OT: Hand pain

Last week, I noticed some pain in my right hand. I attributed it to the baking I was doing ("stirring" viscous dough with a wooden spoon). I had been doing a LOT so figured my hands were just tired (it is pretty strenuous).

Today, after just ONE batch of biscotti, the pain has returned.

("pain" is a poor choice of word; more like discomfort... a feeling I could live with -- if necessary -- but would much prefer NOT to!)

But, I can't figure out *where* in my hand the "discomfort" originates.

It's not knuckles (I'm familiar with aching joints from having munged a few fingers over the years). It's more like the "meat" of the palm. But, I think it actually *is* the "meat" (flesh) and not the underlying bones.

Again, probably related to holding the 1/2" diameter shaft of the wooden spoon in my palm and forcing the spoon through the dough for 20-30 minutes at a time.

So, this puts the marketing of all those "large/wide handled" utensils in proper perspective! I guess (old?) palms don't like to be clenched as tightly? Preferring a more "open" use?

If this is indeed the case (i.e., I'm getting old :< ), then how is the larger grip making things less "painful"? Spreading the load over a larger surface? Allowing my palm to be "less clenched"? etc.

Is the pain actually *in* my flesh? Or, is that just what it seems like?

Reply to
Don Y
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Maybe, maybe not,

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Reply to
My 2 Cents

Sounds to me like you bruised your hand muscle. They don't necessarily show bruising, though.

You might treat it as you would a pulled muscle.

Reply to
Muggles

Did you at least thank it and give it a kiss goodnight? ^^

Reply to
Eagle

Doesn't sound like that, my hand never hurt before the carpal tunnel surgery it would get cold and go numb though.

Reply to
FrozenNorth

If the pain is in the muscle under the thumb, that could be strained and cramping. I get that sometimes with fat-handled paint brushes doing house painting. The muscle cramps from the long-term gripping.

I don't think I've ever had a pain in the rest of the palm, but I'd suspect a similar thing there. My first idea would be to try a spoon with a different shape or diameter handle. If it's thick then try thin, and vice versa.

Reply to
Mayayana

No, I had carpal tunnel problems decades ago. I'd never describe THAT as JUST "discomfort"! It hurt a LOT! Just touching the tips of my fingers would send sharp pains through my hand.

This is an ache. Like when you've carried too many squares of shingles up a ladder (and your arms/legs "ache"). And, constrained to the palm region -- not above the knuckles or below the wrist. The "meat" of the hand.

I've got to make another batch later tonight. I shall try to notice the source of the pain while making that batch. And, how it relates to the utensil I'm using...

Reply to
Don Y

I've got permanent partial numbness in index finger, middle finger and less in thumb from the carpal nerve being pinched in my neck. It can get pinched in several places like neck, shoulder, arm and wrist. Been about 8 years. One of the joys of getting old. Someone said if it don't hurt, it don't work.

Reply to
Frank

I like large handles on my tools too but I have pretty big hands. Oxo makes a good line of stuff. Sleeve your wood spoon handle with some rubber hose

I would just exercise your hand and work the kinks out. Just range of motion stuff, not squeezing a spring grip or a ball.

Reply to
gfretwell

Frank, point of information. There's no such thing as the carpal nerve. The carpal tunnel is an anatomic space at the junction of the wrist and the hand through which passes the median nerve. The space is small and rigid and any one of a number of things can create swelling in the tunnel, pinching the median nerve.

The median nerve supplies several muscles in the hand as well as sensory areas along the sides and palmar surfaces of the thumb, index, middle, and in most people thumb half of the ring finger. The median nerve is made up of a number of spinal nerve roots that combine in the brachial plexus which is located roughly under the part of the collar bone nearest the shoulder and under the front shoulder muscles at the top of the chest. If any of the spinal nerve roots are pinched, or if the median nerve is pinched anywhere along its course through the arm, you can get symptoms in the portion of the hand that is supplied by the median nerve. There are tests that detect where along the path of the median nerve the pinching is happening. It's important to be sure before surgery; otherwise the surgeon may release the tissues around the nerve where they don't need to be released and of course that won't relieve the symptoms.

The ultimate treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome (if non-surgical treatment has been unsuccessful) is a carpal tunnel release, which is usually done under either regional or local anesthesia as an outpatient procedure. In that procedure, the carpal ligament, which forms the roof of the carpal tunnel (on the palm side of the wrist) is cut, providing more space for the swelling. The ligament doesn't seem to be important for normal hand and wrist function.

Reply to
Peter

Good stuff. I developed this in the computer biz and I (my insurance company) spent a lot of money to have the same thing explained to me.

Once I understood the problem, I didn't have it anymore. I changed my typing style.

Reply to
gfretwell

Thanks for the details. I did not check on the name of the nerve. Mine was neck as shown by x-ray. Wife had same as shown by MRI.

Point is that hand pain could originate from some where else. Same for leg. I've had that one too.

Fortunately able to avoid surgery.

Reply to
Frank

You should've rested your hand until you feel it is OK. Now if it bothers, Arnica gel or sublingual tablet will help.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Look at "Thoracic Outlet Syndrome"

Reply to
Don Y

You should try to rest it. This is why God gave us a Sunbeam Mixmaster with a bread attachment.

I hear that one can also buy bread and biscotti.

Not that it won't heal anyhow but it will take longer.

I can give you a simlar story, maybe.

3 years with the computer in the basement and keyboard on a "TV table", lower than normal.

Moved back to my office, with elbow resting on shelf in top drawer of desk. After a week, pain running down the inside of my arm from the middle of my upper arm to the middle of my lower arm. Even though I sat at this same desk for 20 years with little problem**. Perhaps my chair was higher then too.

**I did want to use the next lower drawer, but it only because I got tired. It didn't hurt when I used the higher drawer.

Went to non-regular doctor from the same practice, he did a bunch of physical tests and asked questions. Said it was probably nothing and sent me for an x-ray of the elbow, which I skipped. All of that was fine until my next checkup when the office gave me my history and it showed my history as "Pain in the elbow". I never had pain in the elbow, it was in the "meat" like you put it, of the upper and lower arm.

After a couple weeks the pain went away and I'm using the top right drawer now, whenever I'm using the mouse and not typing, with the same chair.

It's a mixture. You're a little older so you can't just do anthing at all, but you're not that old ansd so the larger grip helps. Even when young, you can hurt yourself but you ignored those times and don't remember them now.

I never would have gone to the doctor for my arm 30 years ago, or even

There's some fat in a palm but I don't think fat can hurt. But I think all the other tissues can. And there's "referred pain" but I never believe that can.

Reply to
Micky

Details, please.

Reply to
taxed and spent

Don't bend at the hand/wrist junction. Keep it straight. Easy peasy!

Reply to
buster

I caught myself rocking my wrists way back to get my fingers away from the keyboard while I was waiting for the computer to respond. Once it was pointed out to me what could be causing my CTS, I stopped that. For a while I kept hand weights next to my chair and I would lift them up, just letting them pull my wrists straight down while I was waiting. Some of that had therapeutic value, some of it was just to keep my hands busy.

Mainframe computers were a lot slower to respond in those days and we were on pretty slow dumb terminals. (1200 BPS modems with up to 16 terminals on each line). You spent a lot of time waiting and you certainly didn't want to hit a key and screw up your query.

Reply to
gfretwell

Oren expressed precisely :

Thinking 'charlie horse', or 'cramp'. ^^

Reply to
Eagle

I suspect that is the source of the pain on the *outer* edges of the palm. I tried to be more observant of what it felt like to be stirring the dough with the spoon WHILE doing so...

As the dough is REALLY thick (imagine stirring cement -- literally), the business end of the spoon tends to want to stay wherever it is. So, as your hand tries to drag it around the bowl, the handle of the spoon tilts one way, then the other (depending on where your hand is in relation to the end of the spoon -- it's easy to see this if you go through the motions with the end of the spoon in a fixed position).

As such, the handle digs into the "pinky edge" of your palm, then, as you move the spoon around, digs into the edge between the thumb and index finger. Obviously, this keeps repeating with each pass "around" the bowl.

Each time the handle "wiggles", it squeezes the flesh of the hand between the handle and the underlying bone. So, it's the "meat" that complains.

But, I haven't figured out what is responsible for the "pain" in the center of the palm -- there's no comparable mechanical action...

More like a bruised muscle. OTOH, the discomfort fades quickly. Within an hour or so, I'm unaware of it.

Three more batches to go...

Reply to
Don Y

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