Hi all, I have had pain in my fingers primarily, which is what led my doc to dx RA. I have had pain in my left thumb, at the base, for a few months now. We talked about
doing a pred shot but I took pred pills instead. The pred helped tha pain in my fingers but not the pain in my thumb as much. My rheumy said that she thought that is was De Quervain's tendosynovitis, which is caused by overuse. And to try and rest my thumb as much as possible. I said, "Yeah, right!" because I am a stay-at-home Mom with an active 3-year-old and 2 school-age kids.
When I was in the rheumy's office last month, she had me do the Finklestein test for de Quervain's. You curl your thumb in towards your palm, curl your fingers over your thumb, and move your fist from side-to-side. If you feel a pulling sensation in the muscles on the side of your wrist, it's de quervains. I felt that a little bit in the office, now I don't feel it in my wrist. The pain is in my thumb.
Anyway, last night at dinner, I was moving my thumb and I felt a sharp click and then my thumb was in terrible pain. It lasted for a long time. I put some Voltaren gel on it, and then wore my compression glove, but the only thing that helped was to not move it at all. I was doing some reading about "trigger thumb" and I don't know if tha'ts what happened. But my thumb hurts pretty bad today too.
A bit of history:I am a lefty, so I use my left hand more than my right. I also broke my left wrist last fall and had to have surgery, I now have a plate with screws in my wrist that is permanent. I have noticed that I have lost hand strength in both hands since then.
I personally think that it is arthritis and not just a muscle issue. Any thoughts? Thanks!