A Cup A Day

Hello anatomy enthusiasts!  We recently learned a bit about feet (TOE TLC) but what about our amazing hands…our tactile interface with the world around us 👋? This got me thinking about a recent injury sustained by my sister during a kick-ass motorcycle trip out in California. But let’s back up a little bit.

Just like our feet, our hands are incredibly intricate pieces of anatomy and art!

The bottom set of bones oriented as my hand is.

There are a whopping 27 bones in each hand that give us an incredible range of precise motion. These bones are moved by muscles that for the most part are in your forearm (the Popeye the Sailor part that bulges when he eats spinach 😉 )Eight tiny little bones (in color on the picture above) make up our wrist. If you take two fingers on your left hand and lay them over the crease of your wrist, all the eight bones would just about fit under there!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Up here above the equator, September 22nd is the first day of Autumn (for my southern hemisphere friends happy Spring 🌸 🌸 🌸). I’ve always preferred the term “autumn” opposed to “fall” … being a bit clumsy as a child, the term conjures up some bloody memories. Do you know what one of the primary causes for wrist injury is?

F.O.O.S.H. or a “Fall on an outstretched hand”

OUCH!

Unfortunately, the scaphoid (the red wrist bone in the above card picture) is often the victim. In fact it is the most commonly fractured carpal (wrist) bone and it sure is a bummer when this happens! Just ask my sister, it took a full two months to diagnose properly and she is now 6 months and counting in a cast.  So why does this tiny little bone take so long to heal?

Window cut out for a bone stimulator, sweet cast art by yours truly. 

“Fooshes”may cause the scaphoid to fracture into two separate pieces. When this happens, only one of the two pieces maintains its blood supply. Usually, blood vessels are torn on the proximal port of the scaphoid and can result in death of the bone tissue where there is inadequate blood supply. With a little time though and an occasion surgical intervention you’ll be back on your feet…hmmm, well back on your hands.

Anytime your body has been immobilized for a long period of time, rehab will be needed to get you back to tip top function. So visit your friendly neighborhood occupational or physical therapist. For a hand injury, see if you can’t find a hand specialist. At Hopkins, I sat next to two amazing ones and they did wonders.

If you are interested in this card check out the “own a card” section here: YAY ART!