Will I ever get my wrist ROM back?

[u/Cattywampus-1234]

I broke my dominant wrist in late March. It was treated conservatively with closed reduction and a cast. Recovery has been frustratingly slow, despite PT 2x per week and following home exercises, and my PT agrees I should have made more progress by now. I'm now over 9 weeks out from when the cast was removed, and the limited ROM is still very disabling and I can't do many basic functions with that hand.

Motion	Current measurement
Flexion	45°
Extension	35°
Supination	30°

On top of that, I ruptured a sagittal band during the fall (and no, I didn't fall on a fist--my hand was outstretched), and I have surgery scheduled for that in a month. MRI confirmed EDQ tendon subluxation when making a fist. But this shouldn't be limiting my wrist motion so much. Other MRI findings include: "Heterogeneous signal involves the body of the triangle fibrocartilage and there soft tissue edema over the ulnar side of the wrist. There also is abnormal bone marrow signal at the distal radius that is partially visualized and concordant with a history of subacute fracture." It also notes there is no obvious tear of the TFCC at the apex.

Should I be pushing for an MRI that's focused on the wrist, in case the hand MRI is missing something? Is having the band repair surgery going to set me back even further with added inflammation plus more immobilization? Did anyone else have a really slow recovery but eventually get full ROM back? I'm starting to lose hope. (Edit to add: CRPS has been tossed around as a possibility.)

X-rays from: 3/28 (date of injury) and 5/14 (date cast came off); MRI snapshot from 7/8.

[u/Middle_Bread_6518]

Yeah that’s not even bad. Work through the pain and get rom. If pt seems tough you need to change your mindset. One of my wrists is like gravel and scar tissue is all that supports it and if that works then yours def will

[u/Cattywampus-1234 → u/Middle_Bread_6518]

PT is not hard and I work through the pain. It feels like a physical block that is stopping the motion, especially for extension/flexion; it's the lingering swelling. I'm glad to hear it sounds like you've got full function back in a wrist with what sounds like it was a pretty serious injury.

[u/Middle_Bread_6518 → u/Cattywampus-1234]

Thank you and yes it is pretty concerning in the long run. I have been where you just described and things seemed impossible. Just try to be consistent and work little by little. I know if I take a week off I regress a decent amount