Have you ever had this?

[Nixz]

I have had a sore wrist for about 4 days now, i cant remember banging or twisting it. I cant really bend it back and twisiting movements (like opening a bottle) are sore. There is no apparent swelling but it hurts like hell! The pain is mainly centred around my thumb and along my wrist for about 3 inches and at my elbow and at my shoulder. It has kept me up at night for the last 3 nights and i was going to nip to A & E with it this morning but just thought i may enquire on here if anyone has ever had anything similar and what it turned out to be - all comments welcome!

Could be repeditive strain injury - very common. Why would you go to a and e, why not go to the gp?

Weird one. Hopefully someone on here will know this one. I'd talk to a physio/GP rather than A+E, unless your A+E is a pleasant place to be.

i'd wait 2 weeks for appt with gp who would only recommend an x ray! We have a walk in centre just opened here, but they would prob only send me for x ray aswell. - A & E seems like the only choice

Given the problem is in thumb/wrist/elbow/shoulder, it's got to be tendons or nerves or something, not a break. With a break (from what I know) the pain is a lot more centralised and specific. So an x-ray may well not be needed.

I thought GPs were meant to be giving appointments in 48 hours now?

yeah i htough it may be a trapped nerve - u think a&e is too extreme?

Nixz forgive me if this sounds unsympathetic but A&E is for accidents and emergencies and your painful wrist doesn't really sound like it falls into either of those catagories. The walk in centre sounds like the best bet to me, at least they will be able to give you a prescription for painkillers or anti-inflamitories. Good luck either way.

my local hospital has an a & E dept for children but for adults it has now changed and is called a minor injuries clinic - i still call it a & E as it has been that for as long as i can remember!

Ok sorry that clinic sounds like the right place to go, hope you feel better soon

Thanks! Sorry i should have said!

Carmenenere, at last, somebody who talks sence about the use of A&e.

I use to be a staff nurse in the busiest A&E dept in the country. It was and still is appalling the number of people who use and abuse the system when the problem could be resolved adequatly by their GP.

Nixz, this post isn't aimed at you btw.

kcemum, I think lots of people feel this way about A+E (avoid using it when possible). The thing is, though, of course you don't often see them in A+E, except necessarily.

Kcemum - it is one of my bug-bears. I totally understand that everyone that presents themselves at A&E have to be seen (in case of something serious) but it just rankles me that much of the traffic isn't quite emergency status.

We did an audit one night of the patients who came in for treatment (except children) and over 55% could or should have waited to see their gps the following day. Thios was not a particularly busy night and didn't include the regular users who came in for a warm!

My gp will not do homevisits for me or dd, he will always tell us to go to a & e, i have called nhs direct a few times and they too have always told met to go to A&E. At our local walk in centre, they say if u need a dr or an xray go to a&e, they also say that the waiting time will not be as long there. So if you look at it like that, no wonder people go there!

BTW, i went to minor accidents clinic and they have put on a cast. They have told me to take anti-inflam for 5 days and if pain doesnt go to ocme back. They said my tendons are swollen (they showed me where to feel to feel them grinding together eeuuw!) and something about carpel tunnel tendons aswell. If they cant reduce the swelling then they have to do a minor op i think.

ooh I get terrible carpal tunnel - it can be absolute agony.

Did they give you splints for your hand/wrists? You can sleep with these splints on - essentially, they straighten your wrist so that you don't sleep with your hand/wrist curved over (which makes it much worse).

Mine still comes and goes - it's been fairly bad at the moment and today I woke up with a completely numb little finger and that awful pain in my elbow and thumb.

I have a cast, i think i have had it before aswell. Im to go back in a week to see if i need surgery - scarey thought!

Nixz, I fully understand what you are saying. In our area NHSdirect is called NHS RE-direct - straight to A & e!

Nhs direct was set up to help take the pressure off understaffed, under resourced A & E depts, I am however a great fan of the walk-in centres.

Hope your wrist heals quickly for you..lots of rest will help.

good luck - I didn't have the surgery but apparently it's quick and has a good success rate (well that's what they told me at the time!)

Thanks everyone - im in a cast, dp has had a skydiving accident and has had all kinds of surgery, dd has excema and a bad cold at the mo - we are right bunch us lot!

Thanks everyone - im in a cast, dp has had a skydiving accident and has had all kinds of surgery, dd has excema and a bad cold at the mo - we are right bunch us lot!

Thanks everyone - im in a cast, dp has had a skydiving accident and has had all kinds of surgery, dd has excema and a bad cold at the mo - we are right bunch us lot!

erm oops - sorry!