Hand /arm rehab question

[Luca Brasi]

Have just come back to traing after an extended lay off of around 4 years . Have done some VERY light weights on occasion during that time purely just to test the injury . Ok the injury was multiple hand fractures not including a shattered joint which broke into 4 peices . I had 4 (what they called K wires from memory) and a plate in my hand after the surgery and then had the wires and a cast for approx 4 months there after. After the wires and cast were removed there was needless to say a lot of muscle wasteing , and the joints had pretty much zero movement from the wrist on down. One year of physio later and my hand movement wise is pretty much normal again , and i thought until recently had pretty much recovered strength wise as well. I was wrong . After just a few weeks back training properly i have a massive imbalance between to the 2 arms , to the point where for example on dumbell bench presses my left arm will fail completely at maybe 5 reps and the other arm feels fresh and could easily do 15 reps of the same weight . Obviously this made it hard to really train the other arm sufficiently as well . Having never had this problem or an injury of that nature before any advice on correcting the imbalance and traing the other arm sufficiently in the mean time would be greatly appreciated .


Luca

[Killer]

Hey Luca,

When you went to therapy did they talk about this issue at all with you?

Where you given any exercises to keep on doing?

I would throw in alot of unilateral movments for everything. Just keep the non-injury arm at maintenance.

Also, try to use your injured arm for activies of daily living - that will actually help alot with overall arm/hand strength.

My guess is that you did rehab for your hand, forearm flexors/extensors, and some bis and tris but nothing else for that side of your body. You used your non-injured arm for everthing and now have imbalance in other muscles besides the hand/forearm. Build those bad boys up.

[Luca Brasi]

Actually they had no real concern at all for anything above the wrist to be honest . Their major concern through most of the physio was just range of motion in the joints etc . There was only very limited emphasis put on recovering muscle strength . Cant remember the fancy names they had for things but i had so some stuff that looked like play dough and each color was equivalent to a different strength and also a crappy light plastic gripper with color coded elastic bands as the resistance. Been making a effort to use it for some things such as i use the weak arm whenever stacking or unstacking plates/ carrying dumbells also have focused a lot more on dumbells exercises as apposed to bars .

Ended my third week back into training yesterday and have had huge leaps back up in strength already so cant really complain .

Actually just thought of one more quick question, i have scar tissue from where the wires were inserted into my hand ( some went nearly all the way through 3 or 4 bones ) these wires were removed after the cast came off literally pulled out with pliers . Anywasy to the question i sometimes get red and irritated skin and a slight lumps at the scar tissue where the wires ntered the hand and a lot of itching in that area . Is this normal at all , and also are calcium deposits worthwhile getting removed ? i have one that is quicte noticable where one of the fractures healed .

Luca

[Killer]

Hey Luca,

Keep on training then and just pay attention for any compensation. Congrats on getting back on track.

It is not uncommon for them to focus on the wrist only. In this day and age of insurance and patient load there is very limited time and office visits. If you had been, say a collegiate athlete and rehabbed by your sports medicine staff, you would have been doing much more.

The itching and redness can be from all the scar tissue breaking up in the holes from the wires. You can do some massage in the are - take the skin where the holes are and role it with your thumb and finger. Also, it is not uncommon to have aches and pains when one has had wires/screws in bones.

The calcium deposits are cosmetic. Personal decision, but I would leave them - why have another surgery? I would bet that most people do not even notice them. I would take that issue up with your ortho and get his/her opinions.

I hope this helps. I have some exp with hand and wires issues, but it has been a while.