UKC

Have had a wrist problem for coming up to two years now. Have tried physio and specialists but this doesn't seem to have helped much so thought I'd try here. Have had a look through previous posts but none seem directly relevant.

The injury originally started after an intense days climbing where I had been severely over-gripping on the last route of the day. The onset was not a sudden acute pain but a dull ache and tenderness principally in pinky side of my wrist although it's often also felt on the top of the wrist as well. This has plagued me ever since. It gets noticeably worse I put a lot of pressure on the wrist (either by over-gripping, crimping hard or carrying something heavy). I've done my very best to avoid this but even doing months of careful training during autumn doesn't seem to permanently solve the problem. At it best it's barely noticeable but then as soon as I push it it gets worse again and takes a long time to recover the previous point. I've tried not climbing however this just seems to weaken it and make the problem worse when I start again.

Gone through doctor-physio-specialist who have suggested it's a sprain that is taking a long time to heal. I have been given excises which basically involve moving the wrist downwards under tension. These don't hurt at the time however the next day the problem always seems noticeably worse and after doing them for a month or so I have only done them intermittently.

At a bit of a loss for what to do next. Any advice, guidance and similar experiences very welcome.    

Not sure how close my experience is to yours but may answer something? Last year I had pain around my wrist and ache down my arm, even when pulling on a jug. Doctor sent me for an X-ray and an untrasound so I didn't climb for about two months until I had the results. Turned out there was no damage, tears rips etc so I got back climbing and was fine.

The rest must have healed me a bit. I've since realised that it came soon after I started playing with campus boards so I was pulling more than normal and my tendons were unbalanced. Treatment was proper warms ups and training antagonist muscles - press ups, reverse curls etc. Haven't had an issue since 

Have you had an ultrasound/xray?

What worked for me was prolonged rest. It was an arm injury in my case, resulting from overtraining without a proper warmup. It lagged for a year or so despite therapy. It went away when I took a  break from climbing (several months).

I would try and search out another physio or hand specialist. The area of symptoms and longevity seem worryingly like a TFCC injury (though it may not be), something which in my experience a lot of physios and GPs haven't heard of. Generally you'll feel pain when twisting the wrist towards the limit of motion in either direction. If it does turn out to be this then I would advise not doing exercises which are likely to aggravate the condition and it will probably be a case of making the best of a permanent injury. Climbing which may aggravate it includes using big slopers, palming up corners and crack climbing where you're twisting the wrist a fair bit. 

Thanks for the useful advice everyone. Pretty sure it’s not a TPCC tear thankfully as the physio ruled it out. Also don’t have a particular problem with any of the holds mentioned. I tried months of rest but that didn’t seem to help. I will try to be more methodical with strengthening the arm up. I have always played a lot of racket sports and it is obvious visually that my right arm is much stronger than my left (where the injury is) which I think has exacerbated the problem. 

Have you stopped climbing?

You can do an exercise by moving your injured arm well above the wrist so that your palm is face down towards the floor. Slowly move the hand up as far as possible, then stretch down as far as possible. Repeat this exercise 10 times

This will help youa lot

a good few years back I hurt my wrist - essentially by pulling too hard on tiny crimps when not overweight, unfit and not warmed up (and a few other excuses etc.)

it took two years to get back to get back to near "full" (ahem.) strength.

went to se a physio - yup: stretching, light exercise, and repeat. still had slight pains, sometimes only certain directions, for a while. point is from my experience don't expect it to recover quick. 

I had the same issue. Physio thought it was a TFCC issue, went to specialist got an MRI and they found nothing. Eventually i worked out I was getting referred pain from tennis Elbow!