I Broke My Drawing Wrist

So, it’s kind of a funny story.

Marc the Boyfriend gifted me a pair of roller blades:

Because though the boy can balance on stilts, he can’t balance on these things.

I used to skate all the time as a kid, so I looked at them, fangirl squealed, and rolled around in them in his driveway for half an hour before he said, “You can have them.”

Later that night I was so excited to ride in them again that I put them on and went down the street in front of my house.

Unfortunately, it’s a slope. Unfortunately, I was going too fast. And when I tried to stop, I rolled and jammed my wrist.

That was when my wrist swelled up more than it should have.

I was in no shape to drive, so mom drove me over to the emergency room. Marc came in a little later, because he had to work.

Three X-rays and two hours later, the doctors said the wrist was broken.

The next day, I went to the orthopedic doctor and got a cast and official diagnosis.

I broke the bone circled above. Image courtesy of this link.

The doctor said the distal radius was fractured, but no other bones were broken. None of the bones were displaced, so all that was needed was a cast for the first month, and then most likely a splint for the month after.

He did say that I can keep making art as a form of therapy, to keep my fingers exercising, but to give my wrist a rest when it hurts too much.

So make art I did!

Here’s my cast, along with a piece of art I finished the day before yesterday.

I’ll be selling these on eBay soon.

Of course they’re not the best art I’ve made, but considering my limited wrist use, they turned out ok. At this point, however, I can’t draw details and my hand is not steady at all.

Unfortunately a broken wrist means that both comics-making and freelance work will have to be put on hold for a while, at least until I feel well enough to get back to them again.

I’ll do a shameless plug for my stores in the next blog post.

Until then, Johnson & Sir and Mini-Comic Theater are still updating, and during this month I’ll be updating this blog more frequently (perhaps even to making one blog post a day! Oh My!). Typing out blog posts is still good exercise for my injured wrist.

Thank you for your understanding and your support! And thanks for not forgetting to be awesome!

6 Replies to “I Broke My Drawing Wrist”

    1. It’s healed. Thank you for asking! It still gets stiff sometimes, especially if I work in studio for too long. But some stretching helps it feel better.

      1. Hey kelci question, I had a similar thing happen but mine was riding a bike and some lady opened her car door into my drawing hand breaking two fingers and my wrist in two places… I waited 4 years to draw again and now I can’t draw 5 minutes without a really bad pain, have you found any ways to maybe stretch or fix the problem :(

        1. I only broke one bone in my wrist, the distal radius (one of the biggest bones in the wrist itself), so my healing process was different from yours. I was only in a cast for a month, and I still wear a wrist brace whenever I do heavy lifting.

          A wrist brace wouldnt be a bad idea, assuming you don’t have one already. I would recommend one that supports as much of your hand as possible – mine is a wrap-around that only goes around my wrist and no other fingers, but you may need a better one than that.

          As far as wrist stretches go, I would look at the stretches volleyball players use (my mom was a volleyball player and taught me a few ways to stretch the palms and fingers), stretches for office workers (they get stiff wrists/are prone to carpal tunnel syndrome), and skater stretches (they tend to crash a lot on their hands).

          Of course, I may just make a video showing some wrist stretches if nothing else.

          Hope this helps!

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