In reply to UKC Articles:
A scaphiod fracture ended my climbing career about 8 years ago. I was by no means prolific, but I was climbing indoors a couple of times a week and in the mountains at the weekend fairly often. It was a mountain bike fall that did it for me. I hit probably the last bit of ice of the winter on a flat forest road going hell for leather (having removed my spikes the weekend before...), bike went out from under me and I hit the ground really hard. Got massive bruising on my left hip and a bit of a sore wrist - had to cycle about 20km back home after the fall but didn't think that much of it, other than knowing I'd had a hard fall.
Woke up the next day with swelling in the wrist and restricted movement so went to hospital. X-ray showed a broken scaphoid and they told me it would need an operation to heal properly, where the two bits would be screwed back together. This was all done, was in plaster for about 8 weeks or so and then had physio.
Its not been right since - basically couldn't put any weight on it or pull on it for months and getting my thumb into awkward positions was really uncomfortable, my left arm had wasted a bit too. Climbing just really hurt and after a year or so of trying in the end I just kind of gave up. For the first couple of years, loads of things could trigger pain - if I held a bag wrong, something got twisted round my thumb etc. Day to day now , its not painful as such any more. There is some nerve damage and a dull ache most of the time and only hurts when it gets tweaked or pulled on funny, but it does mean climbing is difficult. I don't miss climbing so badly any more (I say commenting on a climbing website which I visit pretty often!) and have switched over full time to running, but just another story to add on the topic.