Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Right thumb pain?

Does anyone have pain in the thumb joint nearest the hand? It's swollen now and hurts to move, which is putting quite a crimp in my daily activities. I have made some adjustments, such as using a food processor to slice veggies and getting OXO grip kitchen tools. It's hard to type without using that thumb,although I'm getting used to it. Is this a normal AS symptom and if so, what can I do? Ice? Heat? More acupuncture? The Voltaren and Soma don't seem to help and I am not on Humira, Remicade, etc. I am trying to wait as long as possible before I go on those drugs.
Help!
Oh, and earlier in the winter I had left knee swelling, which resolved about 1 week after I cam back from Mexico the last time. Then a few weeks later, (when I got the exercise machine), I had a severe day-long ache in my right heel and mentioned to my DH that a major flare must be coming on. Then the THUMB. So, any advice would be helpful - thanks, everyone.

i've had that joint hurt for a few months at a time and then die out on its own, only to flare again later.

what i do when any part of my hands or wrists are bad is contrast baths of very hot water and very cold water (with ice in it if necessary) for 1-2 minutes each back and forth for a total of 20 minutes, several times a day.

for typing, the hardest thing on those thumb joints (and dq tendons) is the mouse pad on the laptop, so i have an external mouse (a very flat one or my hands and wrists get irritated) and i've set my touchpad so if i tap on it with my fingers, it takes the place of using my thumbs.

i really need to get voice recognition software before my hands flare again......

also, page turning of paper, pages in books is hard on my thumbs.

and like you, i found ways of not using my hands so much.

you really don't realize how much you use something til it hurts.

and yes, the other things you mentioned. my joints don't swell, so its harder for the docs to believe that anything is inflamed other than the symptoms are those exactly of tendonitis or worse.

i use ice and/or heat a lot, which ever seems to give more relief. for hands and feet its usually contrast baths as described above. for other things, ice if its really inflamed, heat if its less so. but really a combination of both seems best for me. i have tons of those gel ice packs and i take at least 2 baths/showers a day; every morning, every night, and if home, often in between as well. i'll tell you, i've never been so clean.

if the heel pain comes back. one thing i had to do when my achilles heel was inflamed was sleep with my calves on a pillow so that the heels were raised up off the bed as the pressure of the bed inflamed them more. i have to sleep on my back for my SI so that is why my heels were on the bed.

sue

Thanks - I wwas wondering if it was AS or I had a whole nwe thing to contend with.
I'll try the alternating water baths. The pool is almost warm enough to swim in and this week is forecast to be in the 80s so it should warm it up. Did you know we had snow a few days ago?
Las Vegas weather is nuts this year.

Hi Suzie,

I have recently begun to have pain in that joint in both my thumbs as well as the next joint up - the MCP joints. I'm seeing my new rheumy on Thursday but my doc is suspicious now that I may have rheumatoid arthritis as well as or instead of AS. My understanding is that finger and thumb joints are not usually affected by AS, although wrists might be. However, in RA, the joints are almost always affected on both sides of the body (symmetrically). Your post sounds like it's just one thumb.

hi wendy,

i'm not sure all of us can be put neatly into RA or AS or anything well defined. some of my symptoms seem to mimic AS, some RA, some osteo, and the tendon thing seems to baffle them all. and all blood work and imaging so far is more or less unremarkable, CRP and ESR elevated a little, seronegative for all the other known blood markers, MRIs and CTs show a little bit of arthritis. i'm starting to think this may not be an easy problem to solve.....and its only taken 11 years and some good advice from a friend to get to that realization.......

sue

hey i dont have visible problems that is most of my joints just seem to hurt and when the doc scans them (with the ultrasound type thing) he can see the swelling. yet i complain and noone takes me seriously.. hehe

regarding the AS RA thing.. i dont think there is ever a clear case.. maybe a few are textbook but with this type of condition nothing seems to make sense..

anyway,

have a good day,

Sonja.

do you also have psoriasis? PSA is notorious for hand/foot joint pain. THis is a nightmare for me, since you REALLY need your thumbs for a wheelchair. Caused me to give up many things, including holding a hand of cards and playing my violin.

I have the same pain you are describing. I think it is just normal AS. I am not sure what to do about it. I just plug along and rest it when I can. I do a lot of typing like you. Not much I can do about that. I am not taking any meds and like you I want to avoid the biologics as long as possible.

everythingee gets a different name because doctor types thrive on different names for the same stuff...

people with AS account for 2/3-3/4 of all shoulder surgeries...cause they develope little
nobbies inside the joint---bone spurs.

most/many AS'ers will get at least one plantar fasciatis (sp opt) which is a little bone spur
inside the base of the heal...

guess what, less common but still frequent is the development of 'hard point' between the base
of the thumb joint and the paw...aaah. yet another little bone spur.

many get a bony growth inside the big toe joint.

is this all starting to sound alike?

well the ankylosing part of AS is our spondy monster's way of trying to protect you from
some damage it wants to exploit.

btw...i HAVE one of those bone spurs inside the thumb, it's very, verry, verrry debilitating
at times...and the only thing that has helped me with the heels, thumb, shoulder stuff
has been enbrel... i can actually almost use my left hand since being on enbrel.

enbrel is a systemic assault on the spondy monster, not a different bandaid for every boo boo

I too, with my "whatever-itis", have flare-ups in my thumb joints. Everyones right, they are excrutiatingly painful! We are so dependent on our thumbs for just about everything, I cannot drive, pick things up, even do basic tasks etc when they really get flaring.
You can get resting splints for thumbs which sometimes help a little bit. My hubby found a hot-pack in the shape of an oven-glove that you slide your hand into - just heaven for high pain days. I call it my boxing glove! Maybe wax baths might help also along with the alternating ice pack. They are only short-term measures but along with some decent pain relief, they help us get through to the next day.

Suzie I hope they settle down for you soon. Thumbs up!