Tied up with tendonitis

[ReneeLalaLoops]

Hello!  I’m Renee and I’m an avid crocheter who recently was a little over-zealous and got tendonitis from crocheting 10+ hours a day for several weeks. I was so excited about the opportunity to sell my products in a local artisan shop that I got a little carried away. Now it’s been 2 months since I’ve been able to crochet without pain. I am desperately looking for ways to speed up this healing process and get back to crocheting in a more reasonable and balanced way. Would love to hear any stories you have that are similar to mine and how you got back on your hooks!

[Tampa Doll]

Welcome  to Crochetville from the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Grab your yarn and hooks, put your feet up and sit a spell.

We are always so glad to meet new friends.😁

I use wrist bans when I crochet.  The seem to help and give me some stability with the hands and wrist.

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Tampa Doll

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the ville!

You are not going to like what I am going to say.  Tendonitis never goes away, it is there waiting to pounce at an unwary moment.

Long story, but a series of health events, nothing to do with my arm and wrist at the start, caused me to have to wear a restrictive sleeve for a a few years.  My job involved mostly typing and mouse-ing all day long.  My "fighting against" the sleeve caused a case of deQuervain's tendonitis so bad I had to wear a day cast for a while, and learn to mouse with my left hand.  That was 20 years ago, and I strive to only crochet a couple of hours a day tops, and there's a considerable rest (often weeks or sometimes months) between projects.  (when the tendonitis originally happened I stopped crocheting for several years actually, I saved my wrist for work; I really only got back to crochet when I retired a few years ago, and as I said, sparingly). 

The tendonitis is always there, if I make a false move it comes back sort of like a lightening strike and ebbs away if I drop everything and rest my wrist (that's where the weeks and months between projects).  You're not a machine, if a machine breaks you buy a new cog for it, but when you blow out your wrist bad enough, it is never the same...

So, I would consult your doctor if you haven't already, and don't buy a wrist support thing without consulting the doctor.  The treatment for carpal tunnel is the not the same as for tendonitis, and could even make it worse.

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Granny Square

[ReneeLalaLoops]

Hey Granny Square!  Yikes! Definitely wasn’t expecting that. Although I’m not completely surprised either. I’ll be seeing my doctor next week. Have you tried any therapy - physiotherapy, occupational therapy?  We have a hand clinic I was going to contact. I’ll wait until after I talk to my doctor, but I was hoping therapy would help. 

[Granny Square]

I'd be curious to hear back what you doctor says when you ask.  Is your pain at the base of your thumb, like where the base of the thumb meets the wrist  bone just under the thumb?  You may have the same sort of tendonitis I had, it's pretty common, especially in women.  (technically, De Quervain's tenosynovitis, but I can never remember that word and had to look it up to spell it right)

My recollection of what my doctor said at the time was all about 'stop using your wrist as much as you can', he didn't suggest any exercises (which would be the opposite of 'stop using it', right?) 

Just did a little googling about DeQuervain's.  It talks about dealing with it by immobilization, anti-inflammatories, and corticosteroid injections, or surgery.  Apparently there is a bony tube in that area that the tendon passes thru, and that tube rubs against that tendon when you move your hand a certain way, and over-use over-rubs the tendon and continues to injure it.

When I first saw my Dr. he gave me the 'Finkelstein test'.  Try it if you dare, but if it hurts like  you'll know it's deQuervain's.  You tube video  My doctor did the original version (about 2 minutes into the video), not the first one.  I just re-took the tests while watching the video, the first one didn't bother me, the second one with the thumb (same test my DR. did) caused my wrist to give me a (little) warning to cut it out.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Granny Square