My HAND WANTS TO CURL- HELP
 

I am feeling such despair- My arms are getting so weak and now my right hand hurts and feels like it wants to curl up- I am doing everything to keep it open but its hard. If anyone has recommendations please help. I am still trying to get on baclofen- I am up to 10mg a day and trying to get to 30 but it gives me a headache,,,,,I HATE THIS!!!! I am still working and have to be able to use my right hand,,,,,,

HELP

Debbie

Hi Deb...

My hands have done this off and on...

I've hand my hands curl up so tight that they were even causing my wrists to curl...

I know this will hurt...it did me...but, you have to keep moving your hands as much as possible... AND stretch them as close to flat as you can get them---stretching worked best for me while in a warm bath...the warmth helped ease the muscles/tendons/ligaments.

A friend of mine suggested holding on to a ball... bigger than a tennis ball does best... I often used a 4-5 inch nerf ball....

:hug:
Abbie

Doing this has saved my hands from a permanent curl...

Hi Debbie,
I like what Abbie says to do and that is stretching. I try to do it as often as I can. My hands are always curled up now and the only position I feel a tiny bit of relief is to lie on my left side curled up in a fetal position with my hands folded into my arms into my chest. It is ridiculous but stretching helps...even while you are lying in bed just stretch different parts of your body out. I try to stretch my hands but boy when I stop does it ever hurt. Hang in there and keep on stretchin'!
Take care,
kathy d

Hi Debbie, I'm sorry you are going thru this. I had this happen to my toes. My Dr. had me squeeze this in warm pool water every day.After 4 months they were straight again and touching the floor.

This also happened to my left hand. With my toes, I knew I had RSD, but with my left hand, I had RSD 4 years, but wasn't diagnosed. My 3rd spell with RSD was while water skiing and felt the nerve pull while getting up out of the water. My fingers swelled up straight as a board. I had a wrong diagnosis. RA and the tests were negative. I went to a different Dr. an ortho hand doc and he said rsd in 1 min. tests confirmed it, started me in therapy. was painful, got 50% use of my fingers. they only bend part way. Delay in treatment cost me. My right hand wants to do the same thing, but I stretch, use a rubber ball. I love the wax machine for hands and feet. It's warm wax you brush on your hand.Put in plastic bag. then in soft robe material When the wax cools, it peels right off. The warmth of the wax goes to the bones. Work on stretching. I have had lots of massage therapy. It has keep me mobile. Except for that left hand, I am mobile. I can type with left hand, button buttons, zipper so am happy with that. I can make half a fist. I don't know why some deforming is inward and some are curling the opposite way.
But once you go so far, if there has been delay it gets stuck.

When I breast surgery, I got RSD, but not diagnosed, got frozen shoulder, couldn't raise my hand or arm. I had 100 pt and 100 massage therapy and have full use of my shoulder. remission for a year. moved to other shoulder, more pt and massage and cortisone injections (2) remission for a year. Then the water skiing thing with left hand. it went from there to full body, generalized and internal, pelvic region. My Dr. just built 2 clinics with HBOT and I'm going to try it.

A woman was driving on the freeway here in Phoenix and was in an accident. Two cars collided and went into a metal fence. One of the poles became a missle and went thru her windshield, taking off part of her little finger and part of her arm. They saved her arm-18 operations. Her neurologist called my neruologist and asked him if he would take her as a patient as she had frozen shoulder, couldn't raise it at all. My Dr. put her in the HBOT 9 times and she was waiving at the local TV crew. I'm saving for it. Maybe April or May.

Debbie, I hope some of this helps. I work from home with the laptop and printer. My husband and I have been self employed for 40 years and we like it, this is a newer business for me. I love it-work when I can the the days that are bad, stay in bed.

Debbie, let us know how you are doing and how the medication is coming along. I'm going to research the med, I've gained weight on neurotin and lyrica and hate it. They did end my electric jolts, jerks, spasms and am grateful for that. They haven't come back and I've been off over a year.
Take care, your AZ buddy, loretta with soft hugs:grouphug::grouphug:

I am so sorry and I know how hard to face this is and painful. Do you think you can call your pain doc or the doc who rx med and ask for suggestions? I know the side effects in the meds are hard. You stated you are working could you take a few days off while you increase to face the head aches or is it too severe to increase right now. I agree about a bath and I know some like epsom. Hang in there and sending thought

TY
 

thanks for all of your advice- I love the idea of the warm wax...It has eased up a bit on its own but I am sure it will come back to haunt me soon enough! I am heading to the carribian for a week so hope the warm weather helps. I am going to try not to get too depressed about all the things I can't do while on vacation! It is going to be tough but I dont want to bring everyone else down, They have had enough of that

TY
Deb

Deb, Both feet/toes were doing the same. I found hot epsom salt bath(for hand you could just use a bucket) and exercise them gently. I would do this like 3 times a day. I also hate meds but i had to increase my lyrica. Thank God because my toes/feet stopped curling under and i am able to walk on them. It was worth the side effects of the meds. Keep them warm. momof4

:)My hand curls too. Got a stress ball and squeeze it daily it helps. keep exercising that hand and dont let the rsd get control of you

Hi Deb
I agree with the board above,,,,also I recently ordered magnesium sulfate cream.{kirkman labs] on line,,,,.that is supposed to help withP.N but I believe it will help my legs and feet,,My wife just bought me some " Foot Pain Cream' [thats what its called]....it good for neuropathymand it increases circulation,,,,if you cant find it on line,,Pm me and i'll give the info,the foot pain cream,,,she bought at a health food store,,,,,, and also i just started taking "slowmag[magnesium chloride],,,,,,,bobber

Hi Debbie

I went through a similar thing with my hand and it is scary because you don't want to lose your ability to move your fingers. I don't know if you'd be up for doing this, but here's what I did- I cut a piece of plastic (I used an ice cream container lid, so it was strong but not too strong) and cut it into the shape of my hand when my fingers are straight, just cutting it a little short at the top so the tips of my fingers could curl a little. Then every night, I would bandage my hand (not too tight) against this piece of plastic and use it as a splint. Sleeping with my hand like that was the best thing for me, as before that, every morning I had to spend ages getting my fingers moving after they've been curled for the 8+hours I'd been asleep. I did that for quite a while, and did a lot of physio each day to strengthen my fingers.

One thing I did (that you can do anywhere, anytime) was to put my hands together (as if you're praying) then slide one hand up the other, letting my fingers curl over the top of the other hand, then slide it back and do it with the other hand.

Another easy exercise involves keeping your hands in the same praying position, then push your left hand against your right hand, so your right wrist goes backwards, then do the same to the left. This helps with your wrist movement as well as your hands as you push one against the other.

Squeeze balls (or playdoh, which is easy to make from pantry items, I can give you an easy recipe if you need one) are great at strengthening your fingers, too.

Oh, and one more: sit on a lounge chair that has an arm to it. Sit normally and put your arm on the armrest part, palm down with you fingers hanging over the end. Then slowly slide your arm back so your fingers are now flat on the armrest, then go forwards again so they can curl. Do this quite a few times, sometimes leaving your hand in the flat position for a few seconds before letting them relax over the end of the armrest again. You can slowly build up to doing more repetitions each time you do this exercise (so sliding your arm back and forth 5x in a row, or 10x in a row), or do it more often each day (like doing 5 reps, 3 times a day).

Those exercises (as well as the splinting idea) can be done anywhere, any time, with no equipment needed, so there'd be no worries about being on holiday and not getting to a physio- You can even do them on the plane!
:p

As for the baclofen, I take 50mg a day (2x 25mg tablets at night) and it works wonders for me. I've been on it virtually nonstop (I come off it once a year to check it's still working ok) for over 9 years. When I come off it, I get horrible cramps and spasms in my hand and arm. My hand will seize up like a claw and will have me in tears, or it'll feel like someone is ripping my forearm muscles in half. Baclofen doesn't make much of a difference to my leg or foot, but that's ok, it's worth being on it just to have my hand and arm cramp and spasm free. If you can tolerate the baclofen ok, then it's worth trying to get to a higher dose and seeing if you'll get any benefit for it, but as always, we have to weigh up the pros and cons of a medication and sometimes the cons have to win :(

Anyway, I hope these suggestions help. I have great use of my hand and arm now after doing these things. I used to not be able to grip a spoon or pencil, now I can pick my daughter up, hold a 2 litre bottle of milk etc etc. I have to constantly work on strengthening exercises but I feel so much better than I did during the 3 years I had of absolutely no function of my arm or hand. I hope you can come out the other side of this smiling too :p

Oh, I almost forgot one last thing I want to say... have an awesome holiday! :D

x Kate

We missed you Kate...

Welcome to NeuroTalk, Glad to hear you are going for it with your hand. Something I feel I benefited from was massage therapy and physical therapy.
Besides my hands, I had frozen should in both sides. This is how I came thru it, pt & Massage.
Hope the best for you. Keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. Your new friend, loretta

They used "parafin wax" on my hands and elbow when I was still going to PT
it really felt great and definitly losened things up. You can buy the tank and wax from a medical supply place or go on-line and google parafin wax. I believe parafin wax is a little different than regular say candle wax so be carefull before you use it. Great idea....

Gabbycakes

Hi Debbie,

So sorry you are dealing with this right now:hug:! I DO understand what you are going through as I have Dystonia (a complication of RSD) in my left leg and right arm. My leg is permanently rotated out to the side in eversion and no ammount of medications, muscle relaxants and PT have helped so far. My Doctor is now wanting to try Botox however, I have had severe reactions to nerve blocks etc so i'm not sure if i'm willing to try that at the moment.

When the Dystonia is really bad in my arm, it curls up like yours. When it was really bad last year, my arm curled up into a fist and stayed like that for 3 months. I was having PT 2-3 times a week and doing exercises at home but nothing worked unfortunately. It got so bad that my Doctor had to take me to the Operating Room to try and open up my arm, clean it and cut my fingernails as they were beginning to dig into my skin.

I know it sounds really stupid, but the one thing that got my arm to start opening up was getting a new puppy. We'd lost our 14 year old Springer Spaniel so my parents got another puppy and i'd sit and stroke him for hours. After a few weeks, we started noticing that my arm was uncurling and eventually, it got to where I could start and hold pens again so i'd practise drawing. It was EXTREMELY painful - i'm not going to lie to you - but it WAS worth it in the end!

Cake's given you some great advice. My PTs recommended squashing soft balls/toys like she recommended but unfortunately, in my case, my arm was in that tight of a fist that I couldn't force it under. My mum and I were always told that my thumb was a trigger point and that if I massaged it, it would hopefully get the muscles to relax so you might want to try that.

I hope you are feeling better. If you ever want to talk, i'm here!

Alison

1. Contrast baths/showers or sinks of cool then warm water
2. Warmth; be careful not to over heat
3. Lidoderm patches
4. Move the fingers slowly as it opens, never in a forced manner
5. Yes, the parafin wax helps as does warm wet wash cloths. Moist heat.

to promote circulation

Circulation