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As we all know, our hands are used constantly all day long for almost everything that we do. If we injure our fingers or hands, this could impact how we perform our daily tasks at work, home and play.

When we get a health injury, this can impact how we do things. Some injuries that can happen can be thumb tendinitis and even Dequervains tendinitis. Getting these injuries can happen in a number of different ways.

What is Tendonitis of the Thumb

Here is some basic information on what is tendonitis in the thumb. This will happen when there is an irritation or swelling of the tendons of the hand. This happens with the tendons along the side of the wrist on the thumb side.

What happens is the irritation that you have causes the compartment that the tendon runs in to swell. The shape of the compartment changes. The tendon can’t move as it should in this compartment. Pain and tenderness occurs along the thumb side of the wrist. This pain can be felt if you go to grasp something, make a fist or by turning the wrist.

Repetitive Motion Injury can cause Thumb Tendonitis, so what is it

Repetitive motion can cause a host of problems. This repetitive motion over the years will or can cause problems with the nerves in the hand (carpal tunnel syndrome), pain in the hand, your fingers can start to lock or click (trigger finger) or you can lose the movement or severe pain in the thumb.

How do you know you have thumb tendonitis? Some signs and symptoms.

When you suffer from thumb tendonitis, the first thing that is going to give it away is the pain on the thumb side of the wrist. This pain may appear suddenly or can come on gradually. You may think that this could be like some arthritic pain in your hand and wrist. It will start in the wrist and travel up the forearm if very severe.

There are many symptoms that can alert you that there is something going wrong. The pain will typically be on the thumb side of the wrist. When you move the hand or twist the wrist or sometimes when you go to grab something the pain can be severe. When this problems starts to get really bad, your thumb and or fingers may start to snap or catch. When you are having numbness on the back side of the thumb or the index finger this is a very good sign that something is very wrong and you are pinching a nerve.

Things to do

When you start to feel the above symptoms, one of the first things that you can do is start to ice the area. Do this in short 15 minute intervals. You can use a brace or a thumb splint to help prevent movement and for support. The main thing to do is to rest the finger and rest, and stop doing the repetitive movements that caused the problem in the first place. Use some type of anti-inflammatory medicine to reduce the inflammation.

When suffering from thumb tendonitis or De Quervain’s tendonitis, you doctor may have you get a cortisone injection. This is going to help with the swelling and the pain. I have had them and they do work quite well. Be careful taking multiple injections in that this can weaken the tendon and cause more damage.

If these do not help, then surgery may be necessary. This surgery would be come necessary if the pain continues or if it recurs. Surgical treatment is curative. It is a day surgery, with a small incision and then a splint for 10 days. The splint or braces can be used until the sutures are removed.

A way to tell if you are suffering from thumb tendonitis

The Finkelstein test can be performed to tell if you have thumb tendonitis or Dequervain’s tendonitis. The following is the procedure to check for these problems.

* Make a fist with the fingers over the thumb.

* Now it is simple, just bend the wrist in the direction of the pinky (little) finger.

* If you are suffering from thumb tendinitis, the person is going to find this very painful. You are also going to find tenderness to the touch directly over the thumb side of the wrist.

2 steps and you will know if you have or possibly have thumb tendonitis.