your balance, then I hope you can get a nice quiet session and enjoy some skating!

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MKG93 said:

I'm sorry about your fall. I did the same thing last Spring. I caught my blades on a backward crossover and used my hand to break my fall and broke my wrist in three places. No pins or surgery were needed, it was just casted.

My doctor said not to skate, my coach said it was fine. It was my personal decision to skate knowing the risk that if I fell on it again and re-broke it, it would need surgery and pins. Thankfully that didn't happen.

10 days after the fall, once the temporary splint was removed and I got into a fiberglass cast, I returned to skating. Note though, that I don't jump, just moves. Two things that are important: 1) its instinctive if you were to fall again to want to protect the wrist even though its in a cast, but that could leave other areas vulnerable like the elbow or shoulder. You might want to skate with padding on the elbow just in case. A broken elbow is much worse and more cumbersome than a broken wrist. and 2) you're actually more vulnerable when the cast comes off because your ligament and tendons have gone unused, so wear a wrist guard afterward. I've since fallen the exact same way while wearing the wrist guard and it saved my wrist!

I learned to tie my laces with one hand for about a week, once I was able to make a fist (even in my cast), the lacing wasn't an issue. Just be extra careful for the next couple of months. My coach also didn't have me try any new moves until I got some strength back. I spent two months just refining moves I already knew.

One other thing, my doctor suggested a bone density test. She explained that a fall from height like this type should not have resulted in a break, so that could indicate some need for calcium supplements, especially for such a high risk sport. good luck.

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