3. Swelling of the Wrist
Swelling together with some of the other symptoms mentioned in this article and extreme pain are some of the first signs that an injury has happened; sometimes it’s a sprain and the swelling goes down with ice, rest and time – but when it doesn’t, it could mean that a scaphoid fracture is likely.
When it’s a fracture, swelling usually goes together with bruising – darker than the bruising you’d expect to see from a bump – and the swelling doesn’t go down as fast as you would expect.
Pain tolerance varies greatly between people, and what someone might ignore as a wrist injury with swelling that sticks around could turn out to be a very serious fracture they didn’t feel. This can even cause a recent fracture to set in the wrong place due to associated swelling. For these reasons, never postpone a trip to the emergency room because the injury feels “okay” rather than the “excruciatingly painful” you would have expected.