Carpal (hamate) bone fracture. (wrist bone)

[MLArthur]

Who has had one and what can you tell me about your experience. I have pain so I looked it up and I think I fractured mine.
If you fractured yours, then how long did it take to heal? Did you go to the doctor right away?

[Kenect2]

I've had a fracture in each of my ulnas at different times, one at the wrist and the other at the elbow. The elbow break was just a hairline fracture, but it was extremely painful when any sort of pressure was applied. When I kept the elbow stable, the pain was a dull ache. Since that was the second time I had broken a bone, I knew that the extreme pain during any sort of movement was indicative of a fracture. After the accident, I went home and thought about the situation for about an hour before I realized I needed to go to the hospital.

If you broke your hamate, it would probably be very painful for you to type.

The standard treatment for a small bone fracture is a cast for 4 weeks. I have heard of a relatively new treatment called "bone glue" that costs about the same as a cast and can cut the recovery time in half. However, the bone glue treatment might be used only in extreme cases at this time and might not be available for a small hamate fracture. You can try asking the doctor about it, but I wouldn't expect it.

Good luck.

[MLArthur]

Thanks.

I can type without pain, but I feel discomfort when I angle my wrist a certain way while typine and the tingling in my pinky and ring finger is starting to get worse (I've had carpal tunnel syndrome and so I know it is not that since the tingling for CTS is predominantly the thumb, middle and index fingers).

The reasons I think it is the Hamate bone is because from looking at pictures of the bone in the hand, the swelling is right above that spot and when I press on the bone right there it hurts and it is the worst exactly where I think that bone is.
Also I looked it up online and from what little info I found the symptoms are the same like the tingling in the three fingers and the localised swelling. I also have soreness when I grasp something hard, but the pain is worst when I forget and try to use that wrist as support when getting up or when I try to lift something like a half gallon container of liquid.
Pain is usually not excrutiating, but mostly aggravating at this point. What I'm really worried about is that instead of healing it is actually getting worse (it has been over a month now since I injured it).

[Kenect2]

I doubt that the problem is a broken bone. It sounds more like a neuropathy.

A broken bone produces a sharp, usually excruciating pain when it is adjusted. A neuropathy typically produces the pins and needles and the less-than-excruciating pain you've described. Also, a history of neuropathy (CTS), indicates further neuropathy.

Probably a good idea to see a doctor, there might be a physical therapy regime which will relieve you of the pain.

[MLArthur]

I doubt that the problem is a broken bone. It sounds more like a neuropathy.

A broken bone produces a sharp, usually excruciating pain when it is adjusted. A neuropathy typically produces the pins and needles and the less-than-excruciating pain you've described. Also, a history of neuropathy (CTS), indicates further neuropathy.

Probably a good idea to see a doctor, there might be a physical therapy regime which will relieve you of the pain.

It happened after an injury from a bicycle accident so that is why I suspect a bone fracture, but I did read somewhere that the Hamate bone has grooves for tendons and there are probably nerves running through that area too, so maybe it is just a sprain or a damaged tendon swelling putting pressure on the nerves and not a fracture.

By the way, I went about three or four weeks and I thought it was getting better, but then I tried to restart my push-up regimen and after the first set the pain came back worse than before which has been getting worse since and that is when I noticed the swelling right above what I think is the Hamate bone (and as a result is how I was able figure out which bone it might be from looking at anatomy pictures on the internet. I never even knew there were so many bones in the wrist, much less the names).
I do hear clicking sometimes when I rotate it and get the pain. I also sometimes hear something click and feel somthing shift when I try to maninpulate it, but sometimes it could be something like "cracking" knuckles or sometimes the sound a tight tendon sometimes makes when it is real tight and shifts position.

I don't know, maybe it is my hypochondria making something like a minor like a sprain into fracture, but the more it gets worse the more concerned I get.
I can live with a slightly pinched nerve for a while and I know that a sprain or an injured tendon will heal on their own with time, but from what I've read about wrist fractures I am worried because if it has not healed properly by now, then something could be majorly wrong.

[dsummoner]

MLA:

A fractured hamate will usually not result in acquired neuropathy. Of the eight carpal bones in the hand, fracture and forward (anterior - towards the palmar aspect) of the scaphoid is what is typically associated with a single event acquired carpal tunnel compromise (which from your description you do not have). Theoertically, you may have a fractured hamate but you might also have something else.

If memory serves me correctly, there are 9 tendons that pass through the carpal tunnel along with the median nerve - the 4 tendons for the flexor digitorum profundus, the 4 tendons for the flexor digitorum superficialis and the tendon for the flexor pollicus longus (the tendon for the long flexor muscle of the thumb). Swelling or rupture of these tendons will compress the median nerve in the carpal tunnel - resulting in sensory symptoms in the thumb, index finger and middle finger (and potentially in the thumb side of the ring finger). However, this doesn't describe your complaints and is thus immaterial (the CTS descrbied by Kennect is a specific reference for carpal tunnel syndrome).

It doesn't sound like you have a fractured distal radius or ulna or a ruptured triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC). The pinkie finger and the pinkie finger side of the ring finger are innervated by the ulnar nerve (which does not lie in the carpal tunnel). You may just have a locailzed blunt force injury to the musculature and soft tissues of the hypothenar emminence. The hypothenar emminence overlies the hammate and the ulnar nerve in the hand. My advice would be to get it x-rayed (at least).

[canis]

This is a yoga exercise for the wrist that I have found very helpful. It counteracts the repetitive movements which cause the aching in the wrist.

First step is to get down on the floor on hands and knees; the back is parallel to the ground, the arms are locked with hands on the ground, the head is looking down at the hands which are parallel and under the shoulders... the fingers are pointing FORWARD.
One at a time, rotate the hands outward and around so that the fingers now point BACK towards the body. At this point if you move the hips back slightly you will feel the tightness in the bad wrist from the stretch that's created.
Next, with the hands still pointing backwards, take a small walking step forward with each hand stopping to feel the stretch after each full step. Continue to step forward with the hands 2 or 3 more times. Then walk the hands back to their original place under the shoulders.

I try do it once a day.

[MLArthur]

Thanks Canis, Kennect and especially you dsummoner. I am much less worried about it being a fracture now.

[HumanSpirit]

I get relief from DMSO. My laptop is the cause. I have more luck with the tower PC and less pain. I like the MS Keyboard that angles.

http://www.dmso.org/subLevels/what.htm

http://www.dmso.org/

[MLArthur]

I get relief from DMSO. My laptop is the cause add I have more luck with the tower PC. I like the MS Keyboard that angles.

http://www.dmso.org/subLevels/what.htm

http://www.dmso.org/

I have had a bottle of DMSO for years which I haven't used since I worked certain types of construction. It worked great on my calves, but it is too risky for me to use it too much. Once it is on the skin, it will take whatever touches it right through the skin with it. For istance, if someone had put some on over a large protion of their leg, they have to wrap it up real well for a while because if something like gasoline or another contaminate spilled on that spot, then there is a good chance it will go right through the skin into the blood.

My dad turned me on to that stuff fifteen years ago and even without any medication dissolved in it, it really works for some things. (hated the smell of raw garlic though)

[MLArthur]

MLA- Best of luck to you sir...

Thanks H.S. for the information.

Before I fractured my wrist in four places this September, I had been doing some extensive therapy and realignment of my daily habits, to avoid carpal tunnel surgery. Using the wrist elevating mousepad, realigning my work station at work & my home computer, the wrist splint, and many specific hand exercises helped tremendously. The tingling / numbness all but went away!

Currently it has been 2 months since my surgery and I am still having some minor pain & difficulty, so I have some interest regarding DMSO, if the FDA "black-balled" it, all the more reason to trust it IMO.

I remember a highschool chemistry teacher used to tell me about when he first came accross that stuff many years earlier they used to do this little experiment. They dissolved sugar or something like that in the DMSO and then stick a finger in it. Within twenty seconds they would taste it in their mouths.
Wild stuff.

[Calamari]

I got something like this from an overly padded chin up bar. It was too spongy to get a good grip and made me hold my hand in an odd position to keep hanging. I had wrist pain for about a while before I figured out that was causing it, now it's slowly becoming less painful.

[I Heart Miggy]

Sophomore year high school at a lax game I had a "colle's fracture," aka my distal radius. The bone broke, than overlapped on itself. My arm was literally crooked and the bone was coming out of the skin, it was awesome. My greatest regret in this life so far was not getting a picture of that crooked arm. Later I lost feeling in my hand and had to get surgery to release a pinched nerve. Last year during another lax game I broke my triquetrum in the same wrist in the first quarter. Intelligently I kept playing, and the next morning I woke up with my left arm and hand looking like a club, also awesome.

The moral of the story is play lacrosse.