Took an awkward fall on the 8 step mohawk a few years ago, broke my right wrist. No wrist protection at the time.
I definitely had a fear factor when I got back on the ice after the wrist healed. I too had the Flexmeter wristguards and that helped my confidence a lot. I took a few falls early on, directly on the newly healed wrist, and didn't even feel it. The top splint seems to help absorb the impact better than the ones with only the hard part on the bottom (IMO). I started out wearing them on both hands just on general principles, stopped wearing the left one fairly quickly, and was weaning myself off the right one when it vanished from the rink one day, along with a decent pair of warmup pants.
Haven't bothered with the expense of replacing it, and probably won't until/unless I work up the nerve to try the 8 step again someday.