Finger joint pain

[DebE13]

For the past month the joints in my fingers have been very painful. Today the tips have a burning sensation. Could this be a reaction to food? There is no noticeable swelling, only the stiffness. My grip has become questionable and I just don't trust it anymore.

I've come across articles related to thyroid drugs and the increased possibility of carpel tunnel and shoulder related issues (both which I experience now). I don't know which is causing the pain- my MC or my thyroid issues. Come to think of it, my toe joints hurt too but to a lesser degree.

I use magnesium oil as my deoderant. I don't know how much that comes out to per day. I had to stop spraying it on the bottoms of my feet because it dried them out so bad it caused them the crack. Not sure if a magnesium deficiency causes joint pain.

I've also been taking proferrin for about a month now. I'm still very worn and always feel ready to crawl in bed but can avoid taking naps everyday. I'm hoping that is a good sign.

I ask about food being a cause because I remember Tex mentioning it. I am still vigilant about remaining GF, SF, DF but wonder if some of the other potentially questionable foods may be causing it. Tomatoes, beans, peanuts......? I don't eat a lot of them but continue to include them occassionally.

My D has not improved since my job change which is disappointing but after four months at the new place I continue to smile every morning when I go to work. Too bad my body seems to be punishing me for being so physically active.

[tex]

Deb,

Sorry to hear that you're having some additional symptoms. Are you taking a good B-12 supplement?

Magnesium deficiency can cause joint pain, but usually it shows up primarily as back and/or neck pain.

Nightshades can cause arthritis symptoms for some people, so if you happen to be one of them, that might implicate tomatoes, but it's strange that it didn't show up sooner if you have been eating tomatoes regularly.

Tex

[Grace]

Hi Deb,

I'm sorry your finger joints are painful. It seems Magnesium controls inflammation in a number of ways. I came upon this article/website:

http://drsircus.com/medicine/magnesium/ ... mic-stress

Joint pain is a symptom of Magnesium deficiency. Since I don't take supplements of Magnesium due to its laxative effect, I think I will attempt it after looking into this site, maybe work my way up to the necessary amounts or begin taking Epsom salt baths.

I wonder if your doctor could test your magnesium levels.

Also just stress on your joints could cause the pain. A little over a year ago, I attempted to try a Tae Kwon Do class after seeing my kids have fun with it. But all the kicking and punching just made me hurt all the more (duh), painful hands, feet,and shoulders. So I quit.

I believe my CC is related to mast cell involvement. Exercise for those with mast cell problems should be low impact, I read this week. So I'm sticking to tai chi, yoga, and some light exercises with free weights, but even with those I have to not overdo it. So you mentioned that you're very active; could some of your activities/exercise regimens be stressing your joints?

I hope you find relief soon. :)

[Polly]

Hi Deb,

Grace has a good point. Just a long shot, but I recently decided that my finger/hand joint pain was due to the way I always hold and use my iPad. I hope you can track down the culprit.

Polly

[T]

Deb

Beans and peanuts I would eliminate.I have been on A low fiber low residue diet since my DX in Nov I have been off Entcort for A while
and take 3 pepto a day.(This is my GI way of treatment)
I started the Mag spray A while back and added Epsom salt foot soaks (2 cups for 1 hr) the terrible cramps in my hands stopped.
The joint pains in my fingers have increased (A few years back my PCP told me I was probably starting to get arthritis)
Sunday I started 1000 MG Krill oil time will tell.
Where is your D3 level mine was down to 11 with this limited diet.

Terry

[JFR]

.Since I don't take supplements of Magnesium due to its laxative effect, I think I will attempt it after looking into this site, maybe work my way up to the necessary amounts or begin taking Epsom salt baths.

Magnesium glycinate does not cause D. It's the only magnesium supplement I can take. I haven't tried the magnesium sprays or epsom salt soaks so I can't compare.

Deb - I would definitely stop the tomatoes which are nightshades and known to cause to cause joint pain. Also peanuts and beans are legumes like soy and eliminating them may help with D.

Jean

[DebE13]

I had eliminated tomatos, peanuts, and beans for quite some time and noticed no change in D so I started eating them every now and again. I should give it another try to see if I notice anything this time around. My 23and me results show I'm more like,y to develop a peanut allergy so it may be a poor choice tha I eat them on occassion as a ground "nut" butter. My vit. d level is good as well as my B's. Tex, I use the methyl cobalamin B12 sublingual tablet by Wonder Laboratories but backed off on it since my last labs showed I was creeping above range.

I use my hands/fingers for much more intense grabbing and lifting than I did at my previous desk job. I fear it may be the strenuous use that is causing the pain. Sigh. But I've never been happier! Double sigh.

[tex]

Tex, I use the methyl cobalamin B12 sublingual tablet by Wonder Laboratories but backed off on it since my last labs showed I was creeping above range.

Well, that should eliminate B-12 deficiency as a suspected cause.

Is this a constant problem, or does it wax and wane. Are there any color changes in the skin. IOW, could it be scleroderma?

http://www.scleroderma.org/site/PageSer ... body_hands

With all the additional physical use of your hands though, I suspect that carpal tunnel issues may be causing your symptoms. They sound a lot like the symptoms I used to experience after a long session of stacking bags of corn on pallets. In my case, I had to lift the paper bags (filled with 50 pounds of corn) off a conveyor by gripping the top corners of the bags and lifting them up to stack them on a pallet. All that repetitive clinching of the fingers would take it's toll after more than a few hours. My fingers would tingle and eventually go numb if I did too much of it. A good pair of wrist braces (worn while working) definitely helps, and sometimes I would even wear them at night, to help keep my wrists properly positioned so that the nerves going through the carpal tunnel wouldn't be unintentionally stressed/irritated while I was sleeping.

You can buy all sorts of wrist supports, at all sorts of prices, but some offer much better support than others. If you want serious wrist support, you need the ones with the metal "spoon" as they call it. The ones without a metal support strip are far less likely to support your wrist when doing heavy lifting. Since our business was wholesaling bagged corn at the time, we used a lot of these wrist supports. The best ones we found for our purposes (heavy duty use), at least the ones we preferred to use, were the Mueller brand, which I usually bought at Walmart. Ace makes a similar product, and so does Futuro. I don't recall whether we ever used any Ace supports, but we used the Futuro wrist supports with good results. I'm not sure that the Ace wrist supports contain a metal splint. That may be why we never tried them.

One advantage of the Mueller wrist supports is the relatively low price, and another advantage is that they are universal/reversible so that they can be worn on either hand. Also, they are easy to put on and take off. But be careful if you buy another brand, because with most other brands you have to buy "right" and "left" wrist supports. Also, be sure to buy a size to fit your hands/wrists. I would send you a pair, because I still have some new spares, but we used LG/XL, and you would probably need a medium or small size.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mueller-Wrist ... L/10533510

http://www.acebrand.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... 759&rt=rud

http://www.cvs.com/shop/health-medicine ... uid-138206

A good wrist support can be a life-saver (or rather wrist/finger-saver) when doing a lot of repetitive heavy lifting, or just repetitive work of almost any type, with your hands.

Tex

[DebE13]

Tex, I believe you have the answer that I preferred to pin on food, haha. It isn't scleroderma (thankfully, that would be awful!). I work in a freezer that maintains a -10 temp and it doesn't cause a problem. Well, it does but not in that way.... I find my "thermostat" is still broken so some days I tolerate the cold well and other days I am crazy sensitive to the cold. I work on my own so I am able to stop freezer work anytime I need to. Any time I spend considerable time in there, I am in full arctic bibs, two jackets, headband, etc. I'm wrapped up like Ralphie's brother from A Christmas Story but it works.

It is the repetitive gripping that is doing it along with the carpel tunnel issues. Scary since I have a long time left until retirement! This past week I laid pavers as part of a landscaping project and was digging/pulling out plants to split and relocate. Another project was digging out sod by hand and shaking the dirt out of it to create a planting bed. I work for a school district in the maintenance and operations building in which I coordinate the movement of food and custodial supplies for all the schools as my primary responsibility and help out with other projects as time permits. My body hasn't enjoyed the switch from behind a desk but the hostile, back stabbing work environment I left behind has been a Godsend to my peace of mind. I love it!

Thank you for the suggestion of wrist supports. I have some and wear them, although It might be a good idea to wear them at work too. The links are appreciated too. I did start wearing them again at night since I tend to curl my wrists when I sleep which doesn't help. In another lifetime I was an interpreter for the deaf and was concerned with over-use so I wore them every night as a preventative measure. Not sure if it did any good but it didn't hurt anything. I don't have any swelling or discoloration of the fingers- they just hurt like a bugger.and feel tight. I've had a horrible time with neck and shoulder pain since my thyroidecomy so I often wonder how it ties into the picture. I wake up most nights with dead arms or fingers. My endo insists it is not related but I am not convinced. I know its a fine line between blaming every ache and pain on MC or thyroid.

I sometimes wonder if I made the wrong choice by changing jobs. My body is always in some type of pain. At first I thought it was just an adjustment period to get used to being physically active again but I don't think it will ever go away. I've stuck with the idea if that's the price I have to pay, then it's worth it although it seems to be a cruel twist of fate. I'm sure I'm not the only one who endures these medical cruelities but having a place to simply vent is comforting because you all can relate. I've been at the new job for a little over four months now and the anger and frustration I carried around for 14 years is gone. As life goes, you give up one set of problems and tackle a new set........

[tex]

I wake up most nights with dead arms or fingers. My endo insists it is not related but I am not convinced. I know its a fine line between blaming every ache and pain on MC or thyroid.

I'm not convinced either. The trouble with doctors who have that mindset is that they incorrectly assume that just because the medical literature is not loaded with research data proving the validity of a claim, then that claim must be invalid. That's corrupt thinking, because the absence of research data typically simply means that no one has bothered to research the issue, or no one has researched the issue correctly, in order to obtain valid results, one way or the other. My question is, "Why wouldn't arm and finger symptoms be related to neck and shoulder pain". Duh!

As life goes, you give up one set of problems and tackle a new set........

You have summed up the reality of life as eloquently as I have ever seen. Those are truly words to live by. As the world-renowned philosopher Gabes would say, "Perfection in life is an elusive goal, and demanding or expecting perfection is an exercise in futility". As far as I can tell, you have made a very good choice, because I truly believe that emotional/mental stress tends to be worse than physical stress. Research shows that those who suffer the most debilitating health effects caused by stress, are those who work or live in environments where they feel that they have no control over their situation. As long as we feel that we are in control of our destiny/life/situation we are happy campers.

Tex

[brandy]

Hi Deb,

Brandy here.

My grip has become questionable and I just don't trust it anymore

.

I wake up most nights with dead arms or fingers.

The above is classic carpal tunnel.

I recall on your last post that the tingling started about the time of your new job. Again...classic carpal tunnel.

Carpal tunnel is very reversible.

My friend Steve (new janitor job), my lady dentist, and I all got carpal tunnel around the same time. All of ours was reversed although we still have to be careful with our hands.I think Steve's was better in about 8-10 weeks and for my lady dentist and I it probably took about 4-6 months. All of us remained on the same jobs and continued with the jobs after healing.

What worked:

Top 3 things that worked for me:

1. Splinting, I wore brace at night and also at work. I've used several model splints over the years. Like Tex said they must have the metal at the bottom. I like Futura for night time sleeping.

2. Icing for pain. My pain score was a 10 out of 10. It was very brutal. The only way I could survive the pain was a lot of icing.
The good thing about icing is that it also reduces inflammation. In morning before I went to work I put my hands in a bucket of ice water and submerge above the wrists. I did the same every evening after work. Watching tv I would put frozen gel pack or back of peas on top of wrist, i.e. have palm face up and put gel pad on top of wrist. I did ice bucket thing again before bed.
I would wake up with severe pain/like my arms were asleep at 2:00 am.I did the ice bucket thing again at 2:00 am. On weekends I would ice every 2-3 hours. Again my pain was severe....like dental nerve pain without anesthesia. Holding an envelope or paperclip in my hand would cause excruciating pain. I went thru a spell where I wore the same sweats and undies for up to 3 days. Gross I know. The pain was too severe for me to handle zippers or buttons on jeans.

3. For carpal tunnel stretches/exercises. scroll down in link for exercises. http://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/a ... l-syndrome.

On your job use the lightest grip to get things done. Don't over grip. Use the lightest grip you can on the tow motor/fork lift.Also try to use your lower arm/wrist/hand has a "straight line unit." i.e. try not to throw your wrist into weird angles during the work day. Try to take a 5 minute break every hour. Set your cell timer if you have to. Talk to co workers at the water cooler and loading dock etc for mini breaks. Do the stretches before work, at lunch, after work, and if possible mid morning and mid afternoon.If you have to go in the stalls of the ladies restroom to do the exercises so you don't look like a dork. Analyze every arm/wrist/hand move you do on the job to try to make it a healing move.

Carpal tunnel occurs when the median nerve that runs through the tunnel in the wrist gets inflamed and swollen due to over use and poor position. It takes time for the nerve to go back to normal.

If the exercises are confusing get a referral to a physical therapist for a 1 time visit to have them review with you.

Some other things that Steve, my dentist and I did:
All of us used the splints and exercises. Steve got prescription massage therapy which he found helpful. My lady dentist also lifted light dumbbells has she had huge strength issues. I used some of the therapy clay. I picked it up otc at a place that sells it for the women who have gone thru mastectomies. I worked the clay in my hands like play dough.

At the 4 month point a doc had me do the nerve conduction test. That was a total waste of time and money. $1300.00 and that was painful too. Basically it tells that you have nerve issues. Duh I already knew that.

Again, carpal tunnel is very reversible (and mine was serious.)

Let me know if you have questions.

Brandy

[brandy]

Deb,

Scary since I have a long time left until retirement!

It will get better and you will do fine. It is all about reducing inflammation of that nerve that runs thru the wrist. It would not hurt to eliminate nightshades for 3 months to help reduce inflammation.

I went to two doctors during my spell of carpal tunnel. One visit to PCP and one visit to hand guy. Both said it will get better on its own with rest and sure enough the carpal tunnel went away.

brandy

[Greengoddess]

One of the first symptoms I had was pains in my fingers and toes. It was the reason the doc doing the colonoscopy took a biopsy. They disappeared after about a year of diet changes.