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What would we do if we lost use of our hands? Wow, what a hard time we would have. Even trying to things left handed (if you are a righty) is difficult. I know this when I hurt my right hand and could not use it. So protecting our hands is of utmost importance. Doing our job, when our fingers or hands have been damaged can be very difficult and makes things tough to perform our everyday tasks.

Health injuries such as thumb tendonitis and De Quervain’s tendonitis can impact how we do these things also. These can occur by a number of factors.

Tendonitis of the thumb, what exactly is this?

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.

When you have this irritation, the compartment that surrounds the tendon swells. Then the compartment changes shape and the tendon can’t move in the compartment the way it should. You are going to feel pain and tenderness in the wrist when you go to make a fist, grab or pinch something or when you turn 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.

Thumb Tendonitis, the 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

An initial treatment when you start to feel the symptoms is to rest the thumb. Stop doing and moving the injured area. You can start to ice the thumb in 15 minute intervals. Take some over the counter anti-inflammatory medication. Use a thumb splint or brace to reduce the movement and help to support it.

An effective treatment of De Quervain’s tendonitis or tendinitis in thumb is that your doctor may prescribe is a cortisone injection around the tendon to help decrease the swelling and provide pain relief.

The last straw if the other treatments don’t provide relief is surgery. You would do this if the pain is constant or constantly recurring. Surgical treatments do work well and can cure the problem. You are in and out, day surgery and then you wear a splint for several day to brace the treated area or until the stitches 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.

* The patient makes a fist, with the fingers over the thumb

* The wrist is then bent in the direction of the little finger.

* If you are suffering from thumb tendinitis, the person is going to find this very painful. You are also going to find tenderness to the touch directly over the thumb side of the wrist.

The above is a great way to know if you are suffering from thumb tendonitis.

Filed under: Health & Fitness