TFCC Debridement Recovery Question

[rakhmetov]

Thought I'd pop in here as I hit the nine month mark. The repaired wrist felt really strong last month and there was no need to pop the wrist (not the kind of pre-surgery popping, just stiff scar tissue that would catch). I had quit lifting altogether as I developed plantar fasciitis in one of my feet. My wrist seemed to appreciate the rest although now the occasional need to pop it came back in the last month on a few days. Again, this is not like before, this is more like I pop it and it actually loosens it for many hours.

The wrist has more flexibility in it somehow and I can put weight on it by doing a push-up with no pain. There's a tad bit of stiffness in the wrist that is hard to pin down. I literally don't think about my wrist for days at a time now, even when I'm doing something strenuous. I tiled our foyer (140sf) with large, heavy tile and the wrist didn't give me a minute's worth of problems.

The surgeon's PT guy told me that things should feel even better by the one year mark. But that it may take until years 2 or 3 for things to feel like before normal. But I have days now, sometimes even days in a row, where the wrist feels like it did before I injured it.

I can feel the two sets of sutures under the skin still but they don't bother me at all anymore. They have gotten much smaller so they must be dissolving slowly.

Feeling has returned to the back of my skin so the DSBUN is likely back to normal. I don't get any lightning shooters up the nerve if I tap on the sutures anymore.

So all in all, I'm still 100% glad that I had the surgery. And I still wish I had had it sooner.

[YzT969]

Hello everyone I just found out this tread and just read all the posts.

I injured my right (dominant hand)wrist last 7 weeks ago during ju-juitsu training with my bro. I went to doctor next day and he told me to get X-ray and told me to wear splint for one week. He then sent me to hand specialist. Before I met with hand surgeon, I research about my injury and concluded that it might be tfcc tear.

I met my hand surgeon one week after my injury and he said it might be tfcc tear witb possible druj subluxation even though my X-Ray looks normal. He did not order me MRI since i could flex and extend my hand. The only restriction i had it was limited pronation and lost in grip strength. He told me to wear splint and prescribed me anti inflammatory drugs for two weeks.

During that two weeks, I kept research about my tfcc injury and saw the wrist widget weigh bearing test. I tested it out at 3 weeks of my injury and it was 30-40lbs and barely pass 40lbs while my normal hand was 70lbs. After two weeks medication, I went to see my hand surgeon again he told me to take anti inflammatory drugs for two more weeks and keep wearing splint at night.

My wrist widget has arrived 4 weeks after injury and I started to wear it day and night. One week after wearing wrist widget, my weight bearing become 50lbs+ but I still could not pronate my forearm all the way. I took of wrist widget at night since I felt it too tight.

6 weeks after injury, my weight bearing test become 65lbs-70lbs. I started to train my upper body with 5kg dumbbells and felt no pain during the exercise. I could do pull up but push up still hurt me alittile bit. I could deadlift 100lbs for two reps with wrist wraps on. I did not try out bench press and over head press yet. But i still have numbness and pain feeling after workout. I also hear some clicking sound when rotate and extend my wrist. My ulnar head is more prominece in my injured hand than my normal hand. When I push up my pisiform from palm side, i hear the sound of ulna head popping up. I still have limited pronation when wrist is not fully warm up. After i do stretching, wrist extension, forearm supination and rotation for 10-20 reps. I can fully (90-95%) pronate my forearm with no pain. But once everything is settled down like in 1-2 hours, i cant fully pronate my foreaem anymore and need to redo the warm up exercise if i want to fully pronate it again.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and exactly the 7 weeks after my injury and i m seeing my hand surgeon on Wednesday. I still have stiffness and pain in my dorsal side (around druj joint and ulnar side) when I pronate my forearm without warming up. But after warming up properly, these pain goes away. So what shoud i do? Should i get the MRI tomorrow and see which ligaments are exactly injured and I have a chance of fully recovering without surgery. I still cant do hammer curl since it hurt my ulnar side abit. I still have some pain (2-3 out of 10)and wired feeling in my right wrist.


Before injury, i could
318lbs deadlift for 1 rep
220lbs bench press for 1 rep
220lb squat for 2 rep
120lb ohp for 1 rep

Now i m training my whole body with low weight high reps and i wonder how long it will be till i get back to my strength training. Thanks all for reading this and hope u all are recovering very well. This kind of injury are a night mare for athlete and bodybuilders.

[djcin]

I have a scheduled tfcc Debridement with possible tfcc repair if the surgeon needs to suture it after he gets in there. (Ulnar partial Tear)

Can anyone tell me if they have been able to be pain free after this surgery or is it a waste and not worth it. I want to play tennis again pain free but if the surgery can’t help that, then maybe it’s better to take some pain killers before I play and see how that works.

I fell down in a non tennis situation but after the accident I can not play tennis without bad pain, I also can not do palm flat push up. “Perfect push up” seem to be a non issue or knuckle push ups seem to be ok as well.

[Jeff Rocker]

I had tfcc surgery back in year 2000. I remember 4 months after I was doing 80lbs incline bench, but I wasn't 100%. I had to be careful for a long time. I taped it when I wrestled. It took a year or 2 too fully heal, but that's true w any surgery and I was living an active normal life, so no biggie. Dr Zeliuf at the Philadelphia hand center did my surgery. The MRI missed my tear.

[nitefeatherz]

I have a scheduled tfcc Debridement with possible tfcc repair if the surgeon needs to suture it after he gets in there. (Ulnar partial Tear)

Can anyone tell me if they have been able to be pain free after this surgery or is it a waste and not worth it. I want to play tennis again pain free but if the surgery can’t help that, then maybe it’s better to take some pain killers before I play and see how that works.

I fell down in a non tennis situation but after the accident I can not play tennis without bad pain, I also can not do palm flat push up. “Perfect push up” seem to be a non issue or knuckle push ups seem to be ok as well.

I am 7 weeks out from a full tear TFC repair and ulna shortening ostectomy... the difference for me pre and post surgery is night and day. Still sore but it is a drastic improvement from where I was before.

[averma007]

Hello Rakhmetov,

I guess I am the biggest follower of your TFCC post here. I am reading your updates every course of time during pre/post my surgery. I can not final any other forum so close to surgery I had.
I had also the TFCC tear in my right hand during tennis serve session in Nov 2018. I twisted my wrist resulting into possibly partial or strain tfcc. I had very light pain, however I ignored it and somewhere March 2019 I lifted something heavy which resulted into complete tear. I talked to my surgeon in The Netherlands and went for a surgery as no options were left for me. The surgery was planned on 2nd of July, I guess yours as well. The doctor was very confident just reading my symptoms and playing with my wrist that's its a TFCC tear. He doesn't want to do MRI or anything else. During arthroscopy surgery I can see everything inside my wrist on a tv screen. I was a bit dizzy but I really wanted to see it, because I have seen lots of youtube videos. He puts 3 stitches inside. Then one month full cast upto biceps. After exactly 4 weeks they remove my cast and my fysio started immediately. It was quite painful for a week, but later it was getting better.

Since I have read all your experience with the pain and the activities, I was wondering how are you doing finally after 2 years? I hope you are all back to normal with wrist and the leg.

It has been 3.5 months post my surgery, I will just update my situation. Hope you can relate to your post surgery days and give me some feedback.
I have recovered lots of rotation of motion. I still have some pain on the ulnar side especially with pronation and supination and also with straight open palm rotating on ulnar side. I am not good with terminology as you are :P. Pronation and supination are around 55-60degrees. But beyond that I feel some pain. Sometimes with a stick I can go beyond it without pain after some repetitions. Suppose If I pronate and leave it for 20secs and when I immediately try to supinate then its too much pain. Its like something doesn't want to cross. This is what you mean by scar tissue? My fysio are saying its normal to feel some pain.

I have started with table tennis 2.5months after surgery. I was bad with forehand and playing mostly back hand. Now I am switching to forehand. I am playing badminton as well but avoid smashes. No tennis yet but I do practice with the wall just hitting couple of shots for 5-10mins. Just light shots. Rest I have resumed office with full hours and doing daily activity as well with minor pain.
I do not use any type of brace any more. I had my first appointment with my surgeon post surgery after 7 weeks. He just bended my wrist (holding my flat horizontal palm) along ulnar side, though I was in pain; however he said my TFCC is safe with confident. He said don't get scared too much and don't wear braces too much. Just follow the fysio.
My squeezing/grasp test was performed. Left hand was 40kg, and right was 22kg two weeks back. Yesterday, after 2 weeks, I improved to 26kg.
However, I still have some pain at ulnar side or at the surgery area and also with pronation and supination. Fysio are saying its normal. I was wondering if you can share some experiences and give some tips as well. I guess you were far better than me after 3.5 months post surgery. Though I feel better a bit everyday with most of the things but pronation, supination and ulnar deviation pain give me trouble and restless time.

[xuguanghe]

Hello Rakhmetov,

I guess I am the biggest follower of your TFCC post here. I am reading your updates every course of time during pre/post my surgery. I can not final any other forum so close to surgery I had.
I had also the TFCC tear in my right hand during tennis serve session in Nov 2018. I twisted my wrist resulting into possibly partial or strain tfcc. I had very light pain, however I ignored it and somewhere March 2019 I lifted something heavy which resulted into complete tear. I talked to my surgeon in The Netherlands and went for a surgery as no options were left for me. The surgery was planned on 2nd of July, I guess yours as well. The doctor was very confident just reading my symptoms and playing with my wrist that's its a TFCC tear. He doesn't want to do MRI or anything else. During arthroscopy surgery I can see everything inside my wrist on a tv screen. I was a bit dizzy but I really wanted to see it, because I have seen lots of youtube videos. He puts 3 stitches inside. Then one month full cast upto biceps. After exactly 4 weeks they remove my cast and my fysio started immediately. It was quite painful for a week, but later it was getting better.

Since I have read all your experience with the pain and the activities, I was wondering how are you doing finally after 2 years? I hope you are all back to normal with wrist and the leg.

It has been 3.5 months post my surgery, I will just update my situation. Hope you can relate to your post surgery days and give me some feedback.
I have recovered lots of rotation of motion. I still have some pain on the ulnar side especially with pronation and supination and also with straight open palm rotating on ulnar side. I am not good with terminology as you are :P. Pronation and supination are around 55-60degrees. But beyond that I feel some pain. Sometimes with a stick I can go beyond it without pain after some repetitions. Suppose If I pronate and leave it for 20secs and when I immediately try to supinate then its too much pain. Its like something doesn't want to cross. This is what you mean by scar tissue? My fysio are saying its normal to feel some pain.

I have started with table tennis 2.5months after surgery. I was bad with forehand and playing mostly back hand. Now I am switching to forehand. I am playing badminton as well but avoid smashes. No tennis yet but I do practice with the wall just hitting couple of shots for 5-10mins. Just light shots. Rest I have resumed office with full hours and doing daily activity as well with minor pain.
I do not use any type of brace any more. I had my first appointment with my surgeon post surgery after 7 weeks. He just bended my wrist (holding my flat horizontal palm) along ulnar side, though I was in pain; however he said my TFCC is safe with confident. He said don't get scared too much and don't wear braces too much. Just follow the fysio.
My squeezing/grasp test was performed. Left hand was 40kg, and right was 22kg two weeks back. Yesterday, after 2 weeks, I improved to 26kg.
However, I still have some pain at ulnar side or at the surgery area and also with pronation and supination. Fysio are saying its normal. I was wondering if you can share some experiences and give some tips as well. I guess you were far better than me after 3.5 months post surgery. Though I feel better a bit everyday with most of the things but pronation, supination and ulnar deviation pain give me trouble and restless time.

Well, another two years have passed, how are you doing with your wrist? I am now 7 months post op, and the feeling of tightness seems to trap me forever.