Sports Medicine Community

Approximately 6-7 weeks ago, I had couple "collisions" playing hockey that resulted in, what I thought was a mild sprain in my right wrist. I didn't think much of it really. A couple weeks back I was coincidentally at my Dr's and raised the issue of point tenderness/pain in the right wrist joint. he ordered an xray. The xray showed the SL gap at 3.5mm, so he ordered an MRI a week after seeing the xray results. I had hte MRI and it revealed a complete tear in the SL ligament. Now for clarification, up until the MRI I was using my wrist with little pain. It jsut so happened that after my MRI - but before hearing the results - I played hockey again (since up to that point it really wasn't a huge showstopper - sore but nothing too bad) and REALLY tweaked it. I would say that the pain from this TWEAK and subsequent use was quite disabling - I couldn't even lift my dinner plate! The next day I found out the MRI results of two days before.

So I have multiple concerns. I've talked with an Orthopedic hand specialist (I also informed him of my POST MRI tweak - which he didn't seem too concerned with) and he ran down my options. He advised me that before I jump to surgery (BTW he recommended reconstruction using a harvested ligament - due to my hobbies and needing the strongest reapair) that I spend a couple weeks putting my wrist through normal paces to see if I could live with whatever pain or loss of mobility. If it turns out to be too much - a repair is in order. If not, eventual arthritis in the joint may necessitate fusing of bones down the road.

So I'm currently in that 2 week evaluation.

I guess I'm looking for general and advice and comments on the diagnosis/prognosis;

1) Shoudl I insist on repeating the xray/MRI, since I really TWEAKED things after these tests? I feel like if I really did more damage (or is that possible) it may change the treatment choice?
2) At what timeframe am I past the point of being able to successfully repair the ligament? He seemed OK with a couple weeks evaluation which would be about 8-10 weeks post injury - but I know opinions vary.
3) Is it possible that, although the MRI reported a complete tear, that there really was a strand or two hanging on - and the "TWEAK" I experienced post MRI just finished it off?
4) Anyone with similar injury/diagnosis care to comment on treatment path and success?

I'm going to head for second opinions this week too. FYI, I'm a 50 year old, healthy and fit male, and this would be my first surgery. I also am a metal fabricator/blacksmith and this is my dominant hand - so I'm really interested in doing the right thing for the long term.

Thanks in advance!