I broke my wrist

In July 2026, I broke my right wrist, had surgery and got a plate in the wrist.

07/09

I fell off my bike and broke my right wrist, though at that time, I thought I'd just sprained it. It was around 7 p.m. and urgent care might be closed. ER could be too expensive for a sprain.

Unfortunately, the rest of my family was in Japan; I took pain killers, iced the wrist and slept.

07/10

I went to a nearby urgent care to take an X-ray. The first surprise was that the bone was broken and I probably should have gone to ER the day before. They referred me to ER.

At ER, I got a splint and had another referral for a specialist visit.

After that, I bought Kensington's trackball for my left hand, water-proof cast cover for showering and a box of Top Ramen to avoid cooking.

07/14

My family was back.

07/16

I had a specialist visit. The second surprise was that they recommended surgery. The bone was healing but it wasn't fully aligned and that could cause a long-term problem. I booked surgery.

07/21

I had surgery. It went well. Well, actually, I was on anesthesia and didn't remember anything during the surgery itself.

Post-surgery, once the nerve block wore off, was the worst. I wouldn't say mine was worse than others, but it was the pain I hadn't experienced before. I had Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen and Oxycodone in rotation. I had a little spreadsheet to manage the dosing schedule.

07/24

It was the first work day after the surgery. I took a few days off because of the pain.

07/26

I bought a pill organizer to take pain killers in rotation.

07/27

The new splint I got after the surgery was shorter and I could use both hands to type. However, it was causing acute pain. Icing worked well this time.