Having a Dislocated Joint, and Not Knowing It

Have you ever dislocated a bone? Did you know what you had done to it? What if you didn't? Would you go to your doctor? What if they didn't know what you had done? Is that even possible? Trust me, it is. I've had it happened to me, and it took me months to get everything sorted out and back to normal.

I woke up one Saturday morning with a slightly sore wrist, but I didn't think much about it since I had had similar soreness before in other joints when I'd woke up. It wasn't until later in the day when I started to take greater notice, and then only because the pain had gotten worse. By then it was past noon and the only doctors available were those in the ER, and my wrist didn't hurt enough to justify a visit there.

Instead, I did the best that I could to baby my wrist and went from there. I figured that my wrist would be better on Sunday. I kept telling myself something similar until Wednesday rolled around and I was feeling some major pain. It was then I realized that something was seriously wrong. Fingers are not supposed to be so swollen that they overlap, and a hand is not supposed to be as cold, white, and clammy as a dead fish. It isn't supposed to hurt at every little bump and jostle, either.

I gave in and went to the doctor, who proceeded to poke, prod, and manipulate my wrist until I was ready to cry from the pain that that was generating. Then the doctor proceeded to tell me that she didn't have a clue what was wrong. She sent me to the hospital for x-rays to try and find some answers for me, and herself.

I went and joked my way through the pain as my wrist was placed in several painful positions to get the required images. Then, the nurse told me that the radiologist was gone until Friday, so the results wouldn't be sent to my doctor until then, who would call me with the results herself after she had read them. Unhappy, I went home to wait.

Friday came and went with no call, and my doctor's office was closed that particular Saturday, so I had to wait until Monday for the results, which I received that afternoon. The good news was, nothing was fractured or broken. The bad news? They still didn't have a clue what was wrong. Nothing at all had shown up on the images. All they could do was tell me to come in again if the pain got even worse. I instantly decided that wouldn't happen unless I felt like I was dying. What would be the point? It would just mean more pain since they had no idea what was wrong.

A month passed, and while my wrist didn't get any worse, it didn't get any better, either. At a loss, my family took me to the place where I should have gone in the first place: my chiropractor. He knew what was wrong with my wrist as soon as he saw it and I'd confirmed that it wasn't broken or fractured. It was dislocated, but so subtly so that it would never show up on an x-ray. Just one small bone was just slightly out of alignment, and would have looked like a natural occurrence on an x-ray.

It took him three tries to get everything back in alignment, and about six more return visits over the next two months to get everything to stay in its rightful place and alignment since it had been out for so long.

I dislocated my wrist back in February, and now in December, I find that I still need to be careful of how I use my wrist or it might go out of place again. It has been a long process to get everything back to normal, and had you asked me before if a person could dislocate a wrist by merely sleeping on it wrong, or if a doctor wouldn't be able to catch such a thing, I would have laughed. I know better now, and I know to go to my chiropractor if my doctor can't figure out what's wrong. If it's joint or bone related, anyway.