horrible pain in my thumb and surrounding muscles

[jessie.gray]

I have noticed lately that whenever I push my wheelchair, my right thumb and the surounding area of my hand hurts like hell. Its almost like a pulled muscle/bruise feeling.

I've tried using heat, pain relieving creams, and gentle stretching, but it still hurts and is making it harder for me to push my wheelchair on the right side.
Does anyone else experience this and what do you do to relieve this pain?

Jessie

[Lee555]

Jesse I don't use a chair but it could be that you've developed a strain to the muscles and/or tendons in that hand. Have you seen a doctor about it? Perhaps using a splint would help, but if there is damage you could make it worse.

[jessie.gray]

Jesse I don't use a chair but it could be that you've developed a strain to the muscles and/or tendons in that hand. Have you seen a doctor about it? Perhaps using a splint would help, but if there is damage you could make it worse.

I told the doctor about it yesterday when I had to come in for a follow up urine and blood test, and she said that it sounded like tendonitis to her, but she didn't think I could push my wheelchair and wear a hand brace at the same time, so she just upped my pain medicine and told me to put ice on it several times a day. All I know is that the ice works for a tiny bit, and then the pain is right back. I also haven't noticed any pain difference since she upped my pain meds (I'm on hydrocodone and naproxen that I normally take for shoulder and lower back pain).
It did feel good when I went swimming at the Y this morning, though.

Jessie

[Lee555]

I told the doctor about it yesterday when I had to come in for a follow up urine and blood test, and she said that it sounded like tendonitis to her, but she didn't think I could push my wheelchair and wear a hand brace at the same time, so she just upped my pain medicine and told me to put ice on it several times a day. All I know is that the ice works for a tiny bit, and then the pain is right back. I also haven't noticed any pain difference since she upped my pain meds (I'm on hydrocodone and naproxen that I normally take for shoulder and lower back pain).
It did feel good when I went swimming at the Y this morning, though.

Jessie

So the muscle problems are traveling down your arm then? Is your left arm weaker than the right?

[jessie.gray]

I don't think either arm is weak at all, since I workout so much. The pain mainly stays around the side of my right thumb. My Mom thinks it might be a muscle strain.

As for my shoulders, they started hurting about 3 months after I had to start using a manual wheelchair, and my doc says there ain't nothing she can do about that, since most manual chair users experience shoulder pain.

Jessie

[Lee555]

I don't think either arm is weak at all, since I workout so much. The pain mainly stays around the side of my right thumb. My Mom thinks it might be a muscle strain.

As for my shoulders, they started hurting about 3 months after I had to start using a manual wheelchair, and my doc says there ain't nothing she can do about that, since most manual chair users experience shoulder pain.

Jessie

Your Mom and your doctor are probably right. What I'm thinking here is that with your shoulders hurting first, you've begun to compensate for the pain by putting more pressure and stress onto the arms and it reads on down the line of tendons to the strongest point of your pushoff on the wheel. The muscles in the arm will work until they start having miniscule tears and they become less effective, so then you're relying more on the tendons and they become inflamed.

You might talk to your doctor about getting into a therapist to address this problem. A therapist who can help you readjust how you're using the wheelchair, can do massage on the shoulders and work on the wrist and thumb to strengthen it without damaging it further. Tendon problems can take a long time to heal, and its critical that you fix it because this could cause tendon problems all the way up the arm.

[JustinB]

I don't know how much "hurts like hell" is, but I've bruised my palm right there several times after racing with my daughter (pushing as hard and as fast as I can). I push with my fingers for a couple days and the pain eases.

Also, after "dancing" for a couple hours once, I bruised the nerve there. Pain and numbness for a couple weeks until it healed... Once again, pushing with my fingers. (Soooo Slowww).

As for shoulder pain, alternating ice and heat 10 minutes at a time helps, as well as a chiropractor is what helped me.

Not all the time, just when it is bad.

Massage helps too.

Last thought: I often use biking gloves while pushing alot. The good ones are designed to spread the pressure over the entire hand.

-- JB

[JakeHalsted]

I recommend that you see a physical therapist. It is quite likely that you are strengthening the muscles in your hand improperly. in the body, muscles work in pairs. That's how I can hold my arm outright (thank God I am not challenging like a quad.) If you strengthen one more than the other, it will start to hurt over time.....my shoulders were starting to do that until I started an ever other day routine of should workouts to strength ALL the muscles.

Blood tests and a pill won't do chicken fodder. It's going to take work. but you can be pain free again.

Ibuprofen is also a very modest way to help the problem as you are dealing with it.