Climbing career might be over?

[Dadatwins]

Kind of weird typing into this forum, especially about myself. Just got out of the hospital with a staph infection in my right wrist joint. Pulled the wrist at my city job last year while coming down ladder on claw truck, heard and felt a pop in the wrist and lot of pain. Tried some therapy to get it right but it didn't work so finally had surgury to fix last august. Felt pretty good until Isabel hit here last sept. and worked it till it hurt again. Didn't hurt while the work going on but swelled up during the down time. Had more surgury in feb to repair torn ligament and was starting to get back to normal until a couple of weeks ago. Wrist started swelling on trip to see family in n.y. and ended up in emergency room. Spend few days in hospital in n.y and came back to va. pumped up on painkillers and antibiotics. Got into va. hospital and had surgury to clean out infection from wrist. Back home after week still on IV at home. Dr. says infection did not get to bone but some cartilidge loss. Hopeful to get feeling back in fingers but full range motion unknown. Not sure of grip either. Lots of therapy ahead. Dr can't say if I will be able to get all back ever. Lots of questions. No one to blame just freaky thing. Now a few months shy of 39 years old I am a statistic.
Kind of scary to think about since this work is pretty much all I have done since I am a kid. Always read about guys falling, or getting cut open but to get knocked out of the game from a bug really sucks. I know there are lots of parts to this biz but climbing and bucket work was enjoyable to me. Guess I will become good left handed stump man. Anyway be careful out there you never know what may happen.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Therapy is your only hope. Use it or lose it. When it hurts so much you wanna cry, go five more minutes.

Mojo sent to you, bro.

 

[LightningLoader]

wrist injury from climbing

Sorry to hear about your wrist man. That's terrible. I wish more cities would just try using the dual walk-thru type controls instead of those top mount kind with the ladders. They really cut down on the climbing around, since all you have to do is swing around from the cab to the control platform. When you have the top mount style controls with the ladder, you also risk throwing out your sholder or knocking your chin on the rungs if you slip. If anyone want's to see what a grapple truck looks like walk thru controls you can check it out at www.petersenind.com. There's really not much advantage to having those top mount controls as opposed to dual walk thru, and I personally think that it makes more sense to go with the option that will keep the operator safer.

 

[Ekka]

Dadatwins

Sorry to here that mate, what a bummer. You might get some light duties stump grinding or similar and never know ... be back in action some day.

Could you do us a favour here and tell us about this infection, how you get it , what it does etc? Was it from the surgery?

And which wrist is it the left or right?

We all get knocks, bruises, cuts etc and I've only ever worried about tetanus infection and hep B etc ... this sort of stuff doesn't really cross our minds. So info would be good.

 

[Dadatwins]

Can't believe this was just over a year ago, time realy does fly. As for current status I have lost some range of motion to right wrist, Unable to bend it back as far as left loss about 15%. Numbness and tingling in hand and fingers still a problem made worse by vibrating equipment, chain saws, blowers, ect. Have my grip strength back but sometimes can't feel what I am holding. Tried anti vibration gloves and problem is to pad my hand enough to not cause problem, I can't hold anything because of extra padding.
As for cause, after second surgury I developed a fluid cyst over one of the port sites from the arthroscopic surgury. Dr. gave me a few cortisone shots at site to try to close it and stop fluid buildup. This fluid buildup became infected and having a clear run to my joint caused major problems. Not a case of unsterilized needles or negligence. From doing some checking I found it is very common for athletes or elderly folks that get a lot of cortisone shots for pain to develop some sort of topical infections at the site. Unfortunatly mine had a path to my wrist joint due to surgury and made it worse. As per the infectious disease Dr. the body can usually fight off topical infections like cuts and scrapes, but once a pest gets into the blood, bones, or joints it can be very bad. I spent 6 days in hospital on heavy duty antibiotics and another 8 weeks at home on antibiotics administered at home through an IV in my arm. Scary feeling being in hospital and Dr. drawing lines in magic marker up my arm to mark infection path and last mark has red X to mean remove arm at this point if infection gets to it. I consider myself very lucky to still have my hand and even to be around. As I said before, be careful and appreciate what you have, because you really just never know. :angel:

 

[a_lopa]

damm sorry brother,youll be the best damm stumper ever.hope what ever it is buggers off.

 

[Jumper]

Hope things work out for you bud!

Staph is UGLY stuff. I knicked my left index finger with a kitchen knife in 2001 , nothing serious at the time, bandaid sort of a cut,on a Friday night and by Sunday evening I had an arm that was swollen and red hot to the elbow and a 102F fever. Fortunately I did not have to go into the hospital as an in patient, but responded well to eight IV's of antibiotics at the outdoor over the next four days plus a week of pill form to get rid of this nasty bug. The finger did sustain some cartilage damage but nothing I can't live with. Staph is everywhere eg soil, and the hospitals are full of it. All you need is an open wound, however minor. Before antibiotics people used to routinely die from these infections.

 

[ozy365]

Dada-
Get hooked up with a Certified Hand Therapist for the therapy. After you max your recovery, talk to an occupational therapist (if you were in NY I would recommend some...like me) about modifying tools and climbing. A decent OT could come out to a job site and give you some good ideas.

I have congenital limitations that result in ROM limits in both of my shoulders and wrists. I have had to play around, but I am the primary climber for our part time business. Extra safety equipment and planning will change how you climb, but mb not the amount of work that you do. Good luck...try the AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) for more help.

Todd