wrist pain

[Coach Mohrdieck]

Dear coaches and friends,
since approximately eight weeks I have a inflammation of the coat of my sinew at my right under-arm. The pain is in every twisting and bending motion in my wrist and if some graps my wrist or I'm grapping something. To this day there's only small improvement (and least the pain is getting less). I no that ROM exercises are pretty good for joint and tendom pain but I'm not sure if that's true for inflammations.
Does anyone have any treatment suggestions?
Thanks in advance and warm regards from Hamburg,
Raimar

[rbibbs]

Greetings Raimar. Has a doctor looked at this condition?

I'm not sure I understand the nature and location of your inflammation. I have not experienced this myself, so all I can give you is general guidelines. ROM is good for maintaining mobility while a structure recovers... to the extent it isn't overtly painful, and the doctor approves of motion. ROM itself probably won't relieve inflammation. Painful motion is likely to make inflammation worse.

<Second opinions, mates?>

[Coach Mohrdieck]

Greetings Raimar. Has a doctor looked at this condition?


Dear Rick!

Yes, i've been to a doctor and he told me to move my wrist as less as possible. Im wearing a bandage to keep it firm.

The fact that makes my afraid is that he told my it will takes 3 month to recover...



I'm not sure I understand the nature and location of your inflammation.

Sorry for my bad english!

This 'jacket' around the sinew of my right forearm has the inflammation.



I have not experienced this myself, so all I can give you is general guidelines. ROM is good for maintaining mobility while a structure recovers... to the extent it isn't overtly painful, and the doctor approves of motion. ROM itself probably won't relieve inflammation. Painful motion is likely to make inflammation worse.


So you mean light movement is okay?

Thank you,
Raimar

[rbibbs]

If the doctor says not to move it, it's best to follow his advice.

If a doctor tells you to do something, or not to do something, and you disagree... don't go against his advice, seek a second medical opinion. If another doctor tells you the same thing, there's a good chance they are both right.

When the inflammation is cured and the doctor says you can move again, we can work on restoring motion.

[Coach Mohrdieck]

When the inflammation is cured and the doctor says you can move again, we can work on restoring motion.


Well the inflammation is cured - at least the heat is out of the wrist. I can move my wrist but the pain comes in the end of bending and twisting. I do the Vibration Drill averyday for 5 min. which helps to lose the muscles in my forearm, some stretching and circles and try to open my handpalm which has a good effect,too.
So does you, Rick, or anyone have some advice for restoring moblity and painfree movement.
Warm regards,
Raimar

[rbibbs]

Good to hear Raimar. It sounds like you have some good motions already. One thing that stretches wrists is rotating them through their range of motion while holding fists. Another is, curl your fingers sequentially (pointer, middle, ring, pinky then reverse) and let this motion lead your forearm to rotate wrist up/wrist down. It's sort of an exaggeration of the motion you would use to turn off a water valve.

Move where you feel tension, but don't force it to where it hurts, your ability to move will expand. I would recommend against training grip strength until you have good mobility back.

[James Boelter]

You might benefit from some self applied massage along the muscles and tendons which were giving you the trouble. Take a hard rubber ball and put it between your forearm and a wall and roll it along the length of the injured tissue from the wrist to the 'bumps' on your elbow for several minutes several times a day. To make it even more effective, put your forearm behind you and lean backwards against a wall -the ball is caught between the wall and your forearm, and your bodyweight leaning backward puts extra pressure on the ball.

You can also try performing your wrist flexions and circles while pressing firmly down on the painful tendon with your other thumb (or the knuckles of your other fist) so that you can feel the tendons sliding back and forth against the resistance of your thumb. This is an 'anchor and stretch' technique that will often help the fibers of the painful tendon stretch themselves out of the knots they may be in. Don't press so hard that you cut the circulation off, but definitely be able to 'feel' the tendon's friction against the thumb (or knuckles) in both directions as it lengthens and shortens. I used this little trick to free a painful thumb flexor tendon (flexor pollici longus) from a strain in less than two days of firm, consistent work.

[Coach Mohrdieck]

Just wanted to report back with my wrist inflamation:

The last weeks my wrist is getting a bit stiff, I can pull it up 45° angle (my other wrist bend to 90°) and then the motion stops without pain and when I push it down I have a strong pain in the senew of my index finger.
The last couple of weeks I continue with the finger and hand exercises from Freedom by degree but don't have any improvement.

Any advice from anyone?

Kind regards,

Raimar

[rbibbs]

Hello Raimar. Sorry the condition is being stubborn. It still sounds like a possible medical condition, particularly if it just suddenly arose, not as the result of injury or occupational overuse.

Your index finger is 'operated' by muscles in the forearm, pulling tendons that run through your wrist like a rope through a pulley. Any inflammation along that path will cause pain when your wrist moves to extremes. It's been longer than the 3 months the doctor said it would take, so maybe it's time to have another doctor look at it.

[Coach Mohrdieck]

Dear Rick,
thank you for your reply!

I already went to another doctor who told me my inflamation can endure for one year if I don't want to operate (which is the last thing I would do!).

What is the hardest for me is that I can't pratice and enjoy me training (and work) fully and I'm unsure if it will be okay again someday...

I will visit another doctor and report back with his advices.

Warm regards,

Raimar

[Gilles]

Hi Raimar.

I have read your story and it reminded me of something I have experienced a few weeks ago. I had experienced a nagging wrist injury for a few months at the time, due to badly performed pushups : I was totally unable to extend my left wrist especially in the last degrees of ROM without experiencing a quite intense pain.

At this time, I was reading again some old issues of MILO, and I stumbled upon articles from Fred Hutchinson about cold water therapy. The range of topics he was covering stretched from General Patton's principles for fitness to himalayan and eastern techniques for greater health. All those topics had in common to be full of praise for water therapy and its powerful properties.

Then I decided to give it a try and purchase a book he was recommending ("the complete book of water healing" from Dian Dincin Buchman) about this topic. I tried one of the self-treatment recommended, and adapted it to the mean available : I was pouring water on my wrist from the tape, and alternating 2 minutes of hot water with 30 seconds of cold water, performing this sequence 6 times. At this time, I was also starting to introduce snatches in my kettlebell routine : with 3 water therapy bouts and 2 weeks of kettlebell snatches, I was relieved of the pain, and I am still pain free now...

Even if you are still too disabled to perform lightweight ballistic lifts, I think you can still give this very simple water treatment a try or another one quoted in the book for more or less time depending of the gravity of your condition, in complement of any classic medical treatment you maybe already receiving. The book from Dian Buchman is, in my humble opinion, a very worthwhile addition to any natural health enthusiast's library.

Last but not least, as you are living in Germany, you may try to find a practitioner performing Kneipp hydrotherapy treatments. To my knowledge, it is still very popular in Germany and Austria, and it is an extremely efficient natural treatment for many joint conditions, just like acupuncture...

I hope this may help. :wink:

Best regards.

[Coach Mohrdieck]

Hello Gilles,

thanks for your advice - I just ordered the book at amazon and will report you how it works.

I'm visiting a chinese doctor for one month now and he's doing mainly acupunture and gives me food advices. My wrist is getting better, my body is able to drop the tension in the wrist area. I think it will takes some weeks to recover fully but at least there is a perspective now. Can't wait to come back to full training :twisted:

Take care,

Raimar