Hand/Wrist/Forearm injury that won't go away

Context of the pain:

Hi, apologies for the lengthy post. Last year (May I think) I got injured and had a sharp shooting pain in my forearm and wrist. This pain was really bad for a week or two, and hurt to type/write/grip toothbrush/use a knife etc. The pain came about after months of poor form lifting weights (could only use dumbbells at home due to the pandemic) which put a lot of stress on my wrists, as well as using a heavy bag for boxing (with poor technique as I've never had proper training) and a lot of typing (was in my last semester of university). I stopped lifting for a couple weeks then started again when the pain eased a bit. Lifting didn't seem to make it any worse, but it also didn't really heal. I spoke to a GP who just told me to rest it over summer, and it was likely RSI.

I carried on lifting throughout summer, and my wrist/forearm seemed to be healing, or at least not getting worse, and by September it was barely hurting. It then started to flare up badly in October, so I saw a Physio therapist. He said to take a break from lifting and try forearm/wrist strengthening exercises in the meantime. I stopped lifting for 2 months, and did the exercises pretty much every day, like he said. This did nothing to help, and if anything maybe made it worse. I came back to him after 9 weeks and explained, then he said to start lifting again see what happens. So I started lifting again, and the pain seemed to reduce almost instantly. After a few weeks however, the pain came back, but no worse than before. I carried on lifting until May, trying to keep the stress on my wrists as low as possible and making sure my exercises were slow and controlled, with no swinging motion on the wrists/forearms, which seemed to trigger the pain.

The pain was mostly manageable, although it definitely affected my work (I use a computer) as it can be quite painful to type. As the pain was fairly sporadic, and some days I didn't get any at all, even the day after lifting, I tried to ignore it and hope the pain would go away eventually. It started to flare up again, so I saw a GP again in April. This time, they told me the cause of the pain was simply lifting, and I needed to take a proper break as 2 months wasn't enough. I tried to explain that the break did nothing last time, but they wouldn't listen and were set on the idea. I initially ignored them, but a few weeks later I decided it was probably a good idea to take an extended break from lifting as I don't want this pain all my life.

It has now been 10 weeks since I stopped lifting, and if anything, the pain is worse. The last couple of weeks especially, has been worse than it ever was while lifting (this year at least, its not as bad as the initial injury). This has been without any obvious triggers (e.g. awkward lifts, or more typing than usual). I tried doing the forearm/wrist exercises again a couple weeks ago, and while they can sometimes provide a little bit of short term pain relief, I feel they could be making things worse as the pain ramped up after I started doing them.

I am probably going to refrain from lifting for another couple months, however I really miss it, so it is pretty frustrating being in this limbo. Considering the pain isn't from a broken bone, or a nasty muscle tear, it is supposedly from muscle overuse, doesn't that mean that 10 weeks off lifting should heal it a bit? It certainly shouldn't be worse now, than it was the day after lifting, if lifting was the cause right? Lifting rarely caused me pain, although some exercises did. Generally, pulling exercises (back day stuff) was the worst, and could cause pain in my forearm, although I generally stopped if I felt the pain. Barbell row was pretty bad, and I stopped doing that after a lift triggered the pain badly for a couple weeks. Does this sound like my arm is going to be constantly f****d/in pain?

Description of the pain:

Sharp shooting pain in forearm, wrist, and top side of hand. This comes about from typing, cutting food, using mobile phone etc. This pain is mostly in my right arm, but I do also get it in left arm, sometimes worse, but generally not as bad, and less frequently. Recently, I have been getting very mild numbness in my right hand. When my injury first happened, I was getting numbness in my right hand, worse than now though. It stopped for a while, but seems to have come back a bit in the last week.

The physio/doctor checked for arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome etc., said it didn't seem anything like that, just seemed like a muscle injury.

Any advice? Whether advice on the next step, or exercises/stretches that I might not have tried and how often to do them etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it is driving me crazy. Thanks.

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