Chronic hamate pain (not broken)...

My son had a hook of hamate fracture as a sophomore in college. Missed his chance to play summer ball in the Valley League because of it. Hand surgeon prescribed 6 weeks in a cast, then rehab. Didn't swing a bat for 3 months. When he started easing back in, the pain came back. Ended up having surgery to remove the fractured hook.

Your son is in a tough spot. He needs to take that time off to heal, but he's trying to be seen in the most important summer of his recruitment. Did you ask the ortho about playing this summer then getting the cast after the season? Is there a risk of making it worse by playing? Is he able to perform at his maximum capability right now? Those two things would be the deciding factors for me. If he can't hit the ball hard, then he'll do more harm than good by being seen by college coaches.

Thanks @MidAtlanticDad. Its a tough spot. He played in 2021 HS game #1 today. He had 4 AB's, each swing hurt but he knew that tomorrow he was scheduled to be casted. The last AB he fouled one to the opposite field and the hand hurt more than it ever had to this point. Post game he was in a lot of pain taking off uniform and cleats and the hand has hurt all night. I am sad he will only play 1 game this HS season but actually thankful that he is convinced he cannot keep hitting despite hitting an opposite field foul ball to the fence and then also had a sacrifice fly against a stiff wind to RF.

He will get another x-ray tomorrow (hurts so much he still thinks its broken and wants surgery really bad...) prior to being casted for the next 6 weeks later in the afternoon. Fingers crossed that this takes care of it prior to a big summer for him and it does not continue beyond the 6 week rest and rehab.

I am sorry to read and as a parent of a 2022 trying to recover from a chronic bone injury (throwing elbow) during a key recruitment year I share your angst. I hope the shutdown will heal it and your kid will get seen pain free and with full confidence. My kid also switched to an axe bat years ago after feeling some minor pain in the hamate area. He has not experienced any pain since (knock on wood). Is your son still using the axe bat?  

Non displaced hamate fracture + tissue surrounding hamate is inflamed. Casted this afternoon and there goes his JR HS season! Fingers crossed and prayers said for everything to settle down for a summer full of healthy baseball in ATL, INDY, KC, MKE, and more. Happy he was able to grind thru a PBR a month ago to improve every metric, some significantly. Good luck to anyone reading/going thru this in the future. Feel free to DM with questions about my kids experience with this.

So sorry to hear this.

Used2lurk - how are things coming along with your son? My son is starting to complain of discomfort in the hamate area. Making him a doctors appointment to get checked out.

@ARCEKU21 sorry about your sons hand/wrist pain. The entire hamate bone experience was a bad one at a bad time. Post the "6 weeks in a cast" above son started back to hitting program and 2 weeks prior to summer tourney #1 he took a swing off a machine throwing 80 mph fastballs and the pain was back...with a vengeance! Son could not even put his gear back in his bag with his right hand (bottom hand for a LHH). Fortunately we had a 3rd opinion lined up (the hand still hurt at times over the 6 weeks in a cast) for Friday am the same week. Long story much shorter Doc looked at old X-rays, felt around on hamate bone vicinity and scheduled surgery to remove what he thought would be a piece of broken off hamate bone the next Tuesday. Doc texted us a pic of the bone fragment and told us that it looked as if it had been broken a while ago and the tendons connecting to pinky and ring finger would have eventually snapped and that would have been a major issue going forward.

Sooo...8 days later he had stitches and bandages removed, got a brace, and started base running for his team in tourney #1. Surgery June 15, stitches removed June 23, base running with brace June 25 in KC. Hand hurt but started throwing lightly later in weekend. Doc said that it would hurt but he could not hurt it more so he played 1B 2 days later and then caught his first game July 8 in Indy. Started to hit a little bit on July 6 in cage (3 weeks but still in pain) and then got first AB July 9th and ended weekend 2/5 with some pain.

Pain continued and son grinded thru it (too much pain for more than 3-5 swings pregame in cage) and hit at Lakepoint, Milwaukee, KC, & Showball thru the rest of July. Ended tourney season hitting .294 with zero HR but a handful of doubles and a triple. Face some nasty pitchers at each tourney and son was pleased with performance against good pitching at National tourneys despite the pain and lack of BP. Batting practice at Showball August 4/5 was his first on field BP since last fall. Hand still hurt quite a bit and did not pick up a bat for 2 weeks post SB. Hand felt much better and is starting to hit again now.

Moral of the long winded story is to get hand checked out. If hand hurts quite a bit LIKE a broken hamate bone but docs think it MIGHT not be broken and want you to rest/cast/whatever I would maybe try a couple of weeks but quite frankly if you have any time frame at all I would encourage you to have surgery. Son would have been way better off if we had just pushed hard for surgery back in first week of April. The delay cost him significantly this summer imo and him being relatively pain free and able to swing at 90% instead of 75% while in pain.  

Feel free to reach out via pm to talk more if you like.

Thanks for the reply. We did the hook of hamate pull test with him. No pain there. So hoping that means there is not a fracture and that it's only a bone bruise. Either way, trying to convince him that he may need to switch to an Axe handle or Pro XR handle bat once he is able to swing again.

Looks like things may not be as bad as we thought. After about a week off from hitting, my son took BP at school yesterday during his baseball class. Said he was pain free and even set his new high for exit velo. We are still getting it checked out on Monday to make sure there isn't anything wrong.

Just wanted to say thanks to all for the information in this thread.

Anyone ever hear of someone breaking a hamate doing something other than baseball? Kid thinks he broke his dead lifting. But, maybe he only felt it when dead lifting and he broke it hitting? The odd part is he's a RH batter and it's his RH.

Certainly possible but more likely from hitting or possibly overuse. My son thinks he broke it last winter from the bat speed program he was doing. Lots of hitting/swinging with heavy bats. My son is a LHH and broke his RH. He does not know exactly when he broke his but he felt it doing all sorts of things when it was bothering him.

Thx @used2lurk

For those that are starting to have hamate pain. Son was having pain and it was making a sore in his palm. Spoke to a couple people who had pain and one that broke his. All suggested to tape the handle into more of a no knob and wear gloves with better protection (Bruce Bolt or Tru). Son made the changes and pain has gone away and has not come back. And the sore in his hand has healed. Just our experience.

@TxballDad good point. My son has re-taped all his knobs on bats (both wood and other) and has a lot less knob POST hamate surgery. After surgery he waited almost 3 weeks to start to swing a bat (Doc said can swing whenever he wanted post healing of wound from surgery). Hit wiffle balls for a couple of days and then moved to his lightest bat. Surgery was 10 days before national tourney schedule last summer. Was able to swing in games about a month post surgery but only 2-3 swings in cage pre-game and no swings in between games. The combo of a newer knob/handle and a bunch of sticky spray stuff/pinetar helped for the month and then shut it down because of pain.

So, now, we think we have it in the left hand. Only hurts when hitting. RH batter so it's the bottom hand...which makes more sense than when he thought it was the right hand a year ago. Went to a hand specialist ortho and he said xray was inconclusive and wants a scan to determine if broken hamate or a bone bruise. Kid thinks it's the hamate based on talking to others who had it. Waiting on insurance to approve scan.

Kid seems to think it's a two week recovery basically just waiting for the incision to heal. But, re-reading this thread suggests he's way off. Is he looking at closer to 6 weeks if he needs hamate surgery?

If it’s fractured and all they’re doing is removing bone, not mending or setting, then it is pretty much just the incision to heal. Based on my phone pictures, my son’s surgery was 8/22 and he took at bats in a fall game 9/30. I think he was in the cage 3-4 weeks after surgery.

I have heard/seen 3-6+ weeks is possible before getting back to hitting. i am not a doc but feels like the longer one takes to diagnose and have surgery (or not) the longer the recovery will probably be.

My son had a lot of pain the rest of the summer and actually took the fall off post surgery. When he was back to swinging (see his process in posts above) he could only take 3-10 swings in BP and then hit in games. He sprayed a ton of whatever that sticky spray is all over his bottom hand prior to every at bat as it was very difficult to hang on to the bat. There was a bunch of trauma inside his hand after all that happened pre surgery. It took about 3 months of not swinging (mid September - early December).

@Francis7 posted:

So, now, we think we have it in the left hand. Only hurts when hitting. RH batter so it's the bottom hand...which makes more sense than when he thought it was the right hand a year ago. Went to a hand specialist ortho and he said xray was inconclusive and wants a scan to determine if broken hamate or a bone bruise. Kid thinks it's the hamate based on talking to others who had it. Waiting on insurance to approve scan.

Kid seems to think it's a two week recovery basically just waiting for the incision to heal. But, re-reading this thread suggests he's way off. Is he looking at closer to 6 weeks if he needs hamate surgery?

Partial update.

Had the CT scan on the 15th. And, had the follow-up with the orthopedist on the 21st. Doc says no fracture and it's a bone bruise. Best advice is to take several weeks off and let it heal. But, he knows the season starts in a week and says it's OK to play with it if you can handle the pain. (Doc is a former D1 player FWIW.)

Three days later, team has a scrimmage scheduled. Kid decides to try and play. 12 inning game to get reps in. It's 28 degrees and they're on the field for 5 hours in the freezing cold.

First two ABs are OK...tolerable. On the 3rd AB, kid says pain is intolerable and he can't even hold the bat. The next morning, he can't move his hand at all.

We agree to get a second opinion today. New orthopedist says based on the pain, makes sense to get a MRI because sometimes things are missed on xray and scan. So, now, we're waiting on insurance to approve the MRI. Meanwhile, the season started today.

Either way, it's not looking good. Probably won't know MRI results for another week, at the least. 2 or 3 days to get approval, a few days to get it scheduled, and then we need to get back into the doc.

Probably puts us around March 8th before knowing for sure if he needs surgery or not. But, even if he doesn't need surgery, the bone bruise might take another 3 weeks to heal.

Oh gosh, so sorry to hear this.

@anotherparent posted:

Oh gosh, so sorry to hear this.

Thanks. It's actually worse because he made a midyear switch from a D2 to a Juco. Had this happened at the D2, he could have got a red shirt. At the Juco, he's just eating into his eligibility...if I understand it correctly.

Sorry to read Franny and I share your angst. Hopefully the 2nd opinion and recovery will be favorable and continue being his rock.

@2022NYC posted:

Sorry to read Franny and I share your angst. Hopefully the 2nd opinion and recovery will be favorable and continue being his rock.

Thanks. I'm just making sure he understands the impact and timing on everything. Hopefully we get some good news from the MRI. And, hopefully he feels better sooner rather than later. The way it feels now, he's convinced that it's going to be a while.

Might be an unpopular take but here you go…figure I have some leeway as I started the thread…opinion alert!

You might strongly consider finding a doc who will get in there and take it out. It’s generally considered a useless bone and can heal up quickly (I am NOT a doctor).

It was recommended to me earlier in our process by a buddy who is a high ranked mid major RC and we then jumped thru all the hoops and dog and pony show with local docs. Finally found a doc to do surgery (after 6 months in a cast and other stuff) and he said he was lucky he had surgery when he did as the broken bone had a rough edge to it and was fraying a ligament. The broken bone had all sorts of fibrous stuff over it trying to heal/protect the hand and it was a real mess in there. The kid had dealt with bunches of pain and misery over 5 months. The healing process took longer I believe because removal was so delayed it caused all kinds of hand trauma around the break.

@Francis7 feel free to DM or call me if you want to discuss offline.

Thanks @used2lurk

I suspect that there could be a mess of stuff in there. In the past, for years, he always had that nasty sore on his hand right in that spot that would never go away (because he hit so much). I am sure that area of his hand has taken a beating.

Funny thing is that in an older thread here, someone referenced a noted doctor who said CT Scan is better than a MRI for seeing the fracture because the MRI is too throughout to see the fracture.

And, my son's CT scan was looked at by the radiologist and one orthopedist and they were convinced no fracture. And, the second orthopedist said he couldn't see a fracture but thought that a MRI could be useful to confirm. So, we're really hoping that it's a bone bruise and maybe he will feel better after a couple of weeks of no use and warmer weather?

I'm not against taking it out even if not fractured given his history and what you said. But, it would be better to do that in November than March. The poor kid is already upset that he might be punting one of his four years of eligibility with this now.

@Francis, has he tried an Axe bat grip? The wood version gave my son some relief, but the Axe brand aluminum bat just didn't hold up at the college level. (He would never use a wood bat in a college game.)

My kid used the Axe bat bbcor and has used the Dovetail tremor pro xr since the fall. There was a significant swing weight difference relative to "the goods" team bat. He taped that bat to have an axe handle shape. He is switcging back and forth between the Dovetail and goods. I had to use every ounce of restraint to fight my back my nerdiness to not to engage him on the bat weight change to the goods with the all the taping and did he really confirm the curvature of the axe handle with the taping.

@MidAtlanticDad posted:

@Francis, has he tried an Axe bat grip? The wood version gave my son some relief, but the Axe brand aluminum bat just didn't hold up at the college level. (He would never use a wood bat in a college game.)

He's aware of it but never used it. He's very picky on bats.

My son came home from practice a few weeks ago with his hamate area very swollen & in a lot of pain, couldn't grip a bat. We feared the worst & he took 5 days off hitting to see if anything changed. Pain was much batter after that time, but he still felt a little pain when lightly swinging his bat. I had him try an old bat that had the knob broken off, and no pain at all without the knob. Then had him try an older Bonesaber, which has a tiny knob & full tapered handle, again no pain. So I got some hockey tape and made a full taper on his regular bat handle, he's been fine since. Without the knob digging in every swing, it's a huge difference.

I assume it was just a bone bruise, not a fracture, but I'm going to taper all his bats indefinitely. Even if it's just for prevention.

@used2lurk posted:

@TxballDad good point. My son has re-taped all his knobs on bats (both wood and other) and has a lot less knob POST hamate surgery. After surgery he waited almost 3 weeks to start to swing a bat (Doc said can swing whenever he wanted post healing of wound from surgery). Hit wiffle balls for a couple of days and then moved to his lightest bat. Surgery was 10 days before national tourney schedule last summer. Was able to swing in games about a month post surgery but only 2-3 swings in cage pre-game and no swings in between games. The combo of a newer knob/handle and a bunch of sticky spray stuff/pinetar helped for the month and then shut it down because of pain.

Son still a year later and a half later tapes up the knob area of bat but is pain free. I think that there might be a niche opportunity for Demarini with the broken knob epidemic they have been dealing with. The kids school is a Demarini program and he gave me 2 virtually brand new knobless "The Goods" to bring home to his hitting coach for heavy bat training/modifications at his facility.

We're now at Day 35 with no conclusion. At least we estimate it as 35 days. That's when we think he did it.

I know that it was 27 days ago that he say an orthopedist who requested a CT Scan.  And, the CT Scan was done 20 days ago.

And, it was 14 days ago that the orthopedist said that the scan said it was just a bone bruise and he could play through it.

And, it was 11 days ago when he tried to play with it and then it seemed much worse.

And, it was 8 days ago that we saw a new orthopedist and he suggested a MRI because the scan showed it wasn't broken yet the kid was in so much pain.

And, it was one day ago that the orthopedist said it sort of seems broken on the MRI but he really would like to see another CT scan at 1 mm (rather than 2 mm) and one that was after the scrimmage game 11 days ago just to be sure before operating.

The last 3  weeks have felt like 3 years. Ugh.

Sorry dude...I felt your pain but 3x as long. Book the surgery appointment now so as soon he sees it is broken you can have surgery within days rather than more weeks.

@used2lurk posted:

Sorry dude...I felt your pain but 3x as long. Book the surgery appointment now so as soon he sees it is broken you can have surgery within days rather than more weeks.

Doesn't really matter since 6 weeks from now wipes out the college season. So, it's a lost cause if he has the surgery today or has it two weeks from now.

If summer matters for him (for a variety of reasons) it might make sense to get it done sooner than later.

We find out on Monday.

He still wants to play summer ball. And, if he has surgery this month, that's very possible.

But, if it's not broken and somehow feels better in the next 10 days, he's got a shot at getting in half the college season.

If it's broken and needs surgery, college season is flushed.

So...it's broken. Surgery required. Wipes out the college season.

Oh man, sorry to read. Does he have a summer team?

I am so sorry - that is hard.

@2022NYC posted:

Oh man, sorry to read. Does he have a summer team?

That's the goal now. He's rostered for one. Timing wise he should be able to play by then...unless something goes wrong.