Last week Mary came to me with severe pain in her hands, wrists and arms. She had been working overtime and spending long hours typing to complete an assignment. Her doctor said that she should rest, wear a wrist and hand brace and it should improve in time. She was afraid she could not finish her work due to the pain.
Understanding why and how finger, hand and arm activity develop and progress into painful problems can be the key to preventing and resolving them. Finger, hand and arm pain can be a debilitating problem. Many working people are plagued with carpel tunnel, hand and wrist pain. Court recorders, secretaries, programmers, massage therapists, chiropractors, and many others suffer from this common problem.
So why does this happen? Are we acting like finger athletes? Are we giving the preventative care that it requires? When we use a body part with a high level of activity it requires help to keep pain free. As we use our fingers, hands and arms our muscles tighten, and contract. Over time activities can cause shortening of the muscles and tendon fibers. When the muscle fibers shorten and we continue to demand the same level of activity from our muscles what happens? We get micro tissue tears and start to form scar tissue which binds and becomes inflamed. This often leads to tendinitis, muscles strains and in the wrist carpel tunnel. Simple stretching exercises, soaking in a hot tub and therapeutic massage can prevent and treat these problems. With some therapeutic massage and isolated active stretching she was able to complete her work.
If you are a “Finger Athlete” come in and learn how to treat and prevent problems.
Deborah Karlan, LMT