What To Do About Hand/Wrist Pain

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In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝Just lately I seem to be having increasing pain in my hands or rather especially in my wrists, but I don’t think anything has changed that logically should cause this, I don’t know if it is arthritis, but is there some way to nip it in the bud either way? I don’t want to do the wrong thing and make it worse❞

Our condolences for your hands/wrists, and to the latter part, a worthy pair of goals!

A lot of people underestimate the value of:

1. Catching things early (prevention is not only better than cure, but also, it’s often a lot easier too!)
2. Avoiding unnecessary iatrogenic damage*

*That’s a fancy way of saying “making things worse by trying to make them better”; it’s used when, for example, medical treatment intended to improve something makes things worse. It’s also used for when that’s an unavoidable/acceptable collateral damage, e.g. surgery, but even then, it’s still considered an inherently bad thing that the onus is on medical professionals to reduce as much as possible. Sometimes, though, it’s even worse and is just a case of “the wrong treatment was prescribed and now things are worse than before / worse in a new and interesting way”.

With regard to “nipping it in the bud” as you put it, you’ve done the first step already (paying attention to your body’s own alarm bells!).

• The next step is research (yes, asking us counts as part of that, so well done), and
• …a very wise step after that is enlisting relevant professional support (this one comes after the first one, because otherwise how will you know what is the relevant professional support?)

For what you describe, a physiotherapist is likely your best first port-of-call, as whether or not it’s arthritis, it’s very likely they can figure out whether or not it’s within their own field of expertise to treat, and if not, direct you to the correct professional (e.g. perhaps a rheumatologist or some other specialist).

In contrast, if you were to go to a medical doctor as your first port-of-call, then that’ll still usually be better than doing nothing (and they may well refer you to a physio anyway), but doctors have an unfortunate reputation for such approaches as“take two of these and call me in the morning make another appointment to check up on how that worked in a couple of weeks”.

In other words, they are very likely to try to address the symptom and then if the symptom (e.g. pain) is managed, not worry about the cause.

As for not making things worse, honestly, if you follow the above parts first, that is less likely.

For some things you might consider trying, however, do check out our previous main feature: 7 Essential Devices For Hand Arthritis: Regain Control of Your Life

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

• Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)

Take care!