I broke my hand about 5 months ago.

To this date it's not how it used to be.

After going to surgery and having some therapy it got functional again and the grip strength came back.

However some movement is still limited, the fine flexibility.

It seems that on the cutting site from the surgery a lot of collagen deposits formed which limits the movement from the thumb to the pinky.

There's no pain or anything else but there might be some muscle strain and limitations which is felt during cooking, working with dough, exercise etc.

It almost feels as if I have two left arms (the right one broke, and I can't call it my dominant hand anymore)

Any suggestions how to break the deposit?

I have tried microneedling for scar treatment, lugols, dmso and professional hand grip trainers, all with limited success.

Although to be honest I might have treated it only sparingly instead of regularly..

Is there hope that it settles with time or could it be permanently affected?

I hope not..

Any advice would be helpful

Hello, i am sorry for you hand.
Whish you all the best for your recovery!

Did you try to communicate this with an aditinal doc checkup?




Are you sure that it is caused by collagen deposits?

It could also be that coordinational muscles and/or nerves stagnated or got kind of deactivated.
Thats what I would assume as you reported that your right hand feels like your left hand.
Stagnated coordinational muscles or nerves could cause that impression.

Hand grip trainers will build up stregth muscles but not the coordinational muscles.
You could try to write a few pages daily or do some coordinational hand exercises.

Like flattening your hand and fingers then try to touch you small finger with your thumb.
Then flattening you hand and fingers again then touch the ring finger.
Continue till you went thorugh all fingers and repeat.

You could also try to do the excercises from your therapy.
Or search in the internet for coordinational hand exercises.

But all of that makes probably only sense if its not caused by collagen. (not a doc)
The excercises shouldnt harm.

I would arrange another checkup.
Probably the therapy was not long enough?
Wish you all the best and good luck!

Deep Hand Massage as deep as you can take it ideally on your self with your other hand. This way you can do once or twice per day! Maybe some infrared Sauna or infrared panel just on your hand. Maybe some PEMF not sure about that one...

One thing that might be worth trying for the post-operative deposits is rosehip seed powder. Oil from rosehips is also said to ease scarring when massaged into the affected area, but I haven't tried this latter one myself. Another thing I've used to reduce excess collagen is bromelain, taken between meals. I also eat sundried pineapple fairly regularly to this day - having a health excuse to eat tons of that is almost worth the injury

Increasing movement in such instances is going to be something that will involve a certain degree of discomfort. Regular swimming sessions might be the gentlest way of approaching this, and if you can go in the sea, all the better. Regarding IR treatment, even alternating hot/cold showering I find helps a lot.

I have both a back injury and suffered a broken wrist and elbow, these suggestions are the things that have helped me at least. My wrist and elbow are not the same as before, even these five years later. Did you get any metal put in your hand?

@physics

Yeah pretty sure it's collagen, compared to the other hand there is a huge difference. The left one, the skin is thin like a piece of printing paper, where the right one has really thick layer of skin that sticks out similar in thicknes like the skin on the upper back.

@downward

Yes, there have been some long but thin screws, at a certian point it started slipping out. The pain was terrible. Now that it is out, the part simply won't get flat, and the movement is same as when the screws just came out. It didn't improve, high protein diet, magnesium, lugols, dmso, microneedling, and therapy didn't do anything basically.

At the end of the day, a person can get used to it, but permanent damage is something that is hard to accept. Being reminded of an accident daily is simply not pleasant.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly were you expecting the Lugol's (iodine) to do? AFAICS, its main use would be as an antiseptic, with a marginal off-label facility as an iodine supplement.

Ageing and accumulating injury can indeed be hard to come to terms with, especially given the modern-day iteration of the cult of eternal youth.