Franziska's disease course

It all started in 2014, about 6 months after the birth of my second son. I can still remember it very well as my son was just starting to crawl and I crawled everywhere afterwards. I can still very well remember a rainy morning when I was sitting on the floor in the children's room and propping myself up with both hands on the floor and a stabbing pain ran through my wrist to my elbow.

The time went by, about 8 weeks until my first visit to the doctor, because the pain just wouldn't go away. During this visit to the doctor nothing was done and I went home with painkillers and the diagnosis "toddler".

The variety with children made it possible to forget a little about the pain and I quickly got used to the pain. In the same year it must have been September, I couldn't take it anymore because of the pain and so I drove with my husband, it was a Sunday, to the clinic 5 km away. Once there, the doctor on duty immediately sent me to the X-ray. When he had the pictures in front of him, he didn't say a word for a few minutes. Made the background lighter and darker and rotated the images back and forth. At some point I asked the doctor if he could just tell what was going on and he said in a nutshell, "You could imagine that there might be something, yes, but I think it's more likely to be tendinitis. Women with small children have that more often. " (I remember the statement all too well). The doctor then had his nurse put on a thick Voltaren bandage and pressed 3 ibubrofen into my hand. With the results from the clinic, after several more days of pain, I went to my family doctor again and he said I should get a bandage that would no longer allow movement in my wrist.

When I had this bandage, I was the happiest person on earth because the pain was finally gone.

That was the case at least until June 2015. In June 2015, from the baby break back to a new job, the employment contract in hand, also for an unlimited period, what could be nicer. My new job was ecumenical outpatient care for the elderly, I loved my job with all my heart, my protégés in my tour were satisfied with me and I gave my best. Often I couldn't work with a bandage during my work, so I always worked alternately with and without. The shift work and all the trappings allowed the pain to be suppressed a little for months, as a lot of great experiences and incidents provided plenty of variety. For example buying a house with my husband, a dream that came true, having my family in their own four walls, that was super great and really gave me a boost in everything.

Towards the end of 2015 my strength decreased more and more, the hand was permanently thick and ached relentlessly. I was just busy eating painkillers and crying, the pain just wouldn't stop. I remember sitting on the couch with my kids on New Year's Eve and we were playing a game. My older son won the game and was jumping around wildly on the sofa and I wanted to keep him from falling. So I stretched out both of my arms towards him and shortly before he stumbled over his own feet and flew unchecked against the aching left hand, it cracked like crazy, it hurt a lot and all that was left was a big scream. I was on duty the next morning that I just finished crying, as well as the following days. On January 8th, 2016 my collapse, I just couldn't bear it anymore, no more strength, no feeling and no more patience. On the same day, my new family doctor prescribed cortisone for three days, which, contrary to my expectations, did not work. It quickly became clear that something else must be the trigger and so I was able to take an x-ray on January 11th, 2016. The subsequent discussion with the radiologist then revealed stage 3b lunate malacia with fractures of the surrounding carpal bones and cracked spoke as well as soft tissue swelling and so on. On the same day I was chased by the CT and on January 13th, 2016 by the MRI. For the time being, my family doctor wrote me sick.

It took me a few days to collect myself and to realize which clinic I would go to for a conversation with a hand surgeon.

On February 20, 2016, the long-awaited medical consultation finally took place in the Kulmbach hand surgery department. It might sound strange, but when I entered the clinic I had a very good feeling and I wasn't afraid because the doctor's first name is like my son, Marian. Only by the way. I didn't have to wait very long for the doctor when I sat across from him, he asked me about the pain and mobility of the wrist, finally he tested the mobility of the wrist himself, you could already see in his face that something was going to be bigger.

Together with my husband, who was able to accompany me that day, we looked at the MRI images together. Really competent and with a lot of empathy and, above all, time, Dr. Marian Meier explains the various surgical methods available. I had several methods to choose from and finally agreed, if everything didn't work as it should, that a complete stiffening should be carried out just in case.

On April 11th, 2016 the time had finally come for my surgery appointment. I can still remember being driven to the operating theater around 11 a.m. and waking up around 3:30 p.m. Dr. Meier wanted to spare me a full stiffening and tried to do a PRC, but the entire puzzle pieces just didn't fit together anymore. So I woke up with a stiffened hand. A short time later, the hand surgeon visited me in the recovery room. I asked him totally puzzled how the result is and he apologized and said that it was a full stiffening. Even in the recovery room my tears rolled down.

After three days of hospitalization and reasonably tolerable pain, I went home. As for the follow-up treatment, I cannot say much new KG in bulk and of course 6 weeks of immobilization beforehand. My decision to go for full bracing was the best decision after over two years of pain, I was free from any pain. On February 12th, 2018 the plate and the new screws were removed, since then I have become more sensitive to the weather, but still happy about my decision.

I hope the text is not too long, it was so good to tell everything in detail again. It almost feels a bit like when you've written the last page of a book and you're done with your story ...

Kind regards, Franziska