A lot of times after a motor vehicle collision, or a slip and fall type of accident, people come with weakness in the hand or just a pain in the hand. First off, with the slip and fall, it’s really, really common that individuals will fall on an outstretched hand. What they can do there is they can jam their wrist up. They can essentially fracture some of the bones within the wrist and/or the bones in the lower arm. What we would want to do then is we want to take the adequate x-rays, properly diagnose it, and if it is fractured, we would make sure we get them sent over to an Orthopedist to get proper treatment for that. In the event that it’s not fractured, we’d work them up with basic chiropractic work, as well as physical therapy, to really induce the proper healing process, and facilitate the proper motion and function of the joints.
On the contrary, if there’s just a general weakness, there can be a lot of different symptomologies and problems that are really causing the symptoms. Basically we would look at the wrist as itself. We would look at the elbow, the shoulder, as well as the neck. A lot of times weakness, as a whole, is generated by a nerve issue. Nerve issues can be an entrapment, an impingement, or just general dysfunction usually within the neck. We would look at all those areas properly, give you an adequate diagnosis, and properly treat as well.