De quervains tenosynovitis

[Buttons4me]

Does anyone have this? I have horrendous wrist pain. Any slight movement im through the roof. Its so painful any movement of my wrist, im so limited with what i can do. I cant have soup with a spoon in my right hand. I can hardly even do my make up with my right hand. I asked my doctor to refer me for an ultrasound and he said he cant. Could it be de quervains tenosynovitis or could it still be other conditions? Thankyou.

[Yoginut]

What do you think has caused it? I had it from over-work and too much time typing.

Rest, specific exercises, using voice recognition instead of a keyboard and taking steps to control stress eventually solved it.

[Buttons4me]

I am waiting for nerve conduction tests. Carpal tunnel has been suggested but i think it sounds like De quervains tenosynovitis.

[FiddlefigOnTheRoof]

Was quite simple for me. I had a gp referral to the hand department of a large hospital, who made me a rigid plastic wrist splint moulded to my measurements. Wore it as much as possible.

[Kazzyhoward]

I was diagnosed with dequervains many years ago by a private consultant referred by my GP. I had shooting pains up my arm caused by slight movements in the thumb. He said steroid injections would help, but before he wanted to do that, he said a simple wrist splint often worked, so he referred me back to the GP. GP referred me to the local hospital physio dept for the issue of a wrist splint. Nothing special, just a bog standard one off the shelf. I wore it for a few weeks throuhout the day. It worked a treat and never had it since - now been clear of it for 17 years! Glad I didn't go down the steroid route!

[idlevice]

De Quervains is more on the inside of the wrist/hand alongside the thumb downwards. There is a specific movement to test for it you can probably find on YouTube. It can be helped by steroid injection or ultimately operation. Wear splints until you can get it looked at properly & keep wrists rested. You can get generic wrist splints which will be better than nothing.

[JustSew]

Yes I had tenosynovitis 30 years ago when computers first came into my workplace. As idlevice says the inside of the wrist/hand alongside the thumb downwards.
It took a couple of years to fully recover and I have never been able to do sustained repetitive movements since.
I started to crochet in December and woke up with the most awful pain in my wrist / thumbs a few days later.
The pain was so bad I couldn't lift a drink, cook, use a knife, etc.
I still had the wrist braces from 30 years ago and wore those.
Five months on it's still painful but I am taking steroids for RA now and they have also helped with the hands.

[Iggi999]

I had this after having carpal tunnel (in pregnancy) I don't know if related. The tendinitis came on due to how my hand was splashed when breastfeeding for hours on end, or so I was told. I wore a splint and had physio which eventually cured it.

[OhWhatAPalaver]

I had this postnatally due to excess movement in joints, the worst affected being my wrists. Every time I tried to use my wrists the joint would pop out of place and then pop back in again causing damage to the tendons every time. Agony. Splints helped but it wasn't until my hormones settled down that it improved. You have my sympathy, it's awful.

[Harleyisme]

My son had it. He was given a splint and exercises to do. It was from using his computer mouse and xbox controller to much.

[Trepidatious]

I had de Quervain's a few years ago. I'm convinced I got it from too much knitting! The whole wrist/thumb area hurt, but moving the thumb was absolutely excruciating. It made a clicking sound too. I couldn't grip or hold anything because of the pain, which interfered with day-to-day life quite a bit.

The doctor advised me to buy a wrist support to immobilise it as much as was possible, which did help. He said he could prescribe steroids if I wanted, but I decided to just put up with the pain and eventually it cleared up on its own. It took about 6 months, though.

[goose1964]

My husband has had it for years, it's left him with not much use of his hand. He's had tests and the tendon sheath is permanently damaged. Medication hasn't helped him but he gets acupuncture every 4 weeks. He's going to need it as soon as he can as his language is definitely heading downhill.

[Mollymalone123]

Hi
I had exactly had same as you a few months back- I went online and bought a splint- had to wear it a few weeks but it did work.think I got mine from amazon 👍🏻

[Mollymalone123]

Should say I had De Quervains

[barkingfly]

I had it for several months and a quick surgery completely cured it. You can actually test yourself. www.ouh.nhs.uk/patient-guide/leaflets/files/11303Pdequervains.pdf
Sometimes the tendon is just too thick to treat with therapy.

[Buttons4me]

Would this show up on an ultra sound? Is this completely different to carpal tunnel syndrome?

[Trepidatious]

Mine showed up clearly on ultrasound.

[BikeRunSki]

Yep, I had this about 11 years ago. I had 1 steroid injection, and have had no problems since.

[pinguwings]

Shows up clearly on an ultrasound.

I've had it twice. Steroid injection does the job very quickly.

[Est06]

I have had persistent de Quervain for about 2 years, it comes and goes but have never really regained proper use of the affected hand. Am interested in whether anyone has had surgery and if so what was recovery like and would you recommend it. I be had it so long I’m worried it may be permanent, and/or require surgery
Any advice much appreciated, thanks
E

[diavlo]

I had this quite a few years ago, I think caused by using a hand held breast pump.
I tried a splint without success. In the end my GP gave me a steroid Injection and I started to improve after about 10 days. I haven’t had any problems since.
You have my sympathies, it’s so sore.

[Moondust001]

@idlevice

De Quervains is more on the inside of the wrist/hand alongside the thumb downwards. There is a specific movement to test for it you can probably find on YouTube. It can be helped by steroid injection or ultimately operation. Wear splints until you can get it looked at properly & keep wrists rested. You can get generic wrist splints which will be better than nothing.

Long before injections or surgery - there are loads of exercises which can easily and completely resolve any wrist/arm/ shoulder based nerve conduction problems. This is just one site www.healthline.com/health/de-quervains-tenosynovitis-exercises

Given the current circumstances it is highly unlikely you are going to be able to get a nerve conduction test or any other none urgent treatment any time soon.

As for diagnosis, if you aren't sure, google radial, medial and ulnar nerve injuries - you will find a lot of sites that have easy and clear description and diagrams that will allow you to choose the correct exercises.

There is also an "odd" piece of advice, which a physio friend told me about. A relatively under-recognised trigger is clenching or closing your hands in bed / asleep. If you can train yourself to sleep with your hand open, the back of the hand down and hanging out of the bed or on the bed, palm up, it stretches the nerves and helps them relax back into place. I know, it sounds daft. But it really helped me although it did take some effort to get it to a natural way of sleeping.

I stopped mine - which was quite bad, with regular exercises for several weeks - 3 or 4 times a day for 5 minutes or so. I still do the exercises a few times a week, especially whilst working on the computer. With dedication it is entirely possible that you could sort it before you ever get that appointment!