Latest posts for the topic "Skiing after broken wrist????????"

Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:33:31 GMT

Help! Huge dilemma........my 13 year old son broke his wrist 2 weeks ago, he is due out of plaster 2 days before our family skiing holiday..........he is a good skier.......do we go, put him in an aircast and risk it (Iam aware that insurance will probably be invalid) or abort mission............any physios with helpful info??? For example how much protection do aircasts actually give???

Any help much appreciated......!!

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:49:24 GMT

Surely if the hospital take off his cast that must mean the bone has healed. If it was one of my sons they'd strap it up and get on with the skiing. I'm not a doctor though so what do I know. :D

Best to take advice from the hospital, I think.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:54:04 GMT

I would advise you to speak to the medics who are dealing with your son.

They may say it is perfectly Ok to Ski and they may advise on the type of brace/support he should wear. But you should find out the worst case scenario before making the choice,

I can guarantee you he will be up for skiing though :)

Also if it is of any help, my brother broke his leg wakeboarding. He had to have a plate fitted just below the knee. He cancelled a waterski trip to Florida just after the cast came off, and prompty tripped over a slipper at home and broke the top part of the leg :cry: He would have been far happier waterskiing I can tell you.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:59:15 GMT

You don't say when your holiday is? Is it a straightforward fracture? If you are talking of him skiing with any kind of cast on (Air or POP) your insurance will be invalid. Saying that my son fractured his on holiday learning to snowboard and he just went back to skiing!

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:10:13 GMT

Kids bones heal quick don't they???
A tough one that as aborting is probably not really an option as your insurance is unlikely to pay out for the whole family just because one injured.
I am sure they expect you all to go without him and just pay out on him!!! Scandalous.
But i could be wrong.

If he is a good skiier i am sure all he has to worry about is falling. If it were me i would wrap it up tight and go for it......but i am no doc.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:56:17 GMT

Snapzzz wrote:Kids bones heal quick don't they???
A tough one that as aborting is probably not really an option as your insurance is unlikely to pay out for the whole family just because one injured.
I am sure they expect you all to go without him and just pay out on him!!! Scandalous.
But i could be wrong.

I would think the insurers would pay for all of you, seeing as he's only 13 years old.

I broke my shoulder 2 weeks before our first family ski-ing holiday, when my kids were young, and I told my insurers about it but said we hadn't made up our minds yet what we were going to do - cancel the holiday or all go but only the kids ski. They said they were quite happy to pay cancellation for all of us.

In the end, we did go and I walked about with my arm in a sling. It was very hard on me though, and I was very tempted to try ski-ing. I didn't however, because I'd looked up my fracture on the internet, before we left, and seen that if it got worse it might have to be pinned and all sorts of dreadful things.

Are you planning on ski-ing in Feb half-term? I think that makes a difference, because if you want to ski in school holidays you will have to wait until Easter if you cancel.

I think if it was me I'd cancel now and re-book for Easter (if possible). There could be complications with the break (although I hope not) and they might not take the cast off, or they might say he shouldn't ski on it.

I guess it's a matter of listening to the doctors and then having a family meeting about it, seeing as you are all affected by the decision.

Best of luck with deciding what to do :D, and I hope the wrist heals without any problems.

Ally

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:45:11 GMT

Playing devils advocate here, but surely there is nothing to actually stop him (and therefore rest of family) from going to the resort, so I doubt the insurance would pay for a whole cancellation. They may contribute towards his "loss of skiing" and possibly to the cost of a child minder to look after him while you ski.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:01:19 GMT

Agree with seeking advice from doctor, they may not say what you want to hear, but best to ask.

Last year my daughter sprained her wrist (not the same as a break I know) 2 or 3 days before we went and I was also in a dilemma.
We bought a really good wrist support and although poling was a bit painful for the 1st day or so she was fine and forgot about it pretty quickly. So it clearly was not as bad a sprain as we initially thought.

I broke my wrist a few years ago and could not believe how strong my wrist was when the plaster was taken off. Kids mend quickly - don't they?

It might be more of a problem if he were a beginner, but hopefully he'll be aware of his capabilities

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:29:36 GMT

Hi Laura,
I work as an orthopaedic theatre nurse in the North East of England. I would try and get in touch with your son's ortho consultant well in advance of the trip and explain the situation. This means you aren't waiting until the day of cast removal to make your decision as to whether to go or not. His/her secretary can probably arrange an earlier appointment than you already have if you explain the situation to them. If the surgeon agrees he should be ok for the trip he will be able to arrange for a removable splint to be made through appliances or occupational therapy or may advise putting him in a lightweight scotchcast for the trip.
All i would say is make sure you take plenty of paracetamol and an inflammatory such as brufen with you and give him regular doses of both whether he is in pain or not. If he is in a cast his hand may well swell up after a day or so of skiing. This is where a removable moulded splint may be of more use as it can be removed on an evening and his arm rested in a sling to allow for swelling. It will also be useful to take a sling with you to rest his arm in when he isn't skiing.
At the end of the day i would go with your surgeons decision. I can't comment much further as i don't know how old the injury is or what type of fracture it is.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:13:52 GMT

Thanks so much everyone, all very helpful, will speak to consultant and although I'm sure he wouldn't wave us off at the airport, hopefully it may be a risk worth taking. Only other thought do you tell the insurance company anyway or just keep quiet and hope you dont need them?

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:22:54 GMT

Can he not have the cast taken off when you come back from the holiday. All the children I have known at school (and my son) seemed to be able to use their arm/hand perfectly normally by the time they were due to have thier casts off. In fact my son went back to work soon after having his wrist put in plaster, he is a plumber.

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:24:23 GMT

If it was me, I'd tell the insurers, in case they found about it and then tried to say the insurance for the rest of you, for something else, was invalid - like when you die of heart attack and they refuse to pay out on your life insurance to your family because you forgot to tell them you'd once had a pimple on your nose (slight exageration I know).

If you don't need the insurance then telling them won't make any difference, and if you do need it they'd be bound to find out.

Ally

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Mon, 8 Dec 2014 20:11:40 GMT

Apologies for reviving a SUPER old post but... what happened with this in the end? I'm in a similar position - broke a bone in my hand and will be 5 weeks post surgery to pin it back into place by the time of my ski trip. I don't have a cast, but have been warned that the pins they have put in aren't strong like they would be in a leg, they're just enough to hold the break in place while it heals. Surgeon was very vague - basically wouldn't advise me either way about whether to ski or not, seemed to just be covering his back.

I'm 26 and fit and active, so expect it will heal pretty fast, and I'm looking into suitable wrist guards to help with protection.... Here's that post if you're interested: https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/0/15694.page#145571

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 22:50:19 GMT

My daughter broke her hand playing rugby just before our ski trip. Her hand physio made a special splint especially for her with the fingers free and she skied one handed. We didn't say anything to the insurance company and took the risk. We avoided drag lifts but she managed everything else fine. Hers wasn't pinned which was probably worse and more painful. The doctor in London wanted to pin it but when she said she lived in Dorset he said to see the surgeons down here. They couldn't make their minds up for weeks so it didn't get operated on. Probably would have healed sooner :(

Re:Skiing after broken wrist????????

Fri, 12 Dec 2014 10:21:19 GMT

If plaster is off is technically not broken anymore so what is issue? Am not sure hurting your hand/wrist is something that happens when skiing (I have fallen in car park before :-( ), although perhaps a wrist guard and mittens would help. Mittens will prevent them holding ski pole too tight which is both not required and tiring. Of course standard practice of not using pole loops would help although using these is much more likely to result in a shoulder or pectoral injury than affect the wrist/hand.