It seems like you went to a bunch of doctors and they couldn’t help you but didn’t go to other professionals that might help. Osteopaths and Alexander Technique teachers would be two classes of experts that are widely available and might help.
I would highly recommend seeing David Bacome (based in SF). I had really bad wrist problems which he was able to fix (and teach me how to keep them from getting bad again) after doctors had me do useless exercises that didn’t help at all.
Hey Adele, could you please summarize (or link to) the exercises that helped you? I’m having wrist problems as well and I’ve found that cycling through a wide range of exercises helps
Sure! There’s not really a specific exercise as much as a method for dealing with issues. The following is just my interpretation of what he taught me in person, so YMMV.
If you move your hand/wrist/arm around, you can usually identify a configuration where there’s a threshold at which it “catches” and starts hurting noticeably more. Then you keep your arm fixed at that position, and make small motions along each of your wrist/elbow/shoulder joints one at a time, to identify where the issue is:
wrist movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your forearm
elbow movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your upper arm
shoulder movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your back or neck (typically near the shoulder blades or up your armpits)
You should also be able to feel what side the pain is on, and so (still keeping it at the threshold configuration) you gently press in that area with your other hand until you identify an especially tender or “knotted” spot (it doesn’t always hurt, I often have to go by feel). Then you try to put a shear force on this area, as if you’re trying to move the overlying muscle or tendon out of the way for whatever is below. While holding it out of the way, you try slowly moving your arm past the threshold again. If successful, it will be further out than before (and if not, you probably have the spot a little off, or aren’t putting the right kind of force on the area, so experiment a bit to find what works). You’ll want to keep moving your arm back and forth across the former threshold, making sure to move all three joints in the process. Then you can release the force and ensure that the threshold remains at the new location (and if not, reapply the force and move through it more).
It can help to have a partner to apply the force, since it is sometimes is required in really hard to reach locations.
By the time you’re having serious wrist issues, you likely have issues in several locations all along your arm, back and neck. It seems to be easier to start with the issue nearest to your hand first, and work your way up (sometimes requiring you to go back down as a new issue surfaces). It’s common for fixing one issue to make new issues apparent. With David, I’ve also experienced sudden numbness/pricklyness, or sudden hot or cold in a strangely specific part of my arm, but I don’t experience these when doing it myself.
I don’t have a great model for what these issues actually are or why this technique helps, but I do appreciate the kinematic approach to the problem. David says it may have to do with the overlying muscle putting excessive pressure on the tissue below, causing the tissue to get inflamed, which then causes a high-friction point when moving in certain ways. I think there is likely more to the story than that, but I don’t know enough about the anatomy to say what.
It seems like you went to a bunch of doctors and they couldn’t help you but didn’t go to other professionals that might help. Osteopaths and Alexander Technique teachers would be two classes of experts that are widely available and might help.
I would highly recommend seeing David Bacome (based in SF). I had really bad wrist problems which he was able to fix (and teach me how to keep them from getting bad again) after doctors had me do useless exercises that didn’t help at all.
Hey Adele, could you please summarize (or link to) the exercises that helped you? I’m having wrist problems as well and I’ve found that cycling through a wide range of exercises helps
Sure! There’s not really a specific exercise as much as a method for dealing with issues. The following is just my interpretation of what he taught me in person, so YMMV.
If you move your hand/wrist/arm around, you can usually identify a configuration where there’s a threshold at which it “catches” and starts hurting noticeably more. Then you keep your arm fixed at that position, and make small motions along each of your wrist/elbow/shoulder joints one at a time, to identify where the issue is:
wrist movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your forearm
elbow movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your upper arm
shoulder movement crosses threshold --> issue is in your back or neck (typically near the shoulder blades or up your armpits)
You should also be able to feel what side the pain is on, and so (still keeping it at the threshold configuration) you gently press in that area with your other hand until you identify an especially tender or “knotted” spot (it doesn’t always hurt, I often have to go by feel). Then you try to put a shear force on this area, as if you’re trying to move the overlying muscle or tendon out of the way for whatever is below. While holding it out of the way, you try slowly moving your arm past the threshold again. If successful, it will be further out than before (and if not, you probably have the spot a little off, or aren’t putting the right kind of force on the area, so experiment a bit to find what works). You’ll want to keep moving your arm back and forth across the former threshold, making sure to move all three joints in the process. Then you can release the force and ensure that the threshold remains at the new location (and if not, reapply the force and move through it more).
It can help to have a partner to apply the force, since it is sometimes is required in really hard to reach locations.
By the time you’re having serious wrist issues, you likely have issues in several locations all along your arm, back and neck. It seems to be easier to start with the issue nearest to your hand first, and work your way up (sometimes requiring you to go back down as a new issue surfaces). It’s common for fixing one issue to make new issues apparent. With David, I’ve also experienced sudden numbness/pricklyness, or sudden hot or cold in a strangely specific part of my arm, but I don’t experience these when doing it myself.
I don’t have a great model for what these issues actually are or why this technique helps, but I do appreciate the kinematic approach to the problem. David says it may have to do with the overlying muscle putting excessive pressure on the tissue below, causing the tissue to get inflamed, which then causes a high-friction point when moving in certain ways. I think there is likely more to the story than that, but I don’t know enough about the anatomy to say what.
Hope this is able to help you.
Thanks for describing this in so much detail!
(Unfortunately, it’s also enough detail for me to tell that this is pretty different from what’s going on for me.)