Thank you Ada, I do have the lidoderm patches, and I do use them. They help some of the time. But when the pain is just SO BAD, nothing seems to help at all. They don't seem to want to stay cuz the hands are used so much and "always moving" so being so active, those patches are very hard to keep on. LOL! I wear them to bed most of the time...helps the pain stay away, or at least to a minimum, while sleeping. I wrap an ace bandage around my hands to keep them in place...of course then the lidoderm is ALL over my hands cuz I can't stand the ace bandage to touch my skin. LOL!

Thank you for the suggestion. It's a great one. I've been known to look awful silly cuz I cut them into strips and wrap them around each finger at times. I look like a really screwed up and loosly wound mummy I put them on the palms of my hands, wrap them around the "fatty" part of my thumb on the palm side, then lay a strip also on the fatty part of my hand right under where my fingers start. That's where I get a lot of cramping...which is another thing I worry about. I do a lot of tendon glides to hopefully keep those tendons loose so i dont' get the deformed hands. But the more I do, it seems the tighter those hands feel. I'm relly worried about them shortening. Almost like it's inevitable, ya know?