WWTBAM Bored

This is a true story.

I did some searches in medical forums and didn't really find anything similar.

A diagnosis would be great, but if anyone has had a similar experience, please share.

Sunday night at about 6pm,. I swung my hand into the edge of an open car door. I was in the process of turning around quickly and was not aware the car door was open.

The pain was intense, but I sucked it up, went on with my business, and soon I was not aware of any pain for the rest of the evening.

At about 10:30pm, while I was taking a shower, I noticed some soreness and stiffness in the wrist of same hand. Nothing especially painful, but the discomfort was fairly steady.

At about 12:30am, I was awakened from a deep sleep by an unrelenting sharp pain in same wrist. The more I woke up the worse ithe pain became. I got up and got a cold pack (bean bag type) from the freezer, and draped my wrist with it, but the pain was intense enough to keep me up most of the the night. Any movent of he wrist produced severe pain. I considered going to the ER, but decided to attempt to go to work and call for a doctor's appointment from there.

By mid-morning and after a few aspirin, the pain was gradually subsiding. After browsing the internet, I decided I had sprained my wrist when my hand hit the door, and would see how things were the next morning before I saw a doctor. I know how to treat a sprain, and although the wrist was noticeably swollen, the pain was definitely decreasing.

Well, the next morning (yesterday) the wrist was much better and by evening, the wrist was about 80% functional. As I write this, it's probably close to 95% with no pain whatsoever and no noticeable swelling.

So what kind of injury hurts initially, is painless for 4-6 hours, excruciating with swelling for the next 6-8 hous, and 48 hours later is almost non-existent?

My thought was a dislocation but I never really felt anything going either out of or back into place.

I'm also considering some kind or arthritic or carpal syndrome flare-up but I've never had any symptoms along those lines before.

Any ideas?

I'm tired.

megaaddict wrote:This is a true story.

I did some searches in medical forums and didn't really find anything similar.

A diagnosis would be great, but if anyone has had a similar experience, please share.

Sunday night at about 6pm,. I swung my hand into the edge of an open car door. I was in the process of turning around quickly and was not aware the car door was open.

The pain was intense, but I sucked it up, went on with my business, and soon I was not aware of any pain for the rest of the evening.

At about 10:30pm, while I was taking a shower, I noticed some soreness and stiffness in the wrist of same hand. Nothing especially painful, but the discomfort was fairly steady.

At about 12:30am, I was awakened from a deep sleep by an unrelenting sharp pain in same wrist. The more I woke up the worse ithe pain became. I got up and got a cold pack (bean bag type) from the freezer, and draped my wrist with it, but the pain was intense enough to keep me up most of the the night. Any movent of he wrist produced severe pain. I considered going to the ER, but decided to attempt to go to work and call for a doctor's appointment from there.

By mid-morning and after a few aspirin, the pain was gradually subsiding. After browsing the internet, I decided I had sprained my wrist when my hand hit the door, and would see how things were the next morning before I saw a doctor. I know how to treat a sprain, and although the wrist was noticeably swollen, the pain was definitely decreasing.

Well, the next morning (yesterday) the wrist was much better and by evening, the wrist was about 80% functional. As I write this, it's probably close to 95% with no pain whatsoever and no noticeable swelling.

So what kind of injury hurts initially, is painless for 4-6 hours, excruciating with swelling for the next 6-8 hous, and 48 hours later is almost non-existent?

My thought was a dislocation but I never really felt anything going either out of or back into place.

I'm also considering some kind or arthritic or carpal syndrome flare-up but I've never had any symptoms along those lines before.

Any ideas?

This sounds like what I experienced last weekend after the handbell festival I attended. I woke up on Monday morning with a fierce pain in my wrist. I checked with my doctor and he said that it was tendon damage caused by a handbell technique that involves ringing the handbell and then pushing it down onto the foam pad on the table, repeatedly. On his recommendation I iced the sore area, took some ibuprofen, and was fine the next day.

Both these answers sound reasonable to me. Plus you may have damaged it first with the car door, then aggravated it by rolling on to it or something in your sleep.

It still wouldn't hurt, if it wouldn't put you out too much, to get it X-rayed.