ncxdm Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 So has anyone broken a metacarpal (the bones in your palm) on their strong hand and have any training advice coming back from it. I had a disagreement with a milwaukee drill and the drill won. I pulled a piece of bone off at the plam near the end on my middle finger. Good times. At least it wasn't the trigger finger. So now I working my way back in little steps with dryfire. Anyway looking for any advice. Hopefully will be able to live fire again soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bountyhunter Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I remember back when I bowled, they had leather gloves with the palm area padded to support the ball. Might cushion the recoil against the sore part of the hand. Or you could try padding a shooting glove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 I was thinking of trying some gloves when I can start doing live fire again. I think I have a few more weeks before I am allowed to do that. As painful as dryfire is I think this is going to be a longer recovery than I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bountyhunter Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 (edited) I was thinking of trying some gloves when I can start doing live fire again. I think I have a few more weeks before I am allowed to do that. As painful as dryfire is I think this is going to be a longer recovery than I want.Yeah, I remember when I broke my knee, I had pain for months but eventually it got back down to the "normal" amount of pain.... I'm old. Edited July 22, 2014 by bountyhunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galt11 Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Pm sent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 Take a break as required and don't just dive back in. Healing is a gradual process, so the demand you place on your body should be reintroduced gradually as well. Some may recall that last July I amputated the tip of my strong hand index finger right at the base of the nail. I didn't pull a trigger for several months while the wound was closing up. I was shooting again by late October and moved up in class the first few matches of this year. Sometimes just letting it heal is the best thing. My shooting is important to me, but I need my hand for much more than that, so I figured I'd put my hand first. I missed out on both the A8 championship and Nationals last year because of my injury. It is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted August 2, 2014 Author Share Posted August 2, 2014 Thanks for the advice. I think that waiting for things to get better is the hardest part. I want to be back where I was and my hand won't let me get there. I tried to swing a golf club and my body let go despite what I tried to tell it to do. It is certainly sobering to think of all you can lose with not being able to use a hand. It gets better all the time but at 6 weeks it still hurts like crazy to grip hard on anything. Argh. Anyway I guess it will be a good opportunity to rebuild my grip. You said it well "it is what it is". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 Hello: I almost cutoff my trigger finger with a surface grinder 35 years ago. It took a while to come back. What I did back then, I was not a shooter then but I used a tennis ball to squeeze on. An old motocross racer told me about this. It worked great. Something to try but don't over do it. I am struggling with a torn calf muscle right now. I am going to take it slow. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 Hmm a grinder. That puts this more in perspective. The more people I talk to the better I feel about just breaking a bone. The strange part of this injury has been how little my grip strength has been affected. I can still do something like a pull up without terrible pain in my hand. It is sideways pressure that hurts the most. It is things like trying to activate the push button on the bottom of a flashlight that is like drop the tool kind of painful. This also includes the weight of the trigger guard on my finger or say picking up a coffee mug by the handle. It is miserable because it hurts so little most of the time except for the brief moments where it is spectacularly painful. I have broken toes before but this hand thing is certainly more frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Hello: Since it is sideways motion that hurts more. I would use an elastic band and tie it to the finger beside the hurt one. Spread them apart like doing the splits. Start with a weak band and work up. You could also start with no band and do the Vulcan splits like Star Trek--HeHe. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastly Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 (edited) I 'spiral-fractured' my weak hand ring finger about 10 years ago and had to get it pinned in place with basically a pair of finishing nails. When it healed the finger wasn't quite straight and it now doesn't close all the way and 'scissors' to the outside part-way over my pinky. Needless to say this hasn't done my left hand grip strength any favors and I have been less than pleased about this ever since - but I never actively tried to do anything about it. I figured I was just slightly maimed and needed to suck it up Lately I have been working with the Captains of Crush grip trainers and have noticed that over a month or two I have re-developed my strength in BOTH hands and my left now feels stronger than it ever has. I've also sheared a piece of bone off my right thumb, on top, right where it meets the hand. This set OK but I had a big lump there. Over the years the bone 're-sculpted' itself, my strength returned and I am as good as new. Take your time with healing, but actively work at rebuilding and it will likely come back 100% - or more. All Judo/Jujitsu injuries BTW.... Edited August 4, 2014 by Beastly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grapemeister Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 (edited) I've had minor injuries to the hands in the past and I'm now recuperating from carpal tunnel surgery. I've found that heating the hands with hot water followed by slow massaging with some kind of heavier lotion like coconut butter cream and stretching does wonders for the hands. No pain, no gain definitely does not apply to the hands. Sure, discomfort comes with the rehab process, but you have to be careful and not push it too hard and too fast. I haven't shot a gun in over a month and it looks like it'll be at least another month before I can shoot a match. The process is really trying my patience and causing a bit of anxiety, but I know that if I rush things, and push too hard, I will injure my self and/or slow down the healing process. Edited August 4, 2014 by grapemeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 I think the most important thing I learned from this kind of injury is to give yourself time to heal. There is no way to rush things like bones knitting together. Every time I tried to push the process along all I did was slow the healing down. At 7 weeks I can feel things starting to come back together and I can start to work at practice a little more. I think in the next week or so I will be able to get back out and do some live fire. It is a bummer to miss that many matches and that much practice but I think I will be able to get the strength back and in the end that is the most important thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) I got my hand smashed between two football helmets years ago and my grip was never the same. I don't really notice it and it never really bothered my jump shot because I just learned a different follow through. The only thing that bothers me is a .45 with a stiff or bad grip safety. Loss of flexibility. You will learn to compensate. I did a lot of things and still do, left handed. You might want to get a holster for your weak hand and practice that way for a while. It takes a lot of pressure off the injury. Good luck! Edited August 5, 2014 by Jadeslade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted September 3, 2014 Author Share Posted September 3, 2014 Went and shot at the range for a while over the weekend. At about 10 weeks my grip is not back to where I want it but it is better. I was able to shoot for a few hours without any real pain unless I really tried to bear down. Anyway at least I feel like I can work on getting back out to matches. Jadeslade is right you do start to use the other hand a lot. I have started catching with my left instead of my right. Glad the strength is coming back but 10 weeks feels like a long time when you are in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncxdm Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 So just to kind of finish this thread off it took until around December for me to really be able to grip. January is when I had all of my strength back. Just for anyone else who is unlucky enough to end up in the same boat it is around 6 months to be where you started. (The catching with the other hand thing is still there) The biggest thing I learned is that there is absolutely no way to hurry it along. If you push the limits it just hurts a lot and sets the healing back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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