redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2019-01-07 02:42 pm
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I saw the hand doctor

I think/hope this will work. I saw the hand doctor(Jennifer Green, at ProSports Orthopedics) today. She asked some questions, did some poking and bending, and then said yes, it's trigger finger, and asked if I would be okay with a cortisone injection.

So, I have now had a dose of cortisone, apparently a dose low enough not to be relevant as cumulative exposure (having needed steroids for optic neuritis and Bell's palsy, and with the first Tysabri infusion, I wanted to check). It turns out there are medical things I will close my eyes for, and a cortisone injection in my hand is one of them. It hurt while she was doing it (I'd guess 30-45 seconds), enough that I said so and asked if that was normal, or a bad sign, and she told me it's normal.


If this works, I may start feeling better in a couple of days, or it might take a couple of weeks. If I don't notice any effect in a couple of weeks, I can call the hand doctor again and/or call the occupational therapist and get an orthotic made. I asked for, and got, a prescription for the orthotic, so I won't have to go back to Dr. Green if the cortisone doesn't do the job. In the meantime, I should keep icing, and avoid "heavy" gripping with that hand.

The doctor said that if this works, it may solve this problem for good, or I might need another cortisone injection some months or years from now. That's a time-scale I can accept.
bugshaw: (Default)

[personal profile] bugshaw 2019-01-07 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, useful. I've just started to get that in my right thumb in the last month. Hard to use the tin opener and nervous about the impact on my job...
otter: (Default)

[personal profile] otter 2019-01-08 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
I hope that does the trick for you too. I've had 2 cortisone shots to help the arthritis in the ankle I broke some years ago. They have lasted me upwards of 18 months each. It's an exquisite kind of sensation, fascinating and painful all at once for me.
umadoshi: (kittens - Claudia - green wall)

[personal profile] umadoshi 2019-01-08 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
I hope this works well!
bibliofile: Fan & papers in a stack (from my own photo) (Default)

[personal profile] bibliofile 2019-01-08 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Here's hoping for your hand's feeling better soon -- and for the longer term.