Wrist pain - does anyone know what this might be?

[Stebby]

Hi, everyone. I've had pain in my left wrist for a couple of months. It's on the thumb side, right in the groove where my forearm meets my hand. It's almost always a little bit swollen. For a few days now, I can't bend my wrist very far, so doing pushups or upward dogs is impossible. It doesn't seem to bend too far either up or down. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? I know I am going to have to go to my doctor, but it is very hard to get appointments with her lately. I am afraid of doing something to hurt it.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Stebby

 

[maddie]

It sounds a lot like what i have just recovered from. It's called DeQuervain's tendonitis. A good test for seeing if you have this is make a fist with your fingers over your thumb and the try to move your fist toward your pinky finger. If you feel the pain up that thumb (in my case i couldn't even move my wrist in this position), then this could be what you have. definitely go to a hand doctor. the most common course is to give some steroid pills to help the inflammation, like predisone, and to do hand therapy. This helps a lot! in my case i ended up getting a cortizone shot because i couldn't stop using my hand (i'm right handed, and what do you know, i got this in my right hand >.< ). I also had a brace that immobilized my thumb during the duration of the injury.

http://www.assh.org/Content/Navigat...ervains_Tendinitis/deQuervains_Tendinitis.htm

copy and paste this into your browser, it'll take you straight to the dequervain's part, but it has other wrist problems as well. has a good diagram of the exercise i was mentioning. good luck and i wish you a speedy recovery.

maddie

 

[penguinchik]

Hi Stebby, unfortunately I had (have) this in both wrists. I overtrained majorly in college and had to have numerous cortisone shots and wear these ugly white plastic splints all the time for about a month. I was stupid and waited to go to the doctor until the pain was severe. You are smart to go right now. It is now 12 years later and once again I didn't listen to my body. I got Core Max and Ab Hits and insisted on doing those planks on the ball and regular planks on the wrists. Now I am in pain again. Fortunately it's not bad and I know to lay off of them. I was doing push ups with little pain while FIRMing, but like I said, I got overzealous once I found Cathe.

I do have a suggestion until you see the doc. This is going to sound funny, but now whenever I workout I wear wristguards that skaters or rollerbladers use. They have the plastic splint pieces on both sides of the wrists. This definitely helps keep the wrists immobilized. I really need it during PUB biceps! I have found that even doing all cardio I need to wear them because my arms are moving all over the place and I'm not paying attention to keeping my wrists steady.

Back in college after I was allowed to take off the white ugly splints, I went the route of these wrist guards while working out. Eventually I didn't need them anymore. I just bought a new pair last month when the pain started again. Good luck to you!! Please don't over do it. I wish I never had.

 

[Stebby]

Wow, thanks, maddie and penguinchik. I thought I had something really weird and obscure and here you have both described my pain perfectly! I actually have a couple of wrist splints that I used when I had carpal tunnel for awhile after having my daughter. I will use them and I will definitely go see my doc now. Thanks again.

 

[robin4health]

Hey Stebby!

I got this a lot when I was playing college volleyball. I actually would sleep with my wrist guards (which I had for roller-blading) and this really helped. It stabilized my wrists throughout the night and it just seemed to heal faster when I would do that. After supporting my wrists at night and staying away from things like push-ups (those killed my wrists), the pain would usually go away in a couple of weeks. I do agree that you should see a doc about it and have them check it out as well.

 

[acatalina]

Mine bother me at times. I have a cyst on my riht one. I am working on breaking it.
Try the gloves. It seems to help me .
Gives a little support.
Anne