Wrist pain

Joe Rossiter

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Hello, many years ago i tore my ulnar disk on my right hand, at least that was what the doc diagnosed. Caused sharp pain on the outside of my wrist. Never really hurt while climbing. It would act up  sparadically over the past 5-6 yaers, but would go away withing 1-4 weeks of taping (simple wrist wrap). However this time its not going away, been about 2.5 months now. Im still climbing on it, 12b, v5/6, and it never hurts while climbing. Ususally causes pain while bend at high angles and weighted. Also it is a little tender to pressure. The pain first presented this time after a easy but high volume day, doing sets of 15 minute traverses. The pain seems to in the area of the trapezium carpal bone, the pain comes when i press on that bone but only if i push in a certain direction, directly into the wrist, perpendicular to my forearm.   I am interested in three points: 1) what is the  best treatment, if any , besides NSAIDS and ice. 2)How bad is climbing through recovery with this injury? 3) Does this seem like the old inijury coming back, or possibly a new injury to a carpel bone, I did hit it in a bouldering fall, but it was the ball of my palm that hit hard, near the base of my thumb, not near the pain. And it was hurting before this. I guess either way i should at least get an xray of my wrist, take advantage of canadian heathcare....

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Bjoern Alber

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Hi My best guess is taht you have slightly damaged the cartilage on the tarpetzoid bone (the ulnar surface) two thing that could be tried 1. cortisone mixed with xylocain in the joint - then you have to cut back alltogether on pressure on the wrist for at least 14 days 2. Hyaleronic acid inj - benificial for the cartilage - - acouple of days of then go - most likely it will have to be repeated once or twice to stabelize the cartelage apart from the above climbing with this type of injury should not worsen it as long as you cut back a bit. I think this is the old injury being "ignited " by overuse Best of luck Björn

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Hi Joe, I am currently dealing with the same injury. My left wrist will hurt if I push on it as if I were doing a mantle with that hand. This is the second time I have had it. About 2-3 months ago it started and progressivly got worse with lots of slab climbing and mantles. So I went to a doctor who specialized in the wrist, and he gave me a cortisone injection deep into the sore spot and I stopped climbing for a bout 5 days. Like magic it was better and was back to climbing hardish. NOW about 2 months later I am starting to get the same pain again but not quite as bad. I really hope this gets better because I dont want it getting worse again. Anyway I would try the cortisone and stay off it for a while. seemed to work, temporarily at least.

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hi Derek - I am pretty sure that cortisone injections only last a month or two, which is why your pain is returning now. The cortisone shot made the inflammation disappear (and the pain), but if something was torn, it is still torn. of course small tears can heal on their own even while climbing hard, but it depends on the injury. Joe - best treatment i would say is HEAT. ice does the same thing, some say to a greater degree, but the idea is that you want to increase blood flow to the area so your body can repair itself. if you don't ice properly, you may cause the opposite effect of reducing blood flow to the area, so if you're not familiar with ice treatment, try heat. As for climbing through the injury, i THINK i have a similar issue that comes back every few months (i can never figure out what triggers it) - i climb through it for sure, and taping totally helps. however, the last time it came back, i had to take about a week off of climbing and use heat therapy, but that did the trick. Not sure about your #3, but it's the human body, everything is connected in its own weird way. Good luck!

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Thanks for that Amna, doctor didn't explain much to me when I had it done. So should I try heat? How do I do that? with some kinda heat pad or something?

Marcus Norman

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hey I'd bet you may have what I have - TFCC syndrome http://med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_trifibcc_sma.htm In my case I split one of the TFC bands, and have another longitudinal tear on the ulnar cartilage - most likely in both wrists (as both hurt!). In talking to an orthopedic wrist specialist, a good percentage of non-athletes have this, but misclassify it as carpal tunnel or just plain live on without treatment. Considering the stress and bizarre angles we put on our wrists, climbers are pretty subceptible - as mentioned in a recent Rock and Ice issue on injuries and prevention. So - having mine MRId, x-rayd etc and consulting with the doc, it was decided that unless the pain was so intense that it interfered with daily life, the treatment (surgury) was potentially worse and invasive than the injury itself. So - I tape both wrists with highquality sports tape - not much, but enough to support the hand/wrist joint affected (bending the hand downward and wrapping past the wrist bone). If the tape is good, it does not need to be tight. The result - I can climb as hard <har!> as I ever did. Lastly - I see Yuji Hirayama tapes his wrists in pretty well every recent shot I've seen - I wonder if he has the same TFCC issue? Pretty inspiring if so as it shows this does not affect performance rock climbin'.

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Thanks for the info Marcus. I'm gonna start using tape on the wrists.