Ive looked on the forums for an answer and while I’ve seen plenty on scaphoids I can’t see anything pertaining to my specific situation.
I broke my scaphoid in 2019, being dumb.
It didn’t heal which is common and my surgeon went for a scaphoid screw. While waiting for the surgery (which was delayed due to covid-19) I got bored and so went back to normal training which caused minimal discomfort and did not lead, as some warned me it would, to accelerated a-vascular necrosis!
I had the surgery in December and my surgeon told me not to lift at all after the cast came off. It’s been 2 weeks since the cast came off (now in a splint) and he’s told me it will be at least another 4 week before I can lift.
While I think it is important to listen to surgeons I also believe it’s important to get a range of opinions so... What do others think? Will loading my wrist with pressing and deadlifts (being guided by pain) 5 weeks removed from the surgery undo all the good work? Or will loading the wrist benefit and shorten recovery. Should I get rid of the splint while I’m at it and resume normal day to use, again guided by pain?
P.S. My surgeon doesn’t lift. Obviously.
Clinician: It is always advisable to follow your surgeon's guidance for return to activity after surgery.
Me as an marginally educated trainee: I would have been lifting my ass off while the cast was on, doing every single lift I could adapt to having a cast on. As soon as the cast came off, I would have been progressively exposing the previously casted wrist to compound barbell movements in a graded, incremental manner; beginning with loads that I knew the surgically fixated scaphoid could tolerate and increasing rapidly from there.
Please keep in mind that I have an extremely unhealthy connection and commitment to training.
My guess would be that a surgeon with little knowledge of strength training would assume that the dumb "powerlifter" sat in front of him (who broke his wrist "powerlifting"), given a green light to train would immediately go and try and max out which is why he recommends against it completely.
Update! For anyone with a similar query.
That’s me discharged by the surgeon. Turns out they just make it up as they go along...
”have you seen the physio yet?”
“No you told me no physio until today...5 weeks ago”
“Oh. �� Well I’ll make you an appointment”
So... I took a reasonably educated gamble that this might be the case after my last appointment and just cracked on with my thing.
I also asked on here. Obviously.
As a result I am far further along the road to recovery than I otherwise would have been.
Surgeons have 15 minutes to get you in and out of these follow up appointments and a lot of the time they’re just trying not to get sued because you got re-injured while under their care.
Get a range of opinions, don’t max out and let pain be the guide. It’s there for a reason.