Painful hands and thumbs
Posted , 8 users are following.
Before I was diagnosed with PMR my hands hurt and I chalked it up to using my tablet too much. But as soon as I started my prednisone my hand pain disappear so I chalked it up to PMR pain. Since then my hand pain has returned and my thumbs particularly my right hand has started hurting terribly bad and the pain in my right thumb has gone up into my arm as well. At my rheumatologist suggestion I started wearing a thumb guard (it looks like a glove.) That has relieved the arm pain and quite a bit of the thumb pain but my hands still ache. I have had a nerve conduction study done that showed I only had borderline carpal tunnel so my GP sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. Doing a physical examination he said I had OA in my thumb. I reported this to my rheumatologist and also told her that my whole hand hurt not just my thumb. So she did an x-ray of my hand and reported that there was nothing on the X-ray. She did offer to do an MRI on my hands with contrast dye to look for inflammation. Quite frankly I'm second-guessing her. The reason I am is because I have recently also been diagnosed with OA in my foot as well and she missed that in my x-ray also. It wasn't until I went to a podiatrist who saw it in the same x-ray that it was finally diagnosed . Now after all of that explanation and background my question is what do I do now? I don't know if this is all just PMR stuff and I just need to move on and where my little thumb guard gloves or pursue this matter further. The pain is manageable most of the time as long as I wear my thumb gloves so I could move on. Sorry for being so long winded.
0 likes, 18 replies
Anhaga amkoffee
Posted
amkoffee Anhaga
Posted
I seriously doubt it. And I'm not even sure that she had a radiologist read it for her. I think she's reading them for herself
EileenH amkoffee
Posted
The question then is - how good is she at it. Some doctors will find things that radiologists don't (my husband's old TB being a case in point!). Can you get a second opinion of it?
I get thumb pain as I reduce - and often if I go back to the last dose for a couple of weeks and try again it improves. It was a major symptom with my PMR pre-pred, it traced all up my arm, diagonally across to the outside of my elbow and was definitely worse when using that hand too much.
I assume the brace you are wearing is a big one? There is a small one a few people on another forum have found fantastic. Google Push Braces Ortho Thumb Brace CMC to treat thumb osteoarthritis pain - Latex free
Not cheap - though I noticed there was a fairly wide range of prices coming up.
Anhaga EileenH
Posted
I was really lucky to be able to read, and get a copy of, the radiologist's report when first being investigated for "pain all over". That's how I learned sarcoidosis had been more active and widespread than I realized, and that my hips were fine. GP hadn't considered it important enough to mention either.
amkoffee EileenH
Posted
As for the second opinion, I think I can. I think I can ask my GP to have his radiologist look at it and give his opinion but it might end up being the same radiologist because both doctors are in the same hugh system.
I have to admit that yesterday I sent a rather scathing email to her because as I told her I don't see how an X-RAY can not show arthritis but a doctor can find it in a physical exam. She told me that an x-ray will not always show everything. And it was her recommendation that I have an MRI with contrast done on my hands. Today I will send her an email apologizing for the tone of my email and tell her that I think I'm going to hold off on the MRI. Mostly because I think that may be that the pain is either from osteoarthritis which can't really be treated or PMR which is already being treated and I know how to deal with that.
Anhaga amkoffee
Posted
My broken leg was diagnosed with an MRI, the break having been missed by the first people to view the x-ray but picked up the following morning by a newly minted orthopaedic specialist who suspected something wrong so ordered the MRI.. So I guess sometimes we are just lucky, or not as the case may be. But I'm really glad the specialist caught the break or I might have ended up with some serious damage.
amkoffee Anhaga
Posted
That pretty serious for it being a broken leg! The ER Dr did not see the break in my son's hand but when the radiologist saw the X-RAY later that same day he saw the break so they called me. We ended up taking my son into my family doctor to have a cast put on it.
Anhaga amkoffee
Posted
It was a tibeal plateau fracture, a very narrow piece was broken off the top of the bone and it wasn't displaced at all. This was not noticed in the initial x-ray. In fact I think none of the ppl at emergency thought the bone was broken. I had to wait at least five hours alone in a room (had arrived by ambulance) before anyone looked at me. In that time the leg swelled up to twice its size. When someone arrived to take me to x-ray she asked me if I could walk! Timing was bad as we had to cancel a trip of a lifetime (Australia, New Zealand cruise) and lost most of our money, a tidy sum, because we unknowlingly didn't have enough insurance. I think this event, along with a few other stressful things going on my life led to PMR developing a couple of months later.....
amkoffee Anhaga
Posted
That sounds positively horrible. Don't you have to wonder about these nurses that come in and ask you to walk to x-ray when they know you're there because of a leg issue. I was talking to my doctor's nurse on the telephone about my hands and wrists and she was giving me the results of one of the tests that I had gotten and I asked her I said okay so what now and she said to me well does it still hurt? What was I supposed to say of course it still hurts why would I be pursuing this thing if it didn't still hurt? I don't think they really think what they're asking before they open their mouth.
daniel08939 amkoffee
Posted
a numb finger and very sore thumb, I wore a brace, were symptoms along with shoulder, hip pain and fatique. After about one month the hand pain went away and never came back. I believe it is one of the many weird symptoms of pmr. If you are on the right dose of prednisone I believe the hand problems will go away, at least mine did.
amkoffee daniel08939
Posted
Well as you know when you taper it's kind of hard to know if you're on the right until you see how you feel. I am on a dose right now that I had a really hard time getting to but with the exception of the hands everything else is good. So I'm not thinking it's a good dosage of Prednisone at this time and that's its not causing my hands to hurt
amkoffee
Posted
I meant to say in that last sentence was that I think I am on a good dose of pred since my hands are the only thing that hurts.
daniel08939 amkoffee
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donna25417 amkoffee
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dane2 amkoffee
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The same thing happened to me. The symptoms in the other parts of my body (legs, arms, torso, shoulders) improved markedly with prednisone than my hands, which remained stubbornly painful and achey a much longer time. I was wondering if I had carpal tunnel or arthritis in ADDITION to PMR. But they are finally much better. Right now I'm on 9 mg., soon to taper to 8.
EileenH dane2
Posted
Some of it depends on whether the pain is muscular or due to synovitis/tendonitis. Muscle is well supplied with blood, the steroids gets there quickly and at a high dose. Tendons and the joint synovium don't have a good blood supply, the pred reaches them by diffusion from blood into joint fluid and bathing the structures and so its antiinflammatory effect takes far long to appear. It was some months before my hands and feet stopped hurting.
donna25417 dane2
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TheRaven dane2
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Dane2, before I got on the prednisone I didn't really notice any problems with my hands, but maybe that was just because I was hurting some much everywhere else! Once I was started on prednisone, everything else improved overnight except the hands have been somewhat tender and sore ever since - about 6 months now I think. Not the end of the world for me but hopefully they'll improve someday. I'm not down as low as you on prednisone, though. I'm at 15 mg, going to 12.5 in mid-May.