Undiagnosed hand pain and stiffness (3 years)

I'm 24 and have aching, sometimes sharp stabbing pain in the basal joints of my thumbs, very bad pain in the PIP joint of my left index finger. The PIP and basal joints of a few other fingers are affected but the thumbs and both index fingers are the worst. I have difficulty moving and extending thumbs and left index finger, they are very stiff. The index finger stays slightly curled towards my palm and extension even for stretches is painful. They feel like this most times even at rest, and I can’t get them "comfortable". certain activities especially anything repetitive makes it worse.

I have a had x-rays of both hands and rheumatologist say they look pretty normal, no mention of any bone spurs or damage. I hadsix total today, and before that I had x-rays about two years ago. around that time I even had an MRI of my hands, and they told me they found nothing conclusive on that either. I have also had lots of bloodwork and they have tested me for auto immune disorders as well.

I am afraid that it’s osteoarthritis because I have done lots of repetition and really overused my hands through gaming and drumming, texting, though i foolishly never realized. I’m also scared because for it to be too early of a stage for it to show damage, it’s definitely causing me a lot of disability already. Is this common? Do I may be have some sort of other muscular issue that is compounding it?

I also wanted to include that I saw an occupational hand therapist for about a year, she claimed that when I started seeing her I had slightly atrophied muscle in one of my hands. (Fleshy spot between thumb and forefinger). She also said that I presented like I had nerve issues or "nerve shortening", which through some research I’ve never really found anything about. Anytime I do stretches or reach out far I have a very strong pulling, stretch feeling, but never numbness or tingling. i’ve also had nerve conduction tests to rule out carpal tunnel. This might not be relevant but if I extend my arm even 70 or 80% of the way straight out, and then try to raise my thumb I can only get it maybe halfway up and I feel a really sharp pulling feeling towards the base. I guess from the tendons but it’s like it’s frozen. They also twitch a little sometimes especially after activity.

If anybody that reads this has dealt with Osteoarthritis or something similar I would like to hear from you, and maybe help confirm some of my fears or suspicions, or even alleviate some of them.

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