# wrist support help



## piratedeb (Nov 6, 2012)

I have been diagnosed with tenosynovitis. Basicslly, on my dominant hand, there is a callous on the tendon, and as it passes through the tendon sheath it causes agitation. I toughed it out through this past holiday season, and in January stepped back from the line to allow it to heal. By that time, I had no wrist movement, and the pain was radiating up my arm in a way that was starting to wake me up at night.

3 months, dozens of pt sessions, and steroid shots later most of the pain and inflammation is gone, but the callous is still there. If I hop back to cooking full time, I will be back at square one. I tried learning to be ambidextrous, I put so much effort into dexterity exercizes, it doesnt work.
A wrist brace helps a lot, and prevents me from moving my wrist where it shouldnt go, and I would work with that if I could. There are sanitation issues with that though.

Surely I am not the only cook to have developed wrist issues in their dominant hand... Anyone else on here have any advice on the topic? Or can point me in the direction of a non-flamiable antimicrobial, easily sanitized wrist support solution? My paycheck would love you


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## countrykook (Apr 8, 2012)

I just had surgery on my right (dominant) wrist - March 13,2013.  I leave tomorrow for several days to travel to see the surgeon and have the stitches removed.

Surgery was scheduled as a right wrist arthroscopy with possible debridement and carpal tunnel release.  All 3 procedures were done and the bones and tendons and ligaments were scraped.  I have 4 small holes on top of my hand just below the wrist and a 11/2 inch cut on the upper palm from the carpal tunnel release.

In 2000 I was toppled down a flight of stairs at work and broke the right wrist.  It did not heal quickly and was recast 3 times.  In the late spring of 2001 the Alberta Workers Compensation board declared it was healed and closed the file.  The wrist was deformed and slowly got worse until I could no longer lift or even hold a pot of coffee.  Movement that consisted of turning the hand could result in complete failure and dropping the item - leading to burning my left hand and arm from the little finger to elbow - 2nd degree burn in 2010.  

The orthopaedic surgeon has worked with me since 2008 to resolve this and finally Alberta WCB reopened my file.  They then spent 2 years trying to prove that I had re-broken the wrist.  In 2010 I was diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel syndrome and in 2011 was finally sent to a wrist specialist in Kamloops who recommended the procedure that was just done. 

Result so far - was told just after surgery that the damage in the hand and wrist is a result of the original injury.  The carpal tunnel release has stopped the numbness in my arm and thumb and first 21/2 fingers which is a huge improvement.

I will further post when I get back next week and let you know what results can now be expected.  I am also going to ask the surgeon about your predicament.  A wrist arthroscopy and micro surgery may be able to fix your problem.

I have lost 13 years over my injury and my never get full use of the hand again due in a huge part to the delay in proper diagnosis,the closing of a file before an injury was healed and time.  I hope no-one else has to go thru something like that when a condition is fixable.


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

Firstly, you can easily train yourself to use your arm instead of moving your wrist, this can eliminate much and perhaps even most need for wrist movement, particularly in the power applications, and this may be enough.

Or, you can get scraped as the other poster did.

But your initial efforts at ambidexterity can be made to succeed.  Those who understand Mental Imaging Technique can transfer skills from left to right and vice-versa.  If you are having difficulty here in imagining in your mind your "wrong" hand following the dominant, try this:

Putting a mirror between your dom and the other, watch the mirror as you go through the various prep motions as usual, your dom will look just like you other hand in the mirror, and this will give you the imagery needed.

Rick


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## aundrea hubble (Nov 28, 2013)

At 18 I got tendinitis in my dominant wrist which later resulted in a bone in my wrist (scaphiod) moving out of place however that wasn't discovered until about 8 months after my tendinitis was gone. They could not figure out what the wrist pain was and now that they have figured out it was my scaphoid bone it was too late and no matter how many times I go to a chiropractor and get it put back in place it will not stay and it can get very painful the more I work. I am 20 years old, starting out my career as a cook and this is definitely not helping. I have tried multiple braces and seen over 3 different chiropractors. If anyone has any experience with this type of injury it would be gratefully appreciated!


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## rick alan (Nov 15, 2012)

I can almost practically guarantee that the problem is the inelasticity of the muscles in your forarmcreating pressure on the joint as you flex and extend your wrist that causes the bone to pop.  Chiros don't go in for deep tissue massage work because, just like regular MD's, they would rather be maintaining a manageable crisis rather than resolve the core issue.  Find youself a "real" deep-tissue/sports-massage therapist and have them loosen things up (they physically break up the fascial adhesions that cause the shortening and hardness/inelasticity of the tissues). Mere stretching will not give you the same results at this time.  I have considerable personal experience with similar injuries and the deep tissue stuff is the only permanent and complete fix I know of for these things.

Very good chance you will be good as new in a few sessions, you can even pick up the technique and apply it yourself.  And don't be afraid of the pain of the DT stuff, it only hurts while it's being done, usually doesn't even leave a bruise.

Rick


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