Advice on what do to please

[BeepBopToTheBeep]

Posting here for traffic. No idea how it's happened, probably rocking my toddler to sleep. But my wrist is quite painful, and pain has slowly been getting worse for the past few hours. I can't move it or clentch my first without pain. I couldn't even open the toothbrush lid with the hand. Just taken ibuprofen and put a bag of peas from freezer over it. Problem is I'm alone with my toddler because dh is away in another country for work and doesn't return until midnight tomorrow. All family live 60 miles away. My parents are both at work tomorrow. Advice on what to do please?

Sounds like strained tendons. Look up symptoms and tests for Carpal tunnel, De Quervains and RSI to see if any of those fit your precise pains.

Is it really swollen? Do you think you could have trapped a nerve? I know someone who fell and broke their wrist but didn’t realise and didn’t go to hospital until the next day and it was fine (the delay didn’t make it worse). Unless you hit it or fell I don’t think it could be a break. I’d wait til morning then if still painful go to A&E. Try calling 111 if you are really not sure (though I’ve found them useless).

Sounds bit like De Quervains because it's my thumb I can barely move without pain.
No tingling sensation and it isn't swollen at all.

And thanks for replies.

I had a similar pain out of knowhere, along wrist and lower forearm. Like you it felt as if it was getting worse for a while. This was over the course of an hour or two. Then it gradually eased off and felt better in the morning. Happened again the next evening. Again it wore off.

So try to stay calm OP and see how you are in the morning.

Missangrypants thanks. I am starting to panic a bit which is probably making things worse. Do you know what caused it for you?

Check if your forearm muscles are really tight. That can cause extra pull on the tendons. I have mild arthritis in one wrist and often my forearm muscles are stiff too.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude thanks for reply, formarm muscles don't seem to be tight

No idea what caused it. Thought maybe too much use at work or using my mobile. Thought about going to the GP, but it got better.

As Chazs has said it might be arthritis as I have other arthritic bits. It was sooo painful at the time and trying to grip anything made it worse.

Try alternating heat and cold and keep you wrist in a neutral position i.e. not flexed in any direction. If you have any tubigrip you can use that for compression. If it is irritated tendons sometimes they just need a bit of time to calm down.

If it's De Quervains then the physio exercises I was given made it worse. It needed a lot of rest to feel better first; I had it in both hands and the one that was rested and "better" before the stretching exercises got strong quickly, the other one was damaged for a long time from stretching too soon. For £10 you can buy a thumb splint at the chemist, wear it for a week or so. Once it doesn't actively hurt with small movements do the recommended stretches to strengthen it. DO NOT PUSH IT, if it's injured give it as much rest as possible, stretching when in pain makes it much worse for much longer if it's DeQ, please believe me rather than going through that pain yourself!

Hope it is feeling better soon.

Also icing it is fabulous for pain relief. If you get a flexible cold pack you can wrap it right round your thumb and wrist, lovely.

Sounds like the De Quervains I had with small baby.
Physio will give you a splint for your hand. Exercises make it worse (PP physio that was strange advice!)
You need to rest it- try not to use it at all (texting is one of the worse things!) And get that splint so you are forced to.
It's an irritation of the nerve in its sheath- which is swollen. Resting it is the only solution.
It's not permanent. It's not terribly serious. It's just painful and annoying.

@MRex
@Howdidido
Thanks for reply/ advice, yeah it does sound like De Quervains. Do I need to see gp? Or do I just rest it and get a splint from pharmacy for it? What physio exercises do I do when it starts to get better? It's hard to rest it completely when carrying toddler and changing his nappy etc

Talk to health visitor about referral to physio. Or yeah GP. In our LA we can self refer to physio so that's what I did.
Basically- go see a physio who specialises in pregnancy/post pregnancy issues

Get the thumb splint at the chemist. I found it hard to control the pushchair with that so I used a wrist splint and tried not to move my thumb while pushing. It's hard with a toddler; just try to make them climb up/ down stairs, hold hands and walk etc where you can.

I tried a chiropractor who resolved carpal tunnel issues but nothing else. GP gave me a Physio referral, who gave me massage that makes my trigger finger issues fine. Lots of icing, the splint and some caution is enough to rest your wrist, I've had normal baby then toddler cuddles / wriggling throughout. The exercises that they gave me for De Quervains helped the wrist that was getting better and I'm doing them now on the other one to strengthen it now it's improved from rest. (Oddly enough my cleaner got De Quervains also and we compared exercises; the same ones worked well for each of us.)

images.app.goo.gl/iQZ7qT7Ugv8ZhcSZ7
Grip strengthening, opposition stretch & the elastic band finger spring worked brilliantly. Do the wrist stretch very carefully. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE WRIST RADIAL STRETCH NOR THE WRIST FLEXION WHILE YOUR WRIST HURTS AT ALL. I was left in agony for 2 weeks after lightly trying those exercises, my cleaner also had agony for a week from trying the radial stretch. While physio should help you build up slowly, frankly they are just trying stuff out so they would advise you to try it gently - don't, please. Do the icing, the rest and the other exercises; those are for when it's feeling better to strengthen it.