Hand pain is sneaky about how much it takes away. You stop doing needlepoint in the evenings. You let your partner carry the grocery bags in from the car, and you’ve started typing with three fingers because the thumb aches. Some people in Tucson come in after a weekend of trimming the palo verde out back. Others can’t remember any one thing that started it. They just know it’s been going on for months, and the brace from the pharmacy isn’t cutting it anymore.
Why It Hangs Around
The trouble is that a sore hand can be a handful of totally different problems. A splint that’s great for one can do nothing for another, so people try something, it doesn’t work, and they figure nothing will. This is what we usually find:
- Carpal tunnel. You wake up and have to shake your hand out before the fingers feel normal.
- Thumb arthritis, which makes buttoning a shirt or turning the key in the ignition a lot harder.
- Trigger finger. One finger gets stuck curled up and pops when it lets go.
- Tendonitis along the thumb side, which is a common one for grandparents who babysit a lot.
- An old break. Maybe you fell off a bike at twenty, and now the wrist creaks every time it rains.
Sorting Out What’s Wrong
First you’ll tell us what’s been hard lately, like opening jars or holding a book in bed. Then we look your hand over pretty carefully. We’ll feel each knuckle and the tendons along the wrist, have you squeeze a gauge and pinch another one, and lightly touch each fingertip to see what you can feel. Sometimes we’ll have you hold your wrists bent together for a minute, since tingling during that test points toward the nerve. If we need to see the bones or the joint, we’ll get an X-ray, and ultrasound helps us look at tendons and nerves.
What Care Looks Like
Most hand and wrist problems get better with a combination of things. A splint is often the first step. For carpal tunnel, a night splint that keeps the wrist straight can ease the tingling a lot. A thumb splint takes pressure off an arthritic joint during the day so you can keep cooking and gardening.
Exercises come next, and they’re more specific than people expect. We’ll teach you gliding exercises that help the nerves and tendons move smoothly, and gentle strength work for the small muscles that support the joints. We’ll also look at how you do things. A thicker pen, a jar opener, or a lighter grip on the steering wheel can take a lot of strain off.
If a flare won’t settle down, a cortisone injection is often an option for carpal tunnel, trigger finger, or thumb arthritis. It can calm things enough for the rest of the plan to work.
If your hands have been aching longer than you’d like, call Modern Medicine of Northwest Tucson, AZ. We’ll find out what’s going on and help you get back to using them without the pain.
