De Quervain's Tendonitis

Hey guys,

I went off to a hand physio today because I've been having quite bad pain below my thumb at my wrist, and it was starting to effect my ability work especially with scissors, blowdryer and picking up the little doggies...the diagnosis is De Quervain's Tendonitis....have to wear a hand splint for quite a while. She wants me to try and work with this splint on! Anyone else suffered from the injury? How did you go getting it better? Bit worried seeing as I dont think I will be able to work very well with this horrid splint on...doh!

I think My grooming teacher had this problem, she would wear a hand brace until it calmed down. It is hard to wear the brace but from what she was telling me if you don't wear the brace the longer the pain lasted for.
If it is the same thing, because she still had to use her hand every day I think she use to ice it every night to reduce further inflamation.
I could be wrong def keep the brace on but do a bit of research before icing it because I'm not 100% sure on that one.

On a different note I have weak wrists and quite often get pain. I find wearing a pressure bandage while sleeping helps a lot by the next morning or at least after two nights of wearing it the pain is gone but if I don't wear it the pain lasts for weeks . So the longer you can keep the splint on the better
Hope that helps!

Years ago I started using weights to exercise wrists and arms, pain went away, same goes with my back....

That's a new one B & B This might be an interesting topic to have saved Chris....Workplace health and safety....There seem to be a few muscular and sceletal injuries that can be caused or inflamed by grooming. I myself have mentioned the improvement in asthma ( now been cleared as having A+ lungs by specialist after wearing masks whilst grooming). I also do weights etc in the gym and I am sure this helps prevent muscle wear and tear and strenghtens others.

ouch

I also do weights 5 days a week...have a massage once a month ...but do get the occasional flare up of tennis elbow....all you can do in our line of work is baby the injury as much as you can ..its not like we can take time off work to rest :-S

Keep us updated with your progress..& speedy recovery ....oh & did they mention which movement aggrivated this injury (so we all can try to avoid it :-) )??

OK WARNING hehe
Don't ever try to use scissors with a splint on I also most cut the tip of my finger off this morning! I have a nice slice in the top of my pointer now. So now I have an injury on each side...

As for the ice Chase, my physio told me to ice 3 times a day. So Id say it is the same thing.

As for what aggravates it Cessnock: If you make a fist and try to turn your whole hand at the wrist away from your body that's the worst. Caused by repetitive actions like this and also wide grasping or repeated grasping. Its caused by a build up of repeated small injuries.

For got to mention could of helped you earlier, my teacher took her brace off only to scissor but went straight back on as soon as she was done.

As for training ever since I started weight training my wrist does not play up as much as it used to. it not only builds up your muscle but strengthens your bones. I think in out line of work exercise and resistance training at the least is a must.

Chase my physio has already mentioned that I need to be like an athlete warm up warm down strengthen etc, she said we'll discuss all that once it heals up a bit yay...

Physiotherapists are so bossy lol

Update..

A couple of weeks ago my wrist was knocked the wrong way by my very excitable pup. Ive been trying to get it healed since I first posted, with not much improvement. Then after the knock it has been very angry. The hand specialist I saw recommended surgery (which gives !00% success) and I was booked in to get it fixed once and for all. But I found out I had under insured myself with my health insurance (my hospital cover is a joke) and had to cancel. I then had a cortisone injection last Thursday, which stirred it up even more. I have barely worked in the last 2 weeks, and I am very quickly feeling the financial strain, and also really worried about the business, just when things were really starting to build strongly in the last few months.
So Im waiting to see if the cortisone will work, it's a 50/50 shot, and at this stage there is no sign of it healing.
I was wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation buisness wise, where they couldn't work? If so what damage control did you do? Is there options in regard to getting someone else to manage/contract the business?? I guess I just want to think ahead incase I have to wait for surgery on the public list and keep the business afloat as much as possible. I have income protection if worst comes to worst, but I really would like to keep the business afloat if at all possible. I guess I just want to know what is realistic at this stage to be planning for if I dont get better?
Thoughts?

Sorry to hear about your circumstance and yes health insurance is a joke. I always say the only benefit of insurance is that you don’t have to wait for surgery, but in terms of everything else there is no benefit what so ever in fact I’m convinced your worse off.



I don't have any information for your question but i am also curious to hear the answer because i have always wondered what if, being a sole worker.

I'm feeling your pain. I have exact same pain in the base of my hand, on top of this I have a ganglion in the wrist of that hand and (same arm) tennis elbow!!! I find that if I put deep heat on and strap before I start work that helps a lot. When I'm finished work I ice it. Mine isn't too bad right now although if I do something silly like wrestle with the kids and bump it, it gives me grief. I tried a splint... impossible to work with. However I now have an elastic strap one part slips over your thumb then you wrap the rest around your wrist firmly. seems to do the trick. I'm in the same situation and have no one to take over for me and I just had to push through the pain until I got a break. Just a couple of days of total rest made a huge difference. Another product that I have had much success with is stuff called ZEN you get it from the chemist, spray it on and rub in. It doesn't burn like deep heat, nice smell too. That is about all the info I can give you, unfortuently in this game we just have to keep working, it is too much hard work to get a business like ours up and running to let it slip away unless we are really forced to... One more thing I just remembered, I'm currently waiting on scissors from America called therapeutic shears, they are meant to be good for these types of problems, not so good for our financial situation though $245.00. If it helps I will let you know, just don't know when they are getting here

How was this diagnosis determined? X ray? Scan? It sounds like the same thing I have. I am too young to have mine surgically corrected, drs wait til your like 60. I have problems with my CMC joint in both hands. Google it. The pain is in the same spot. I kinda baby my hands when I can but my full time job is kicking their butt right now.

Ultrasound is the best way to diagnose. After all my panicking, the cortisone has fixed it up. Thanks goodness! I was really starting to worry, ALOT! The cortisone made it worse at first, I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry I was so worried. But good news is Im back to full time work. Lost afew customers who were new bookings along the way, and possibly a regular or two. Not surprising really I messed them about pretty bad because I couldn't tell them what was happening...but back to it with a spring in my step. Look after yourselves as best you can I guess!

Good news. The shot should last a while, it is a band aid. Baby your hand when you can.

it will last a while. just hang on that LOL

I had really bad tennis elbow for 8 months and still worked but minimally. I literally couldn't pick a cup up with my arm extended and lifting it straight up from the table. The physio told me to avoid cortisone because although it may make the elbow feel better It is only a bandade effect. he said using the arm will still cause it further damage because other muscles are compensating for the ones that are not functioning properly. so for 8months I had an excercise routine every day which I stuck to like glue. I felt it was my only hope. Eventually it got better and my arm got much stronger. It's now perfect not even a twinge. I'm glad I avoided cortisone.

You are exactly right yap. This is the #1 reason I never had one. My shoulder was so bad earlier this year I was crying. I had to figure out why this happened, what movement did it. I did figure it out and stopped that particular movement. This was hard as it was from my other job and I do so many physical things there. After a couple weeks I was good.
Baby your body, it will thank you.