I'm a painter/artist and my right thumb/forearm was in such pain when this post originated - oh my god - I couldn't support any body weight on the bike because of the radiating pain, let alone grip a brush or even turn my wrist either direction. With the help of a really good massage therapist, we were able to control the radiating pain until all that was left was an inflamed thumb joint. She theorized that the bursa in that joint was staying inflamed(almost a month!) and thought I should try regular Ibuprofren (I "did" 800 mg). I hate medicating and would rather go to the root of each evil but after 3 days of 800 mg 2 times a day, I can use my arm, wrist, thumb - I can grip and pull !
I'm still massaging and stretching the area. But sometimes pain just exacerbates the original problem, ya know?