Hand Pain!

[spokewench]

I'm so sick and tired of pain. First, I have a bad back and that is always troublesome, but basically under control. I can deal with that chronic pain

BUT HAND PAIN on top of it, that is just too much

A Couple of years ago I was diagnosed instability in my thumb joints. Riding a mountain bike makes it worse but a lot of things affect the pain. My ortho told me that I should at least have my right hand operated on (i'm right handed and it is the worst hand cause i use it more). However, the rehab and healing is just too much for me to face. They take a tendon (?) from another place like your other arm and put it around the weak joint to hold it in place. Well, you can imagine, you have to be completely immobilized in one arm and hand for like at least a month as I remember and then it is probably at least 6 months (and probably more) before you can like ride a bike or do anything. Also, it would be like 3 months before I could probably go back to work and type, etc. I just couldn't face that time of rehab so I decided to leave it alone and I'm okay sometimes and then sometimes I'm not.

Now, to top it all off, I went surfing in mid-August this year. I was learning how to surf for a 5 day camp and it was a blast. The only problem was that on Tuesday of the weeklong camp I slipped off my board and sprained, wrench my pointer finger and second finger way back. Of course, being me, I did nothing but shake off the initial pain and continued to surf for the rest of the week. The hand blew up like a cantaloupe and was like that for a while. I never gave up surfing, riding, etc. cause I figured it was a bad sprain and would take forever to heal!

Now, it is almost 3 months later and there is still some small swelling around my middle knuckle, if you rub it there is still pain on the underside of the hand and now all of a sudden I am getting pains in the outside heal of my hand especially when I stretch my fingers out and twist my wrist a bit.

I'm going to wait until after Christmas for this dang thing to heal but then I go to the ortho!

Sorry, I just needed to complain about this stupid hand. It is sooooo irritating and you use your hands for everything!!!!!

[emily_in_nc]

Spokewrench,

I can surely understand your frustration! I don't have any words of wisdom but just wanted to empathize. I hurt a rib (have a very tender spot right under my left breast on the ribcage that I originally thought was a muscle strain but now think may be a bruised rib since it's such a small area) in a fall on gravel on Saturday, and I've been whining about that pain all week since it limits some of what I can do (have to use my arms to push myself out of bed rather than my stomach muscles, stuff like that, can't cough without pain, etc...) - so I can only imagine how having pain anywhere for a much longer period of time would be. I'm such a baby about pain!

I don't think I'd want to have surgery like what you describe either. Even if the ultimate result would be improved function and less pain, nearly all surgery leaves other issues in its wake (nerve damage, for instance), and being immobilized for that long would be a HUGE drag. Hands are really hard to do without, too, so more than just your cycling would take a big hit (one handed typing??)

I surely wish you the best with this. Keep us posted, ok?

Emily

[KnottedYet]

Spokewrench-
I have instability in both my thumbs, and wore large braces for a long time to let them tighten up. There are some VERY nice little silver-ring braces that will stablize either the proximal or distal thumb joints. They need to be fitted by a hand therapist (a variety of Occupational Therapist) but they can save you a lot of trouble if they work for your kind of instability.

I considered getting the silver rings, but my thumbs tightened up on their own.

I will go look for the website now. One of the clinics where I worked had an OT who worked with the braces and rings. (she molded my braces and told me how to take care of my thumbs) She wore the ring braces herself, and i never knew they weren't jewelry until she showed them to me. They did a great job of stabilizing her joints without surgery.

Here's the website: http://www.silverringsplint.com/index.html

I use Arnica gel on some grumpy ligaments between my knuckles. maybe that would help you, too.

[spokewench]

Thanks Knot: I'll look into the rings and also the arnica - it can't hurt to try!