Well,
After milling on Saturday, I tore into the yard work with abandon this weekend :) Life was good for the most part other than the usual aches and pains I live with and then it happened! My left thumb quit working. Pain was reasonable (3oz of bourbon type pain ;) ) and I thought I'd dislocated my thumbing moving heavy bags of yard waste. However, today i was told it was osteoarthritis and that a week or two break on my hands and some anti-inflammatory drugs should bring things back to normal but that it will not likely improve much overall.
My hands had been bothering me more than normal lately but usually it goes away so I'm wondering now: will this put an end to my hopes of milling more over the next few years?
So far I had to put off my next job a week and will have to hold off on 1 or 2 others a week or more now :( Just not sure how I keep offering my services while not knowing if I can use my hands well enough to do the job when it comes up?
DanGit. Who deals with arthritic hands and milling? How do you make it work? or do you?
Within the last year my hands are similar. Never had issues. Certain activities really aggravate pain and stiffness. That would be chainsaws and whipper snipper. Cut out sugar if you can. ( I try ). Limit time with certain tools. I also believe Scotch works for me and anti-inflammatory daily.
Is the pain at the base of your thumb, closer to the wrist?
Quote from: doctorb on June 04, 2018, 05:53:58 PM
Is the pain at the base of your thumb, closer to the wrist?
Close to the wrist...Doc said it aint suppose to look like that LOL...as in not really a knuckle at all and he's surprised it lasted this long. Anti-inflammatory drugs should make it work again he says but not likely to get better for long without a hand doc doing some work on it.
Hands, wrists, jaws and back. Getting a little worse each year. 400mg of Etodolac tablet, morning and evening and tolerable until those days I fish for 6 hours.
My Grandmother was crippled with it and they put her in a wheelchair. Now they tell use to stay as active as possible.
Doc suggested Naproxin (since I use it a little over the counter now) after the course of prednizone
I am having a reduced amount of pain in rt thumb, neck and shoulders using over the counter Glucosamine and Chondroitin and just about 10 days ago back at Costco and found Triple Flex with glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM so take one of each. If I stop taking for a few days arthritis pain returns, thumb & neck pretty sharp, get back on and after 6-7days hardly notice the pain, maybe mind over matter but is working for me and 2 other friends who swear by it.
Similar issues with hands and thumbs. Been getting worse over the last few years. Mine is mainly osteoarthritis. Thumbs are the big problem. Had to give up some things, take it easy on others, and adjust the way I do some things. I found aspirin to help more than anything, depending on how you handle aspirin. Follow your doctors advice on all that. I didn't seem to get much out of the Glucosamine and Chondroitin, but that's just me. Good luck with it.
Naproxen tears my guts up :( Advil works best for me
You probably have arthritis of the base of your first metacarpal. Google it and see if that's your problem. Causes pain after gripping with decreased strength. Can be debilitating and there are some surgical procedures to consider when it becomes so. I should know, I have it on both right and left sides. Throwing wood into my stove all winter makes it worse.
I meant to say Aleve not advil . Sometimes my thumbs just don't wanna work like they should,just gotta deal with it
Quote from: doctorb on June 06, 2018, 10:55:48 AM
You probably have arthritis of the base of your first metacarpal. Google it and see if that's your problem. Causes pain after gripping with decreased strength. Can be debilitating and there are some surgical procedures to consider when it becomes so. I should know, I have it on both right and left sides. Throwing wood into my stove all winter makes it worse.
https://www.eorthopod.com/sites/default/files/images/hand_cmc_intro01.jpg
That's it.
I have arthritis in both hands in several fingers and the thumbs but this is the first time the thumb shut down on me. My pinkies do it now and then but this is different and much tougher to handle.
Day 3 on prednisone and I have most of the movement back but still a fair amount of pain if I try to use it more than just a little.
I'm loaded with it knees no cartledge left.
Shoulders and hands.
One of my friends calls me sausage fingers because they are swelled up so much.
Some days i feel like the tin man moving around.
Might try Gin-Soaked Raisins I use them daily if I skip a day or two pain returns to hands there are recipe on line,I think gin needs to be made with juniper berries make sure you buy a large bottle of gin if it doesn't help in a couple weeks the left over gin will help short term.
I've had some improvement but certain things can inject instant, immediate and considerable pain into my thumb so, after a week I have a feeling the doc is right and this thumb is not going to just miraculously heal. As in, I'm in trouble here I think.
Surgery is, of course, an option and I will look into that but I have customers I may not be able to mill for. Heck, I have 3 I need to get to in the next week to 10 days and I'm not sure I can do it. :(
I'll have to plan camping trips instead but still need to get these folks sorted. I can use the hand, just not the thumb so much -- autocluctch? debarker? yup, going to be tough
My father in law was really crippled up with it in his hands and found that honeybee stings on each hand near the knuckles would relieve the pain for up to 6 months. Google it
So far the doc's prescription has done it's thing and the hand is working again :) Woot woot!
Milling all weekend! 8)