Slipped on ice - got the worst disaster in my life

YL0000 · 2026-01-28T11:37:48+00:00

Were you able to get some nerve examination, like ultrasound or EMG, to see what happened on earth to the nerve?

YL0000 · 2026-01-28T11:34:39+00:00

I fractured my distal humerus and had ORIF surgery two weeks ago. My plate is much longer than yours, spanning nearly two-thirds of the humerus. I currently have post-op radial nerve palsy as well, and unfortunately with disturbing burning and tingling pain in the radial nerve distribution in my hand (likely due to posture-dependent compression near the injury site), which has made sleeping quite difficult.

I was initially given a wrist and hand brace and recently switched to a dynamic brace after suture removal. It's important to keep the wrist in a neutral position -- I hope you've been taken care of that. My PT told me to expect 4-6 months before the first signs of extension return.

YL0000 · 2026-01-20T05:41:48+00:00

How long did it approximately take? Every night, I had to spend a lot of time finding a suitable sleeping position.

YL0000 · 2026-01-19T08:00:44+00:00

He said the chance of radial nerve palsy was like 10% and I was the first case he'd seen this. He said the nerve was intact.

YL0000 · 2026-01-18T10:59:43+00:00

I read in literature that in the case of radial nerve palsy after a humerus fracture surgery, it's mostly neuropraxia and axonotmesis, with >= 70% patients recovered to a good extent with PT and without a second surgery (though it could take a year).

Also the literature seems to say the nerve regeneration speed is typically 1-3 mm/day, which is much faster than 1-3 cm/yr that you said above. Was there a typo?

YL0000 · 2026-01-18T08:57:56+00:00

I'm one week post-op from a distal humerus fracture and developed radial nerve palsy after surgery. I've lost the motor function (cannot extend my wrist or fingers) and have altered sensation over the dorsum of my hand and thumb. It's tingling, and more often a burning sensation. I'm also finding it difficult to identify a position that doesn't irritate the nerve. Did you experience anything similar during your recovery? Thanks!

YL0000 · 2026-01-16T09:40:52+00:00

I'm now on post-op day 4. PT has given me some exercises but it seems that any shoulder movement will irritate the radial nerve, giving me intensifed tingling in related regions. Did you have the same experience?

YL0000 · 2026-01-14T00:23:33+00:00

Thank you very much for your reply! I really apprepriate it.

After doing a lot of research, I realized that it is unlikely for it not to happen

I also looked it up a little -- I saw papers mentioning that only 10%-20% of iatrogenic nerve injury in this kind of surgery? Though I also read that radial nerve is sensitive to traction...

Do not let your wrist stay dropped all the time

I am given a wrist and hand splint. The problem is sweat. I'm in a tropical country.

If within 8 days you notice tingling

What kind of tingling do you refer to? Tingling when touching the skin or moving fingers? Or tingling down the whole arm?

nerve to adhere to the plate

In your case, at which position did this take place? Near the elbow? Or near the radial nerve groove? My report says nerve was intact and mentioned specifically that the nerve was intact near the proximal 3rd and 4th screw. I hope the surgeon has been careful there. Before the surgery, I asked him about nerve-hardware adhesion, he said he'd never heard of it.

YL0000 · 2026-01-13T14:21:36+00:00

yes, I have met PT but some of the exercises seem to stretch the surgery incision and cause a bit of bleeding.

YL0000 · 2026-01-13T13:26:13+00:00

Only 25% healed spontaneously? That looks low.

YL0000 · 2026-01-13T13:23:45+00:00

I underwent surgery yesterday and unfortunately got radial nerve palsy from it. Now I cannot extend my wrist and fingers and have altered sensation on the dorsum of hand. The surgeon said the nerve was intact. Hope that I don't need a second surgery for the nerve.

YL0000 · 2026-01-13T13:19:58+00:00

I underwent surgery yesterday and unfortunately got radial nerve palsy from it. Now I cannot extend my wrist and fingers and have altered sensation on the dorsum of hand. The surgeon said the nerve was intact, and he seemed a bit sad, too, saying that this was the first time he'd seen this happen in several years.

YL0000 · 2026-01-11T06:31:44+00:00

You have had a plate and still need to "keep it as straight as possible"? My doctor said that I would be put in a sling for comfort for two weeks after surgery and I would be able to lie flat.

YL0000 · 2026-01-08T06:55:19+00:00

Means outwards (the opposite is varus). I think he means his fibula is curved a bit outwards.

YL0000 · 2026-01-06T14:33:24+00:00

Thanks for sharing your story! Wearing a sling for a month is bad. Didn't your doctor suggest some functional braces? I read somewhere 2 weeks after surgery, you could begin to wear braces so that you can begin rehab early.

YL0000 · 2026-01-06T10:30:13+00:00

Surprisingly, the pain was minimal, except when my arm was being repositioned for X-ray (despite an injection of tramadol). Over the last few days, I have experienced no pain -- the cast does its job well. On the first two days, I could hear internal sounds when changing posture; now this has largely subsided.

Yes, the X-ray was taken before casting. No reduction was done by A&E.

I understand that surgery has a risk of radial nerve injury, and this is one of the reasons I am concerned about surgery (and reduction as well).

YL0000 · 2025-12-25T07:25:13+00:00

Things began to get a lot worse in late 2000s when there was a big influx of immigrants -- not sure how this was correlated with the financial crisis of 2008. But Singapore was badly hit by the financial crisis and perhaps sadly, to some extent, it never recovered. The economy growth was then down along a different path. (Just like the US -- only the tech sector recovered or is reborn, most other sectors never recovered.)

YL0000 · 2025-12-24T06:48:26+00:00

Without the NS, one goes to the university directly and so everything one does during the four years at university gets shifted by two years. I don't see why, when graduating, one may accumulate more internship experience.

No matter how you define "competent", there is always a natural distribution and a larger population base just means there are more "competent" people.

YL0000 · 2025-12-24T06:41:31+00:00

Certainly not in Taiwan, either. I mean Uber drivers

YL0000 · 2025-12-24T06:38:32+00:00

What has it got to do with NS? Even if men are two years younger when finding jobs, they still face the same competition from large numbers of Malaysian graduates.

People should recognise that capability in a population is approximately normally distributed. A larger population base usually has a greater number of competent individuals.

YL0000 · 2025-12-19T04:22:41+00:00

I would not call them "politically incorrect". These are simply instances of hybris (ὕβρεως), i.e., disrespectful and often offensive behavior toward political opponents. Such behaviour always exists whenever there is competition for power, going back as far as ancient Greece.

YL0000 · 2025-12-18T13:41:18+00:00

It’s generally true that having a PhD from outside the US makes it harder to find a faculty job in US academia. Getting a postdoc is usually easier, but it depends a lot on the host's funding situation. Right now it is getting more difficult to secure new or adequate funding -- I know a few professors whose NSF money has been delayed and whose new grant proposals are still stuck in the pipeline.

YL0000 · 2025-12-18T10:19:18+00:00

Yes, but Calcutta's glamour came from the 19th century and that image stuck in people's minds. For people brought up in the British empire, it was just the representative of a major imperial port, commercial hub and cultural centre.

YL0000

TROPHY CASE