I haven't posted here in a while, had to go back to wrenching on boats over the winterizing season. Now I have a stack of boat seats to re-upholster over winter and my hands, specifically the thumb joints are killing me!
I guess 30+ years of working with my paws has taken its toll. Anyone else deal with this, and what do you do about it?
I've been taking Move Free ultra. It helps some.
Yes I have severe hand pain sometimes. The right thumb can really get to hurting. I sometimes soak it in hot water and epsom salt. Other times I will use Voltaren gel. That stuff is awesome. It is a topical NSAID similar to naprosen but comes in a tube and you apply it to the area that hurts. It works great.
It is prescription based only and is ultra expensive. I believe a 100 gram tube is over $ 100. Thankfully my insurance covers it. An Ortho surgeon prescribed it for my knees.
Chris
I seem to have more pain and soreness in my right wrist than anywhere else. My monthly visits to the Chiropractor help with keeping it limber. It's amazing how a few taps of that funny clicking thing that hit your bones with helps.
My wife was developing arthritis in her fingers a few years ago and the Chiro showed her some techniques to keep her fingers limber and it has really worked. My wife says she can move her fingers better now than any time in the last 20 years.
Being a piano player for most of my life my fingers tend to be much stronger than is expected in a little guy (5'7" 140 lbs) and I think it helps them from getting as sore.
Clay
Another fan here for Voltaren Gel.
BTW, Voltaren Gel is over-the-counter in Europe. I don't recall precisely, but closer to $20 per 100g tube. I think it is available at about that price online from Canada.
They sell it here over-the-counter for $36.95 (100 grams):
http://www.pharmcom.com/buy_voltaren_online.html
Does this stuff burn like so many arthritis rubs do?
I've been doing furniture upholstery for 8 years and my hands are problematic.
I never realized how much wear and tear an upholsterers' hands take.
I'm not a Spring chicken, so I don't need to worry about being around in 30 years. I think something else on my body will wear out before my hands do.
Once in a great while I take a full Sunday off and making sure I don't work around the house. This can really give my hands a needed break.
I sleep, more times than not, with my roller blade wrist guards. This helps to keep my wrists straight when I sleep. My hand can get bent under me sometimes while I sleep and I wake up with a lot of pain. $12 instead of $45 for orthopedic gloves that do the same thing.
There are two pressure points that can cause my hands to tingle. One is under the same side collar bone and the other is on the side of my trisept. When my hands tingle I massage these points and if this is the cause of the tingling, it goes away immediately. You can google 'pressure points'.
On rare occasion I might take a few Advil.
Whining and complaining to my wife seems to give me some emotional relief.
gene
Quotea little guy (5'7" 140 lbs)
Mom's family; you'd be the guy they called to
move the piano. I started university at 5'6'' and 128 lbs. I'm not much shorter, but if I can get the weight back up over 110 it's been a good Christmas.
Other than that marble on the pad of my " you cut me off "finger that my doctor says is nothing, I can deal with the hands. It's my neck/shoulder blades that I have burned out. In my former life my chiro said it was the constant working in my lap making shoes that kept me running back. Now my GP says it's that the chiro added to the degeneration in my upper and middle spine and that's why my hands can go numb over night and why I have some pain. The irony is that I spent 10 years in the artillery (reserve) where my favorite pastime was outworking 6 foot 250 pound "jocks" into the ground working with a 5000lb gun and 50 pound bullets. My lower back and hearing are fine.
It's a little hard to self apply where my concern is; but I love tiger balm. It's a topical ointment that makes your Bengay and Absorbene jr (sp) pale.
While I worked for my fiends at the sign shop before I opened my upholstery shop (respect for my former employer) Murray was given a hot wax machine. He was pushing 70 then and his hands would cramp some thing fierce, especially if he had to hand carve as well.[time permitting he made the stencil and I drug the knife]. I didn't need to hear the accolades, I could see the difference in range of motion and discomfort the next morning if he'd used it.
Quote from: sofadoc on January 30, 2013, 03:11:30 pm
They sell it here over-the-counter for $36.95 (100 grams):
http://www.pharmcom.com/buy_voltaren_online.html
Does this stuff burn like so many arthritis rubs do?
Nope. No burning and it has a pleasant odor. My tube says prescription only on it. Wonder why ?
Chris
my hands are very problematic, Before I go out to the shop in the morning I get my hands massaged, it helps limber them up, and then again in the evening when I stop for the day....the only hard part is finding someone willing to massage your hands twice a day!
Well thanks for all the input! Man, we sound like a nursing home in here LOL!
Amen Tim. Especially with old patients like Darren and Dennis.
:o 8) ;D
Chris
Glucosamine for me. With arthritis rearing its ugly head and living on the wet coast old arthur is pretty common. I have it in my hands and upper spine so daily doses of glucosamine in tablet form keeps most of the stiffness and pain at bay but its only a stop gap I bet sooner or later there will be days where the old tools will stay cold and dark. Perhaps 3 months or so in Arizona will help, doctors note please!
This is oh so funny, I was going to ask the same question today, hand pain. Well I've been at the business for 26 years, I am now a one woman show, but used to be big, covered a good section of northern Ontario. So I see a Chiropractor, he loosens my shoulder blades, lasers my hands. have done acupuncture, loosens my forearms, and plays with my ciotic nerves in my butt. I do an array of hand and shoulder exercises, but the pain and numbness is constant, I know as upholsterers we work dam hard, however I truly like what I do and am dam good at it. I use volteran too, you can get a large tube at walmart for under 20.I have often thought that being able to submerge my hands in hot wax would be wonderful, however chiro says we need cold not heat, so I take ice cubes and rub them over my thumbs and wrists. I have a lot of tricks.
Sorry Pat, I referred to you as "He" in another post.
A lot of those rubs CLAIM that they don't burn. But if you use them on your feet, you quickly find out otherwise.
I may have to try some Volteran. I just have painful arches. The rest of me is good.
Quote from: Mojo on January 30, 2013, 07:18:36 pm
Amen Tim. Especially with old patients like Darren and Dennis.
I guess you're right. Today, I hit the ole' double nickel.........snooz-z-z-z............HUH? What were we talking about again? ???
Happy Birthday old timer.
Ohhhh to be young and good looking like me..........:)
Hope your day is special. Enjoy Dennis.
Chris
Happy B Day, sofa D.
I hear they're starting to give in the evenings to the men who live in Nursing Homes. It keeps them from rolling out of bed.
gene
Happy Birthday Sofa Doc.
When they say you're as old as you feel.....BULL!!!
My pains are in my neck and lower back. Climbing all over boats to pattern and install enclosures is the start. Then sitting at the sewing machine brings the pain to a peak and decreases my range of motion!
When it gets unbearable, I go to my Chiropractor. He pops me with his "activator gun"...like crammage said....a few clicks against the vertebrae and the range of motion is back. Pain subsides over a few days, but Advil takes care of that.
I don't think that Voltaren is recommended for arches. It seems to be effective where the problem is lose to the surface. My wife uses it for hands. I used it for elbow pain and occasional hands. It didn't seem to work for heel pain.
Happy Birthday Dennis. Have you tried arch supports? If they don't help your next step would be orthotics.
Quoteused to be big, covered a good section of northern Ontario.
What do you consider "Northern Ontario", Pat? I had a shop in Kenora [last set of traffic lights before you enter Manitoba] Before I moved back to the prairies.I'm in Brandon now.
Quote from: Darren Henry on January 31, 2013, 03:15:04 pm
Happy Birthday Dennis. Have you tried arch supports? If they don't help your next step would be orthotics.
Believe me, if they've invented it, I've tried it.
The custom orthotics allow me to function, but they're not a cure.
Hey Darren I consider Northern Ontario - Sudbury to Saulte Ste Marie and I was right in the center of it, Elliot Lake, I had a great range, did repairs for all the major Furniture Co. ( didn't last, have a hard time lying constantly) large cottage country, boats from Blind River on Lake Huron. Was a great place, great business, then life changed. Now in Muskoka, lol.
QuoteNow in Muskoka
I'd love to get DOWN there for your wooden boat parade; but, gawdam that's a long ways southeast of Kenora. Our :-\ ( ---technically "their" since my house is rented out and I'm here--) wooden boat parade only had like 32 entries last summer. I'm 550 clicks over to T-Bay, how much further down to Muskoka? Elliot lake?
Dennis;
QuoteThe custom orthotics allow me to function, but they're not a cure.
My last posting as an orthopaedic shoe maker was working for an orthotist. He "bladed" me large years after I moved onto upholstery and ended a very long friendship. I haven't spoken to the man, even if he were in the room, since '08, so this is no tribute to him, but I respect what I learned working with him.There are "custom orthotics" and there are
custom crafted orthotics. Done correctly,with your (brief description of your) condition, you should be able to work comfortably all day and then take the Missus out dancing. I hear you Texan's are big into that LOL
I've three questions; A)When was last follow up visit? 3-6 months is a maximum.
B) Is the entire bottom of the appliance posted? By that I mean is the space between the appliance and the insole of your shoe filled in? or is it just bouncing up and down inside your shoe?
C) The biggy is; How were you assessed? If you stepped in a box of foam or a pressure pad etc... You bought snake oil. I've already
kinda jacked the thread 'cause we started about hand so I'll try not to bore the readers. Short version; if you just assess in a weight bearing position the best you can hope for is some relief. If you cast the foot (yeah, like the stuff for broken bones) after you have manipulated it into a "neutral" position, or as close to a normal healthy alignment as comfortable and then make last from there, you can actually correct the alignment of the 26 bones in the foot and help the muscles and ligaments heal. [No!, the pun is spelled heel].
If I had the $ people paid for "custom orthotics" ,that I threw out after we made them a pair that way and then adjusted them as the improvements developed I'd be a wealthy man.
Darren: Sounds like you know a lot about this stuff. I'm interested to hear what you think.
But like you, I don't want to bore the other readers, so I'll PM you.
Thanks,
Dennis