Really bad skier's thumb = surgery?

[Jethro]

My wife has developed rheumatoid arthritis. I am not sure if it is related, but she has that same symptom, but not after holding something. She sometimes cannot straighten one thumb and must do it manually. She has not addressed it yet with her doctor, who is a specialist four hours away.

[skideeppow]

i dont what dr you guys are going to, but i had this surgery again, on the other thumb this winter. Had the surgery Wed morning, back to work thurs morning, skiiing On friday.
Painless. No pin to take out and now full functionality.
Rehab on my own.
this should not hurt, should take very little time to heal.
I guess there has to be dr who finish at the bottom of the class.

[adoptapet]

pain starts when pin comes out!! does anyone realize how hard it is to brush your teeth lefty? if you are a righty? and wiping your ass? OMG!!! i can't even cut my own food!! but i do wipe my own ass!!

[Buzzworthy]

i dont what dr you guys are going to, but i had this surgery again, on the other thumb this winter. Had the surgery Wed morning, back to work thurs morning, skiiing On friday.
Painless. No pin to take out and now full functionality.
Rehab on my own.
this should not hurt, should take very little time to heal.
I guess there has to be dr who finish at the bottom of the class.

Broken thumb in several places too hence pinned. FUBARed it good, cast for around 2 months I'm hearing....

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I am still recovering from mine. I had arthritis before the surgery and its getting worse. Doesn't help that I do carpentry/masonry. I did something at work today and my pain/usage is horrible now. I can barely pick up a coffee cup. I want a train to run over my entire right hand.

I am supposed to replace a large conveyor chain tomorrow at 6:30am.

FUCK MY FUCKING LIFE.

I hope you guys have cushy office jobs, cause that is the only way your hand will ever heal/not hurt 95% of your waking life.

[Buzzworthy]

My pin is still in for a few more weeks under a hard cast. So far this is nothing for me. Not much pain, but moving it again will be the determiing factor on the pain deal. I done plenty of other ligaments so this seems to be a cinch.

Matt, not all of us can afford A$$pen docs.

TOSH has done me well though.
Said I should be golfing by Sept 1.

And I'm a software engineer so cush job to heal.

[jhskier]

http://api.ning.com:80/files/3zmSvhA...nyanlooped.mp3

[Buzzworthy]

Heh, somehow I bent the pin while recovering and by recover I mean camping several times, using the rest of the hand without pain......

So now I am in a splint type removable cast for 6 weeks. Fun stuff!!

Don't do this to whoever is reading, goal at this point is to be able to hold a ski pole again.

[adoptapet]

Just got back from dr...no cushy job, groomer, or was..career over..after all that the surgery didn"t take..he wants a do over! NFW!!

[skideeppow]

Just got back from dr...no cushy job, groomer, or was..career over..after all that the surgery didn"t take..he wants a do over! NFW!!

Find another DR.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I think I reversed my surgery. Orig surgery in Dec 2010. Thousands of hours of laying block and swinging hammers later and I can barely pick up a roll of paper towels. 24/7 pain and my thumb looks all crooked. Going to the ortho on monday. Fuck this shit.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Anyone ever go through an MCP joint fusion? Got my second rt. thumb reconstruction in January of this year. Been riding my bike alot and working. Biking hurts it somewhat, but hammering, etc is a nightmare the next few days.

I ran a chainsaw for 4 hours yesterday and my whole right hand is wrecked now. I also seem to have weird scar tissue or something in the pad of my right thumb where it meets the palm of my hand. Some weird rock hard lump in there now.

Anyway, in January the doc said the next step would be MCP fusion if it bothers me anymore/doesn't get better.

How fucked am I if I like biking, working with my hands?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Had surgery for the 3rd time on 10/5/12. Doc said lets try removing the scar tissue and serious PT again. Post-op doc said he took out "enough scar tissue to make an entire extra thumb," and I started PT same day as surgery.

Did my PT fanatically for next 2 months. Battling new scar tissue every morning. Now at about 3 months out the pain is back, my flexion ROM is good, but extension is total shit again. I can feel a ton of scar tissue already.

Fusion now? Anyone know of a website/forum on fusion for active people who aren't 70 year old arthritic women?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Bumping this up. Been riding MTB a lot and working with my hands recently. Thumb is fucked. Thinking I gotta move forward with fusion. Still haven't found any first hand experience of younger active people with thumb fusion. Mostly worried about being able to grip my bike handlebar.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Well, I got er bolted down. Only 3 days out and in the splint for a while. Will update incase some other skier/cyclist/contruction grunt goes down a similar path.

[Ripzalot]

i think you've been on my thread about this but i haven't updated it yet. i got a "splint" made molded with my hand wrapped around a bar, like a handlebar. it fits perfectly for riding and i have not felt any pain at all. it's some material that is soft when warm and wet and then molds rock hard when cold and dry. dunno if that is an option for you but for me it's a miracle.

doc said it was a tear on a tiny ligament, too small to operate on. just need to let it heal naturally, 3-4 months. i'm at the end of month 3 now. it's not hard to make it hurt without the splint tho.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Good luck with that ripz. Do any and all pt that the doc gices you.

Hopefully, this will be the final fix for me. Shit sucks right now though. Way more painful than the previous 3 surgeries. I really want to get on my bike.

[Kds444]

So it's been over a year now since your last post. How is your thumb doing now?? Please update. Thanks!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

The thumb is great! Wish I had done the fusion sooner. I rarely have any pain and no issues with regular mtb shifters and thin odi ruffian grips. Just finished a 6 month renovation project swinging hammers, magging concrete pads, laying block etc. No real issues at all. The loss of range of motion is almost never an issue.