Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with wrist and injury

not your typical rsi question

streetdreams — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:01:51 -0800

I clean houses for a living. I'm getting RSI. A lot of the usual advice doesn't seem to apply to me, and I don't know what to do. I've been an independent house cleaner for about a year, and that had been going quite well until I took on a bunch of new clients at once. Now my hands and wrists are screaming in pain, especially at the base of my thumbs, in my wrists, and up my forearms. Looking around the interweb, I'm pretty sure I have de Quervain's syndrome (which used to be called washer woman's syndrome!) in my thumbs, and there might be more going on in my wrists too. It has to do with squeezing out sponges, squeezing spray bottles, gripping brooms, etc...for hours, almost every day. At this point, it hurts when I'm not working, it's interfering with everything I have to do with my hands, and it's affecting my sleep. It's not good.

So. What to do? A lot of the advice I've seen for RSI is for computer professionals, and while I do spend a fair amount of time on the computer (which hurts), I don't think that's the main problem and a lot of the advice doesn't seem to apply to me. I tried taking a few weeks off and the pain mostly went away after a while, but it came back right away when I went back to work. Probably, I ultimately need to quit my job, which is scary for a bunch of reasons; even on top of figuring out my financial situation, I'm afraid that I've screwed up my body for life.

I don't have health insurance and have little to no money, especially if I can't work, so seeing doctors/getting surgery/etc. is out unless they're at the free clinic. I can probably afford cheapish wrist/thumb braces, and am totally up for doing exercises or whatever, but am not sure which ones would work best for me. I'd welcome whatever advice you can give me.

Exercise for the freshly hobbled

bicyclefish — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:05:30 -0800

Can you suggest some exercise for the freshly hobbled? Summer's here, and my plan to work off my gut with vigorous biking went off the tracks when I went over the handlebars. (In truth, I don't think I was biking vigorously enough anyway, and it was time to step up.)

So here I am with a cast over a broken hand-bone (scaphoid, I'm told) for 6-12 weeks. Additionally, I've got a bad knee that can't be run on, which the doctors are pondering surgery on. So running is out for now.

Where to go from here, AskMe? I'd like something that will both give me cardio and help get my upper body in shape. What's the best option for someone with one busted hand and one iffy knee?

(ps. bonus karma for anyone with sharp ideas about how to take a fibreglass/cloth cast to the beach)

Need anti-bored ideas while wrist injury is healing.

a robot made out of meat — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:49:54 -0800

Need anti-bored ideas while wrist injury is healing. Ms. vegetable fell and sprained her dominant wrist and is in a splint for another 4-6 weeks. She is not allowed to use this hand at all, and she is running out of one-handed ideas. She can read hardbacked books, type very slowly with her nondominant hand, and watch movies. That's kinda it. She can't knit, crochet, bake, papercraft, or really clean/pickup/organize, which are things she enjoys doing. She needs help with ideas for what she can do besides shopping. Help, please?

How do I find a good doctor?

Jsn7821 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:53:59 -0800

How do I find a good doctor to look at my wrist? My right wrist has been undergoing various minor traumas over the last few months. Basically a small puncture wound became a problem when I landed on my wrist playing frisbee and pulled something. A few weeks went by and it seemed to be healing, but then I re-injured it working in my yard. It's been about 2 months since the frisbee incident, and the actual area of interest has moved a little, getting closer to my wrist, ceased to make progress, and has become a small puffy area, red and bruised, about an inch in length. Maybe there is some sort of infection going on, I am not sure.

I can do just about everything I need to with my wrist, which is why I haven't sought out medical attention yet, but I have somewhat limited range of motion, and something like rock-climbing is completely out of the question.

Anyway: I just moved from WA state to Hawaii and don't know of any good doctors out here, and it looks like anyone near by isn't covered directly by my health insurance. I still have 60% coverage for non-covered doctors though, but I want to make sure I visit someone worthwhile if I am going to be spending a lot out of my pocket. I think what I want is an "osteopathic surgeon", but I am not sure.

I really want my wrist to heal. How do I find a good doctor?

What's wrong with my wrist?

anotherpanacea — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:28:00 -0800

What's wrong with my wrist? My left wrist hurts, badly, when more than a few pounds of pressure are applied either forward or backward--hyper-flexion in the palmar/volar and dorsal directions. I don't think it's a sprain or a break, because there's no swelling or bruising visible, and I have full range of movement. Similarly, I don't think it's tendonitis because the pain is from pushing, not movement. I can go all day without pain or any special carefulness, and then accidentally lever myself up from sitting and have that horribly painful jolt. Examples of now-impossibly-painful activities: the down position in a push-up, propping my head with my hand.

[Probably irrelevant personal narrative: Several months ago, I tripped while running and landed on my hands. They were badly scraped up, but I was otherwise fine. Since they've healed, there's been a growing 'twinge' in that left wrist. Last month I engaged in lots of heavy lifting while moving and since then that hand has been pretty much useless. Yet despite the fact that I've avoided using it, it doesn't seem to want to get better.]

What's wrong? And, while we're at it, what's the treatment?

Wrist pain, very likely a sprain: just watch and wait?

sparrows — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:56:54 -0800

I have some wrist pain from my wrist being twisted, which by all signs appears to be a sprain rather than anything more serious. I'm trying to make sure I don't need to visit an ER (other major factor is that I have no insurance and I don't know what would happen financially after an ER visit). This is in NYC, if if matters. I've never been to an ER; I know they're required to treat you intially if you have no insurance, but I can assume the result afterwards would be me in debt to the hospital for god knows how much. If your first reaction is "money is no object when it comes to your health!" please respect that it's not that way for everyone; I really need to evaluate this critically. I'm trying to find out specifically what the cost would be after an ER visit, especially if they wanted to do x-rays.

I hope I can just wait and see what happens with my wrist. I think that two unrelated things happened to my wrist: it was twisted fast (= sprain) and it was pressed against an edge (= long but mild bruise). It's somewhat swollen and it hurts to twist it, but I see no unusual bone shape and the pain isn't intense. In other words, according to my googling, signs definitely point to sprain not fracture. Some sites say it should be x-rayed just in case, but most say ice it and if it doesn't improve fast, then see a doctor. If it's relevant, I've never had any other wrist pain or issues.

I also don't know if it's relevant (in terms of who pays) that cops were the source of whatever this injury is. (They got somewhat rough with me in the process of arresting my unrelated neighbor; details are below but not necessary to read if you just have an opinion on the wrist. I have zero interest in suing them but I might be willing to see if they'd just directly reimburse for x-rays, if it's that simple..... which I'm sure it's not.)

Pistol Grip Shotguns Bad For Wrists?

tkolar — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:29:01 -0800

Can someone share their experience with firing a pistol grip shotgun? I've been seeing a lot of these recently and I can't believe that your wrist would ever be the same after pulling the trigger. Now I'm kinda curious, but I thought I'd ask before I tried it...

Sprained my Wrist, But I Can Still Use the Internets

frogan — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:11:04 -0800

Wrist Injury Filter: I sprained my wrist. Help me find an appropriate wrap or treatment. I think I've severely sprained my right wrist doing, of all things, painting the inside of a house. I think I was just gripping the paint roller super-tight and using it for several days and something went funky. At least nothing went "sprong!" It was just stiff and hurting the next day and never stopped. This was approximately 8 weeks ago.

There's never been swelling or discoloration. But I have significantly reduced range of motion and pain when flexing the wrist in every direction or when gripping something tightly (e.g. I cannot open a jar of pickles). I can type and use a mouse just fine, obviously. Advil helps, but not super-well.

Counter-intuitively, putting a tight wrap on the wrist seems to aggravate the injury -- the wrist stiffens even more, so taking the wrap off (e.g. to shower) is intially painful while things loosen up.

* I know many of you will say "see a doctor." You are probably correct. I do not think anything is broken, but I could have a partial tear. I'm concerned that a doctor would merely cast the wrist and fingers for several weeks, and then I'm screwed work-wise and family-wise (although I could be healed). I would like to self-treat this a little while longer, if possible.
* Are there other experiences of having sprains lasting this long?
* Why is wrapping the wrist not working? Am I doing something wrong by wrapping it tightly?
* Are there super-good wrap and/or splint brands you've used?
* Finally, this is not keyboard-induced RSI or carpal tunnel. I've never had that problem and the wrist starting hurting only after the painting incident.