The scapholunate ligament tears in a fall, the X-ray looks normal, and it gets called a wrist sprain. Untreated it has a known ending: predictable wrist arthritis about a decade later. Six weeks buys a repair, six months a reconstruction, six years a fusion.
The elbow stiffens faster than any other joint in the body. After a dislocation the X-ray looks fine and everyone relaxes, but weeks in a sling cost range you don’t get back. Bending returns easily; straightening is the year-long project.
A stiff hand after a cast or surgery is normal, but stiffness has a clock. Early stiffness is wet cement, old stiffness is set concrete. Here’s how to tell whether the block is joint, tendon or the small muscles inside your hand, and why time at end range beats pulling harder.
The middle knuckle is the most commonly injured joint in the hand, and the swelling after a sprain or dislocation lasts 6 to 12 months. That’s normal. What isn’t normal, and what ruins these fingers, is resting them still.
A boxer’s fracture is a broken little-finger metacarpal from punching something solid. Most heal with 3 to 4 weeks of splinting, but a rotated finger or any cut over the knuckle changes everything. Here’s the honest sorting.
A broken wrist knits in about 6 weeks. But the outcome is decided in weeks 6 to 12, exactly when most people are discharged with an exercise sheet. Here’s the honest timeline, the red flags, and what good rehab looks like.
The scaphoid is the wrist bone that hides on first X-rays and dies quietly when missed. Fall plus tenderness in the hollow at the thumb base means scaphoid until proven otherwise. Here’s the self-check, the protocol, and why casualness costs wrists.