!Wrist injury --- agk's diary 21 April 2026 @ 22:32 UTC --- written on GPD MicroPC in hammock in the woods behind the house --- I read about Ben Collver's bike wreck and wish him a speedy recovery. I share his concerns about emerg- ency care. Two moderately bad injuries I self-managed and recovered from in recent years: * sliding a motorcycle on a curve at 65 kph and getting pinned under it with extensive road rash * damaging a tendon and nerves in a cave, getting pain, loss of function, and foot drop It took two weeks from my moderate wrist injury last month for me to figure a way I'd be willing to use the medical system. So far I'm glad I did, for peace of mind at least, though it didn't make much difference. My dominant wrist had been increasingly sore for weeks, I assumed due to repetitive stress. I took a slight fall on the way in from the compost heap, then led a weekend primitive camping trip and wild caving adventure for kids. I didn't have an obvious injury on the caving trip, but on the way out noticed sharp localized pain in my dominant wrist, which appeared unstable and deformed. It quickly became unusable. I was able to get home with my kid before I lost the ability to drive my stick-shift car, but in the following days I embarrasingly couldn't do such simple things as brush my hair, wash my armpits, write my name, type, or cook food. Because I could localize the sharp pain to a point on my radius a few fingers proximal to my thumb, I assumed a break, and assumed I may have osteopenia or osteoporosis. I read up on Common Simple Emergen- cies (which I host) and WikiEM, and immobilized the joints proximal and distal to the suspected injury site with an improvised sugar tong splint (with mild wrist dorsiflexion) slinged and swathed to my chest. For the first two days I applied three mullein leaf poultices daily to the site to align any damaged bones, control pain, and stimulate healing. I slowly added increasing amounts of comfrey leaf to promote healing, per Matthew Wood's suggestion (also hosted on my sdf website). I drank a lot of high-protein broth, with extra collagen and tumeric stirred in. I supplemented magnesium (which helps with calcium absorption), vitamin C, vitamin E, Lysiene (the amino acid I absorb poorly), and vitamin D3. Healing made me sleepy and I couldn't do much so I rested. Evy helped prepare the poultices and my improvised splint, sling, and swath, washed and brushed and braided my hair, and got me a wrist brace and velcro sling I could operate one-handed from the pharmacy to replace my initial improvised system. She also arranged for her parents to watch our daughter for a few days. We agreed I should get an x-ray and have it read by a physician, and that I may need a cast. Casts are put on by people with no particular training, following written instructions, but the choice of which type of cast to apply is made by a physician after looking at x-rays. I'm uninsured. I did not want the costs (and honestly, low skill) associated with a hospital Emergency Department or an urgent care. The local ED contracts with a physician's service and a radiology service, meaning three seperate bills. My former primary care doctor started a concierge practice with membership costs out of my price range, so I could no longer see her. In the meantime, I stopped poulticing the site and re-injured the wrist at least twice. As it felt slightly better, I used it more. Thus, when my 5- year-old daughter playfully tried to run outside naked about 12 days into the injury, I scooped her up without thinking with my slinged dominant arm, squeezed her to my body, heard a snap, and had a new sharp pain on the ulnar (pinky) side of my wrist. Finally I remembered the orthopedic surgeon I saw years ago when I broke my kneecap (patella). He's in private practice. When I saw him last he had an X-ray machine and tech. I called his office. They no longer did their own radiology, but they faxed an order to the radiology service the hospital also uses, and I had an appointment to read the images a few short days hence. At the hospital I met the financial aid counselor and filled out an application for a temporary medicaid card lasting two months. I went to radiology, got the images (which looked non-alarming to my untrained eye) on a CD, and took it to my appointment with the ortho. He said there was no evidence of a long-bone break, meaning there hadn't been a break, or it had already healed. There was a cyst on my ulna, some wear and chipping indicating early arthritis, and he suspect- ed the injury had been to tendons. He brought out his hand model after doing a good physical exam and taking a good history. Two tendons cross each other on the radial bone at the site of my initial sharp pain, and a tendon crosses the ulna at the point of my worst subsequent injury. Bone density changes have to be very advanced before they show on an xray, but he was unconcerned about my risk of osteopenia. I've been back to work two days now, turning keys in endless locks with my nondominant hand to get around the high-security facility, ripping open endless blister packs of pills at med pass, writing exten- sive longhand documentation, and restraining an assaultive patient for two 20-minute intervals. I still wear the wrist brace to drive and at work. I'm pretty good about regularly applying a mullein and comfrey salve the mom of one of my math club kids made me. I'm slowly stretching, doing isometric exercise, and gently adding increasing loads to the wrists (nothing sudden!). The ulnar injury still hurts, but it's been about a month and I'm more or less recovered.