Hand Pain

[timtheboatguy]

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?

[MinUph]

I've been taking Move Free ultra. It helps some.

[Mojo]

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

[crammage]

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

[Tejas]

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.

[sofadoc]

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?

[gene]

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

[Darren Henry]

a 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.

[Mojo]

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

[JDUpholstery]

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!

[timtheboatguy]

Well thanks for all the input! Man, we sound like a nursing home in here LOL!

[Mojo]

Amen Tim. Especially with old patients like Darren and Dennis.

:o   8)   ;D

Chris

[west coast]

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!

[pat]

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.

[sofadoc]

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.

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? ???