Posted on 06/06/2011 9:13:50 PM PDT by ak267
For the past two weeks I've noticed some discomfort clasping/clinching my left hand whenever I grip a pole or piece of equipment. The base knuckle (left side of the knuckle) on my left, middle finger feels a little sore. When I massage the left, forarm tendons, the pain from clinching or gripping is almost gone.
When I bend my left, middle finger to the right (towards my thumb) there's discomfort. If I bend it up, down or to the left (towards the my pinky) there is no pain.
Sometimes the hand can feel a little stiff in the morning.
Arthritis? Tendonitis?
Have your doctor check it out. They can generally do something to help you if they catch it early enough.
Depends on age. If past 60 could be Arthritis. If younger could be Carpel tunnel. Likely not Tendonitis which is usually in the upper arms.
Sounds like it could be a little of both. Baby the finger as much as you can. Heat is soothing, and topical analgesics should work well. I always use Blue Emu. It's expensive, and I don't know how it works, but it does. No smell, no grease. Just, a few minutes later, you realize the pain is gone.
Stop flipping off 0bama when he says “let me be clear”?
Stop giving people the bird.
You might have pulled it. Or, you might have a small cramp that’s sticking around. See a doctor if it persists.
Get a clavicular resection on the affected side. If you’re over 40, you’ll feel new. It’s a lot of chiseling of bone, grinding, and reseating of you tendons, but it’s where almost all wrist, hand, arm, pain originates from due to nerve entrapment in the shoulder. To know for sure, does the rotation of your arm seem to affect the pain?, such as twisting a doorknob and pulling / pushing at the same time? Do you feel stiff when pulling a shirt on?
You win
Middle finger pain? Give it a rest, stop picketing the White House for awhile!
BTW - I went to my doc for a pain in my rest, he said carpal tunnel and I got a brace. A few months later I went o my chiropractic type guy for my feet/knees. He asked about my brace and I told him, but said it didn’t seem to be helping much. He did his goofy tests - turns out my elbow was out of it’s socket! That was awhile ago and it does okay now, until I try to lift a heavy car battery or something. I take lots of things the doc says with a grain of salt now.
Canucks' bad behavior earns 8-1 spanking!
The muscles that largely move your fingers are in the lower arm. So this probably isn’t a muscle issue.
Probably nerve or joint damage. You mentioned “equipment.” Do you use heavy equipment that vibrates? You may have bruised the cartilidge on one side of that joint. Or caused trauma to a nerve on the side that hurts.
Or it could be something else entirely.
Short version: You need an xray of the joint at issue.
Sheesh, you’ve run out the warranty and now you expect better living through chemistry? ... Hang in there, zork, it only gets worse with age.
I do a lot of data entry
Some other posters have mentioned shoulder issues. Possibly. There is a lot of tension and force transmitted through the arm when you grip something, and a slight misalignment up top could express in your hand.
If the pain persists, see a doc...
You may well have trigger points in your forearm. Trigger points in the forearm refer pain to other places and can refer pain into the hand. For example, many instances of carpal tunnel pain actually turn out to be TPs in the forarm in both the flexor and extensor muscles. Of course, you could also have tendonitis and/or arthritis in those knuckle joints too, as you state.
I suspect you may have TPs in the flexor digitorum muscles. TPs in this muscles can send fairly sharp pains (almost a burning pain) to the inside of the fingers. This TP can be caused by overuse of grasping things, just as you mention.
Look for TPs in the upper forearm and they’ll usually be fairly deep. Using the thumb of your other hand, push inward/massage any really sore spots you find. Don’t over do this. Massage for a couple of minutes about six times a day. It may take a day or three to remove the TPs.
Let me know how you do.
Take two Advil and call me in the morning.
If it doesn’t affect your trigger finger or your shooting, don’t worry about it.
I’m not a doc, but have some knowledge of the mechanics and engineering.
If you type a lot, maybe your bruised one side of the joint via repetitive stress.
Or if your posture isn’t good, your shoulder is tweeked, and the muscles are torquing the joint.
Rest the hand. Take (OTC pain med of choice). Use a topical. Give it two or three days. If the symptoms persist at the same level, see a doc. Right then. If they lessen but don’t go away in 7-10 days, still see a doc.
I am reminded of that image of a frog crushing the throat of the Egress .. don’t ever give up. There’s nothing in the Bible about it being a bad thing to leap into St Peter’s presence screaming at the injustice. Don’t let the bastard demons have a victory. Fight this crap until the botter end!
Thanks for the advice. The main things are:
(1) Massaging forearm relieves some of the pain when clasping
(2) Middle finger hurts when I either grip an item or pull it to the right (left, up and down are okay).
I’ll give it some time (I’ll take some Motrin) and do some massaging. If it doesn’t go away, I’ll see my GP or a specialist (what kind of specialist?).
Make that ‘bitter end’. Time for my medication, obviously. Only aspirin, just aspirin.
Reduce the amount of tennis you’re playing ...
There are many different forms of arthritis; I have osteoarthritis.
What I find helps is keeping the joints strong through exercise. Since the major affected joint is the sacroiliac (which I never heard of until I got arthritis in it), I do back exercises to strengthen the lower back muscles and support the joint.
I rarely take pain medications.
I think the exercise is best for osteoarthritis; other forms of arthritis may not be so easily managed. Also, the amount of exercise is important; too much makes the pain worse.
And if the symptoms get worse despite rest, see a doc right away.
What type of doc? Preferably an orthopedic surgeon or hand specialist. Why not an immunologist or some such to look for arthitis? Because an ortho or hand surgeon can rule out mechanical issues, so you’ll know that it’s something else. An immunologist or some such can’t do the same thing the other way. There are too many non-mechanical issues that can cause joint pain to screen easily.
Try some Blue Emu, I use for back and neck pain, it works for me. It’s worth a try.
Also harvest some stinging nettles and apply the sting around the affected finger and pain areas, you can google "medicinal use of nettle" for further info.
Nettle is distinctly different from diuretic drugs. These drugs are often used to reduce high blood pressure and edema (swelling from excessive fluid), but studies have not shown nettle to help either of these conditions. It's unclear why this is the case. It may be that the herb works differently than diuretic drugs, or it may simply be that the correct research has not yet been done.
Nettle leaves can also help reduce the pain of arthritis. In one preliminary study, nettle leaf juice was as effective at reducing the pain of various types of arthritis as anti-inflammatory drugs. In another study, nettle leaf juice enhanced the effects of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac in people with osteoarthritis.
In addition to drinking nettle leaf tea or juice, an old tradition for relieving the pain of arthritis is to apply fresh leaves over aching joints. Though this initially causes increased pain from the stings, it ultimately relieves inflammation and pain. This effect may be the result of something known as the "gate phenomenon."
When the skin over a painful joint is stung, the spinal cord reduces pain signals coming from the joint underneath. Two studies have now shown that the application of topical nettle stings is in fact helpful for relieving arthritis pain for those who can tolerate the initial discomfort. Taking nettle by mouth in any of its forms, including capsules or tinctures, is also helpful for arthritis.
And if you ever eat poisoned mushrooms by mistake....make a solution of ground milk thistle seeds and drink it ASAP
Burdock root will also clean the kidneys.
enjoy
Stop flipping off 0bama when he says “let me be clear”?
You beat me to it. I was going to say something like that.
I used to have the same problem.
I quit playing with myself (and the problem disappeared)
Just kidding.
I had the same problem and someone suggested that was the cause but it was probably because I slept on it wrong some night or sprained it at work and it just lingered for a couple of months.
Some sprains actually take longer than others to heal.
I still have that T shirt. I think the full title was “The last great act of defiance.”
Other T shirt shows three vultures perched on a tree looking downward, with one saying, “Patience my ass. I’m gonna kill something!”
“Since the major affected joint is the sacroiliac...)
Just wondering if your doctor checked you for ankylosing spondylitis. Sacroiliac problems are indicators of that disease.
I don’t know if you have carpal tunnel symptoms, but FWIW, here’s my experience with typing on a computer keyboard to completely avoid carpal tunnel:
When typing, keep the angle formed between the back of your hands and your forearms either 180 degrees (straight) or not much less, but preferably more than 180 degrees. To clarify, place both hands on the keyboard on the home row, with the tips of the fingers touching the keys on the home row, the normal starting position for typing. Move both wrists up while leaving the fingertips on the keys. That’s the comfortable angle you want between your hand and forearm.
If you lower the wrists and lift your fingertips off they keys, that’s the painful hand-forearm angle. Twenty years ago, doing heaving typing, I started getting carpal tunnel symptoms and figured this out by accident through just doing what was less painful to be able to work. People tip their keyboards up facing them, and they position the keyboard lower than their elbows. Both of these keyboard positions force the hands to bend back. You want your hands to bend forward, so keep the keyboard no lower than your elbows; higher than your elbows works nicely. You can also tip the keyboard away, i.e., top rows of keys lower than the spacebar.
I have never experienced any problems since adopting these positions, even to the point of typing all day. If one is tired, not hunching forward with the head and neck is important to avoid a stiff neck.
Nix the arthritis theory. Look down the connective tissue pathway (tendons, etc.)
You might try applying lemon oil where it hurts. Lemon oil contains limonene, which has been shown in animal studies to relieve pain and inflammation. When nothing else worked, I used lemon oil for relief from shingles pain and it seemed to also spur healing.
Lemon oil is available in a small bottles at the aromatherapy rack of a vitamin or health food store. It is a thin oil that absorbs quickly into the skin and can be applied repeatedly to good effect. Be careful as it will sting if you get it into any scratches or sores or into your eyes.
Did you know you were in for all the jokes when you asked for advice? (I could see it coming from your title)
Poor dear. Well, hope your finger gets better.
I do agree with the trigger points being a great cause, and relief for, the pains you are describing. Find some good charts on the net, and you can really help that stuff. Or else find a physical therapist who can teach you how to find and fix them. There is a guy on the net who has a video that shows you how to release in your arm. Good stuff! Really helped my hands.
Some time ago I assisted someone with a database of a fairly large sampling of arthritis studies.
What I thought I noticed, not really focused on by the studies or the person assisted, afaik, was the importance of lubrication, that is, I wondered if we are not drinking enough water on a consistent lifelong basis. I don’t know if it is possible to catch up once you realize you need it, but I do know it is important for brain health as well.
Or ... Go to the veterinarian get some dmso an crush some aspirin to a fine powder mix the aspirin an dmso to make a nuclear strength version of analgesic ointment.
I don’t have much mileage on me but a boatload of sudden stops. Old injuries induced arthritis.
Little bit of that topical on the source of the pain works perfect.
Three pieces of advice:
1. See a doctor.
2. Seriously, see a doctor.
3. Did I suggest seeing a doctor?
That’s what happens when you say, “Pull my finger”.
Sticking it up too much at liberals?
Seriously, it is most likely tendons or nerve ( sub as carnal tunnel syndrome or similar) related. Does it improve with rest? Does it go numb or tingle at all?
Have a link handy?
(sorry about the pun:>)
Thank you for the concern. I believe my osteoarthritis may have been caused by untreated scoliosis putting pressure on the joint. Kids are screened for that, but somehow, I wasn't diagnosed until well into adulthood.
I have had a mild nerve entrapment in the shoulder, however, surgery was not necessary. I was given a set of exercises to strengthen the muscles in such a manner where the shoulder was lifted off the affected nerve. The non-invasive route worked in this case, so the surgical route was not necessary. I had been using a sports medicine doc at the time.
Blackdog - is this now a arthroscopic procedure?
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