Thread: Dancing with a cast/splint?

Hi! I recently had surgery to repair my scapohlunate ligament in my wrist (there's a pic @ the bottom). The cast comes off and the pins come out 5/16!! YAY!..g.:
My major obstacles will be pinching, gripping, and supporting my body weight (like a push-up or downward dog)

I've been able to start dancing again, but I wanted to know if anyone has had similar problems with wrist and hand injuries. Any tips? words of advice? Greatly appreciated!!

OMG!
I have tears in BOTH wrists!
Lunal-triquitrium ligaments (pinkie side).
but between the onset of the injury & surjury was about 3 years.

The surjurys are both about 10 years old....
and my wrists are not fixed...

I had the pins also....the ones that stuck half way out
& rubbed on the cotton of the cast! ouchie!

to this day NO downward dogs, NO pushing open doors,
and zip-lock can be tricky!
so the only advice.....
physical therapy, physical therapy, physical therapy.

I could write a book on this topic....
please email me with any specific questions!!!
~Zayna : )

NO WAY!!! what are the odds! I'm looking at the other wrist fir surgery in about a year. The wrist "clicks"if you squeeze it...,f::

Originally Posted by taobellydancer

NO WAY!!! what are the odds! I'm looking at the other wrist fir surgery in about a year. The wrist "clicks"if you squeeze it...,f::

OH MAN! mine clicks when turning from face down to,
well any degree of a turn makes it click!
it's swollen.....

When do you start PT?

In PT I was taught this lymph node draining technique....
I think it's called MEM? VERY helpful!!!!
I do that a few times, and sometimes the clicking goes away!!!

In PT (heh- at band camp)
we used a snake bite extractor on the scar tissue to break it up.

I took classes throught the years of immobilization(sp?)
One hand doing nice wrist circles,
the other in a cast doing full arm circles...
it was a good laugh!

Hahaha! I start OT the same day. luckily, my daytime job is receptionist for the company, so I'll be seeing the hand specialist we have there! I'll come out of the cast, they'll pull the pins out (oooowwwwwwwww) and my loving boyfriend will drive me to my job (where I haven't been for 6 weeks!) and a spica splint will be molded for me. I'll have 4 weeks of OT before moving day. Then I'll need to find a hand specialist in Chicago.....c::

I went through Barrington Orthopedics (in Barrington),
even though my wrists are not healed,
I would still recommend them.
(I had that 3 year delay between injury & surjury)
I am hoping in the future to have another surjury.

if there is anything I can do to help on the Chicago end, let me know!
..what part of Chicago are you moving to??

i'm not sure it seems like i'll be in chicago, but south of evanston and skokie, but north of lincoln park. Next week i'm to visit, but i need to figure out how(plane, train, bus?)

I 'f-o-r-g-o-t' to add....
during the time I had only one arm to use-
I loved my velcro or slip on gym shoes...

..and if you need to keep the pins/wires/cast dry while you bathe....
the sleeve from newspapers works great over the arm!
-------------------------------------------
I edited to add the word 'f-o-r-g-o-t' ,but it is in my reply already,
I didn't for-get- to add it, it gets edited out!!!!
-------------------------------------------
weird.... it got edited out again!!!
f-o-r-g-o-t- is the word that disappears!

Lol, thanks!

oh man, I know your pain....in high school I broke both my arms at once (yes...both....at once....seriously...giving me the nickname 'Fragile') and had a cast on my left wrist for nearly three months and a "Barbie arm" on the other side that couldn't bend because of a broken elbow. I fell at a dance rehearsal for 'Peter Pan' on the first day of rehearsal....but did perform the whole show, cast and all!

make sure to wear any sort of temporary cast/velcro splint they give you....I wore mine for about 4 months afterwards, especially since my wrist was about 1/3 of its usual size. Also, I totally second all of the PT/going light on any pushing activities. To this day, my wrist will get sore from those activities, or sensitive from humidity or dampness (yay, I'm a barometer!)

As far as gripping goes...that may take a little while, and you may have some problems down the road. Sometimes after too much intricate hand work (say, sewing) I'll not be able to grip, or get very shakey. For me what works is stopping, and then using a heating pad. Heating pad really helps a lot for me, seems like no matter what the injury.

and Egyptdancer...I totally used the newspaper delivery bags for showering :)

good luck, Tao, and make sure to take it slow with your recovery!

Originally Posted by najla86

oh man, I know your pain....in high school I broke both my arms at once

OH NO! AT ONCE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Originally Posted by najla86

To this day, my wrist will get sore from those activities, or sensitive from humidity or dampness (yay, I'm a barometer!)
As far as gripping goes...that may take a little while, and you may have some problems down the road. Sometimes after too much intricate hand work (say, sewing) I'll not be able to grip, or get very shakey. For me what works is stopping, and then using a heating pad. Heating pad really helps a lot for me, seems like no matter what the injury.

and Egyptdancer...I totally used the newspaper delivery bags for showering :)

good luck, Tao, and make sure to take it slow with your recovery!

yep....my wrists are NOT at 100% either

Here's the clincher for me too, I'm a flautist....14 years!!!
my doc said it'll take awhile, but I will be able to play again!
OMG BOTH ARMS?!?!?
holy jeebus.
which brings me to another question: What are zills like after something like this? Painful? Achy?
My knees sympathize with the rain too najla! But since I've been dancing (about 6 years) it's gotten a little better

Originally Posted by taobellydancer

which brings me to another question: What are zills like after something like this? Painful? Achy?

Painful!
even when I practice WITHOUT zills!
(but I did have that 3 year gap before surjury)

cane can hurt as well....

yipes! are castanets any better? less weight?

Originally Posted by taobellydancer

yipes! are castanets any better? less weight?

no better... (I have some)
even no weight is bothersome for me.
But we all heal differently.... so only time will tell how much you get back.

I agree w/ Najla86...
take your recovery slowly & do all of your OT.
Good Luck!!!

Thank You!!!! I really appreciate the feedback!!

taobellydancer- how was your trip to Chicago??

I thought of something else to add...
...toning arms when you can't lift weights.
I use a large exercise rubberband.
not as good as weights, but effective when you can't use weights!

Hi! My trip was awesome! I'm officially a graduate student of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture! ..g.: I also met my future housemate and got lost in the city ( only for 20 minutes) which was really really neat. I'm pumped to be moving back to a city again! My hand was swelling a lot though so I decided to forgo the decision to drop in on a class. But I am now out of my cast and in a splint yesterday so that swelling is gone...
I haven't danced with the splint on though...

Originally Posted by taobellydancer

Hi! My trip was awesome! I'm officially a graduate student of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture! ..g.: I also met my future housemate and got lost in the city ( only for 20 minutes) which was really really neat. I'm pumped to be moving back to a city again! My hand was swelling a lot though so I decided to forgo the decision to drop in on a class. But I am now out of my cast and in a splint yesterday so that swelling is gone...
I haven't danced with the splint on though...

Congrats on the trip, school, and cast removal!!!!
....I did all classes this week WITH a splint on.

Oye! I have a friend who was willing to be my teaching guinea pig ( in exchange, I'm her yoga teaching guinea pig) and I dunno if I can give a lesson without the constant feeling of having a 2x4 instead of a forearm! Though I'm thinking gold bond might help during the warmer months (it's about 50 degrees now), my splint doesn't breathe too well...,r:;