Our hands are an important to almost any of our daily activities. If we are to injure our hands, wrist or even our fingers can impact how we function normally while playing, at work, at home and in the sport that we do.
Hurting your hands and fingers can happen in a number of different ways. So when we end up with a health injury like thumb tendinitis or Dequervains tendonitis, this can have an impact on how we perform daily.
Do I have Tendonitis of the thumb? What is it?
First let's learn some information about what tendonitis in the thumb is. This is a condition that happens when there is irritation or swelling of the tendons that are found in the hand along the thumb side of the wrist.
This irritation then causes the compartment (the lining) that is around the tendon to swell. This swelling changes the shape of the compartment. Then the tendon cannot move in the compartment as it should. What happens then is pain and tenderness along the thumb side of the wrist. You will notice the pain when you try to make a fist or when you try and grasp or grip things and by turning the wrist.
Thumb tendonitis and a repetitive motion injury
If you have a job or some task that you have to use a repetitive motion, can cause this problem. This repeated movement over the years will or can cause pain in the hand, possibly injured nerves (carpal tunnel syndrome), you can have locking fingers (trigger finger) and loss of movement or pain that effects the thumb.
How do you know you have thumb tendonitis? Some signs and symptoms.
Pain on the thumb side of the wrist is the main symptom. This pain may appear gradually or even suddenly. This may even seem like an arthritic pain. The pain is felt in the wrist, but can travel up the forearm.
There are many symptoms that can alert you that there is something going wrong. The pain will typically be on the thumb side of the wrist. When you move the hand or twist the wrist or sometimes when you go to grab something the pain can be severe. When this problems starts to get really bad, your thumb and or fingers may start to snap or catch. When you are having numbness on the back side of the thumb or the index finger this is a very good sign that something is very wrong and you are pinching a nerve.
Things to do
When you start to feel the above symptoms, one of the first things that you can do is start to ice the area. Do this in short 15 minute intervals. You can use a brace or a thumb splint to help prevent movement and for support. The main thing to do is to rest the finger and rest, and stop doing the repetitive movements that caused the problem in the first place. Use some type of anti-inflammatory medicine to reduce the inflammation.
When suffering from thumb tendonitis or De Quervain's tendonitis, you doctor may have you get a cortisone injection. This is going to help with the swelling and the pain. I have had them and they do work quite well. Be careful taking multiple injections in that this can weaken the tendon and cause more damage.
If these do not help, then surgery may be necessary. This surgery would be come necessary if the pain continues or if it recurs. Surgical treatment is curative. It is a day surgery, with a small incision and then a splint for 10 days. The splint or braces can be used until the sutures are removed.
A way to tell if you are suffering from thumb tendonitis
The Finkelstein test can be performed to tell if you have thumb tendonitis or Dequervain's tendonitis. The following is the procedure to check for these problems.
* What you need to do first is to make a fist by having the fingers over the thumb.
* Now it is simple, just bend the wrist in the direction of the pinky (little) finger.
* When a patient is suffering from DeQuervain's tendonitis or even thumb tendinitis, the above procedure can cause quite an amount of pain. Tenderness to the touch is also going to occur on the the base of the thumb.
The above is a great way to know if you are suffering from thumb tendonitis.
This is a quick way of learning if you have
Thumb Tendonitis but you need more info on this and
DeQuervain's Tendonitis and our site will provide this.
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