Arthritis in the wrist

[jim777]

Yeah,....so back from the orthopedic specialist today, a guy who works on a number of the Philadelphia Flyers, and he says the wrist is screwed. A lot of the cartilage between the bones is gone, and the bones are rubbing causing all my pain. The bones under the thumb have no cartilage between them at all left (I knew I shouldn't have loaned out all my cartilage!) It has been hurting for about 18 months, but is now so bad I can barely sign my name or fish my keys out of my pocket without pills of some sort.

I said to him, "I play the guitar and piano, and have for 35 years. I also study TKD and karate". And he says to me, "then you have some serious lifestyle decisions to make". And I thought, yeah, jab right punch left from now on, and learn to do one handed pushups!

He did say he's seen this sort of pain go away after a year or so, without any change in condition. He said sometimes the mind just decides to filter it out. I've also been taking Osteo-BiFlex or something and that has helped a lot, I've got some timed release tylenol for arthritis as well.

Anyone else just 'come down with' arthritis out of the blue? It's a PITA, I gotta tell 'ya.

jim

 

[Stac3y]

Sorry to hear about your wrist. I can't say I'm in the same situation; I've had some arthritis since childhood. Let's just say knuckle pushups are out of the question.

My question is this: is the pain the only problem, or are you damaging the wrist further by using it? If it's just the pain (yeah, I know, the pain is bad enough), and use won't cause more injury, you might ask your doctor about injecting steroids into the joint to reduce inflammation and pain. My mom gets that done to her arthritic cervical spine about once a year, and she says it works well. I'm sure there are associated risks, though.

 

[jks9199]

Y'know... it didn't come down out of the blue. You said you've been having wrist pain for at least 18 months. I bet you had issues before then as well.

I've got some issues at the moment with plantars fasciaitis in one foot. It didn't spring up out of the blue; it started sometime before the first time it bothered me enough to really notice. I just "dealt with it."

That's the thing... we keep injuring ourselves and making the injuries worse by failing to take appropriate steps when we first notice the discomfort or injury or pushing too fast to get in.

 

[Dave Leverich]

I had it hit my hands in the last year or two, glucosamine chondroitin and fish oil help though. I'm not sure which, take both ;p.

 

[jim777]

I was offered a cortisone shot, which I was told would make it pain free for 6 to 8 weeks. I declined because I thought it better to be aware of damage being done than to be unaware of it. I assumed it could get worse, but possibly not.

As for the out of the blue remark, that's true; it had hurt a little for about 18 months. I thought it was carpal tunnel caused by my guitar playing and 14 hours a day on the PC. The really bad pain (and inability to write with a pen or play the guitar for more than 5 minutes) has only been for about 2 months though, and I had to wait 5 weeks to see this specialist. I suppose 'sudden increase in severity of symptoms' would have been more accurate. That timeline was onset of bad pain, wait a week and see the doctor. Get referral for xrays, get them, wait for them to be read, get told to seek the specialist, another two weeks. Then the last 5 weeks waiting for today to arrive.

 

[Christina05]

yeah the arthritis in the wrist sucks i feel your pain had it for a few months its a pain in the A**

 

[K31]

Since there are over 100 forms of arthritis which did he say this was?There are medications that will arrest the loss of cartilage depending on the type of arthritis. If this is caused by more than just traumatic or repetitive injury then this could lead to more joints being involved.

 

[Flea]

I've been getting my first twinges of it over the past year or so, in my hips. For what it's worth, a lot of people get good results from phasing out all deadly nightshade plants from their diet. It's simple, but not very easy because that includes potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers (hot and sweet.) I'm just starting that myself because I'm not too keen on pharmaceuticals.

Best of luck to you.

 

[girlbug2]

Excellent, Flea!

I've also had some small success with dietary changes, I noticed my right knee and hip giving me twinges a couple of years ago, and read about the nightshade vegetables and what harm they can do if you're prone to arthritis, so I phased them out. Twinges gone in two weeks, and so far not showing any signs of coming back.

I'm sure all the fish I eat isn't hurting either