tendonitis

[Italiahaircolor]

About a month ago I started developing really intense pain in my wrist, and horrible swelling in left hand. Some days the pain was manageable and others it was debiliating--as far as using my left hand went. I thought, at the time, I meerly sprained it, and hoped with icing and rest it wouldn''t bounce back. But seriously, it just went on and on...sometimes the pain would travel all the way up to my elbow. Last Wednesday I finally went to the doctor about it, and she told me I have tendonitis in my left wrist.

Now, I have to go to Physical Therapy twice weekly, take some medication, and wear a brace (which, by the way is soooooo attractive

).

But heres my problem, my left hand is incredibly swollen. Some days, if I''m lucky, I can manage to squeeze my thin wedding band on my finger--but forget about my ering, the minute it gets on, my finger turns this angry shade of reddish purple, and I start to panic (like only women can do when they can''t get a ring off

)

My Dr. shared with me that, best case senario, PT will take effect in a few months, the swelling may or may not go down quickly, but that I will always be prone to random flare ups that can last weeks or even longer, at a time

. If the PT doesn''t work in a few months, we''ll go to getting shots in my wrist...and, "move on from there" (whatever that means)...

So, I''m wondering now if I shouldn''t get my rings sized...I know it''s just "swelling" but if this something I''m going to be dealing with for the rest of my life, wouldn''t it make more sense to start adjusting to it now? Besides, I miss wearing my rings. I feel like I''m wasting them--leaving in their holder for an undetermined amount of time...it frankly makes me a bit sad. I can always get them resized in a year or so if this appears to have cleared itself up....

So, what would you do? To size or not to size, that is the question...

 

[strmrdr]

sorry to hear about your tendinitis.
For now you are likely better off not wearing one unfortunately.
Give it a few months and see what happens.

 

[scarleta]

Sorry to hear that.I have to agree with Storm.No point doing anything with the rings.What you can do is put them on your chain and wear them around your neck.I hope with good P.Therapy and medications your condition will get better soon.

 

[jellycat]

hmm..i would hold off on the sizing for now.

i was diagnosed w/ tendonitis in both wrists/arms years ago and i still have it. i also went to PT, and during PT, it didn't really help. what helped for me was the ibuprofen regimen i was on.. i believe i took 2 pills 3 x a day..so 6 a day for about 2 weeks and the swelling went down significantly. i was finally to the point where i wasn't in terrible pain any longer. i still have it, but it is definitely manageable now. i don't take ibuprofen for the swelling anymore, but i don't really need to.

good luck! i hope the PT works for you.. it is possible that the PT is what worked for me, but it was a delayed reaction. but honestly, i think it was the ibuprofen.. if you take ibuprofen, make sure you eat! also, of course, you should speak to your doc about this before you try this..

 

[chizzy1982]

Hi Italiahaircolour - I''m so sorry you are having to deal with this. Can''t offer you any new advice re ring sizing, but I would echo the sentiments to hold off for now. Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendons - just out of interest where abouts is your pain, along the thumb? physio should not take a few months to work. The key is too find out what movements aggrevate it, i.e bending, rotation etc then to try and aviod these movmements that reproduce the pain which is why you have been given a splint. It gives support and allows everything to settle. If you keep aggrevating an inflamed area the inflammation becomes chronic and thats when you run into problems. Lots of ice, NSAID and aviodance of aggrevating movements. It should settle itself down. However it is important that you keep the affected joint gently moving in a pain free range, if you don''t it becomes stiff and therefore painful, also scar tissue will be forming along the affected tendon and this wants to be laid down in a nice and "stretched" way. If you don''t move the affected joint/tendon the scar tissue will just knot together in a bundle which will not move particularly well and again result in stiffness, lose of range and pain.. The injections your doc is talking about will be localised steriod injections, where they inject direct into the joint/affected area with a dose of steriods to reduce the inflammatory response.

This is just my opinion and general advice and as I have not assessed you, you should cont with the rehab programme from your PT