TFCC Tear Treatment Protocol: Mild injury

Test results in this range indicate a mild injury.  

 Expected Recovery time in this phase: ~ 1-2 months

Congratulations! Being categorized, as ‘Mild Injury’ means your wrist is stable and you can load it for athletic endeavors. This has taken over 10 years of research to determine!

Don’t let this give you a false sense of security- you're not healed.  Beginning to exercise too soon will set back your healing process!

 

ACTION PLAN

Your goal is to take 2-4 weeks to focus on the imbalances that this injury caused and there are many, especially when you have had the injury for a long time.

Healing

In this healing phase, you should wear the WristWidget® until your weight bearing is normal (equal to your uninjured wrist) and there is NO clicking. You are not done with the healing process yet. 

This phase is important because often people think that they are healed and go back to normal functioning without the WristWidget®. They fall back below 65lb/29kg for weight bearing tolerance and symptoms resurface.

  1. You need to wear the WristWidget® for ALL loading activities– essentially all day. IF your WristWidget should slide down over your ulna, you have a shallow wrist crease. Read about the cause and solution here. 
  2. You may remove it at night.

  3. Then on a daily schedule, begin stretching!  It is imperative to the healing process that you work to unwind all of the imbalances in your torso, shoulder, neck, elbow and lastly wrist. You need to stretch daily.

       
      What you will notice: there are certain positions (without moving the wrist) where you can get your wrist to sublux. These are important to note, and monitor as they improve over time. 
         Videos:  Stretch Series
         Videos:  Strength Series

    • Conduct Weight Bearing Test on your wrists every 7 days.  Record your results on the Weight Bearing Test Log

    Diet & Exercise

    It’s time to start/continue a clean diet: low sugar, low gluten, no processed foods, ++ dark veggies, + lean protein.

    Limit your protein intake to no more than .5gm/#bw/day (1gm/kg bw/day) Many patients report that this injury occurs in conjunction with eating a high protein diet.  Read why a reducing your protein intake will speed healing here. 

    Avoid bicep curls, push ups, pull ups, pull downs with the wrist supinated, and pectoralis (chest) strengthening. These muscles need to be stretched! You need to elongate these muscles and strengthening does the opposite.

     Strengthen instead: the triceps, the rhomboids, and the lats.

    Get your core muscles working together. Squats and ab work helps a ton - planks are ok on your elbows, not your hands.

    Here is a guide to the exercises which will strengthen these muscles, and not put your wrist in danger of further injury. 

    Add cardio for 20 minutes daily – increases the heart rate and helps the body to heal.

     Eastern Medicine

    • Eastern Medicine correlates TFCC injuries with gut/intestinal problems. 
    • Acupuncture 2-3 times a week is helpful in healing.
    • Many patients report improvement when Pure Turmeric paste is added to the diet.
    • Consider deep tissue massage to the bicep, extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU), pectoralis major and minor, and subscapularis.  These muscles often have imbalances. 

    Support

    Join the TFCC and Ulnar-Sided Wrist Pain Group on Facebook. This is a place where patients, therapists, physicians, alternative medicine practitioners can share their stories and experiences with the TFCC. Enjoy!

    If you 'd like Wendy to advise on your case, please complete this form: https://bit.ly/ww-injury

     

    Goal

    You should wear the WristWidget® when testing. Don’t test WITHOUT the WristWidget® until your injured wrist results are equal to your uninjured wrist.

    Once a taped/WristWidget® wrist matches the uninjured wrist, then remove the WristWidget® and continue the weekly testing until the results for both wrists are equal.

    When am I considered healed?

    You are fully recovered when you have full weight bearing, no pain with functional load and haven't thought about your wrist for 2 weeks. .

    Congratulations! You now have a fully recovered TFCC injury. Appreciate your health because YOU have defied what we know in medicine to be the inability of these to heal. You have successfully healed your TFCC! Enjoy the process. The body is amazing.

    For a handy printout of this healing protocol, click here: https://bit.ly/ww-healing