Trigger Thumb

Friday, February 19th, 2010 - Day 63

First off, why hasn't anyone told me I've been writing 2009 on all of my post this year, lol. I went though and changed all of them! It is always hard to get used to the new dates each year.

Went to the doctor today regarding my thumb. A couple months before I had Tia, my hands swelled really bad while I slept. It was to the point where I couldn't even sleep and if I did, I would wake up to feel like my hands were brittle and if I moved them, they'd break off. One night, I pulled the cover over me with my left hand. You'd think that would be easy to do, but with my brittle feeling hands, my thumb moved out of place. It was a weird feeling because I knew it wasn't broken, but I knew there was something up with it. My doctor said it is normal to have that feeling when you are in late pregnancy and to just watch it as much as I could. Once Tia was born, the swelling disappeared, but what started happening immediately that first week was I'd wake up in the middle of the night and my left thumb would be bent. Bent in the way that hurt and I couldn't get it out of that position easily. I had to massage it and even then it was numb and hurt really bad. So far two months I've been taping my thumb so it wouldn't bend while I slept. I also taped it during the day as well because when I'd pick up Tia, it would hurt as well. My OB referred me to a hand doctor and today I finally saw him. Yep, I have trigger finger. Trigger Finger is an inflammation of tissue inside my thumb. Tendons, cordlike fibers that attach muscle to bone and allow you to bend the joints, become swollen, as well as the membrane that allows the tendons to move easily. This makes it difficult to straighten the finger or thumb. Let's just say it sucks! So the doctor gave me a shot today of an anti-inflammatory medication, cortisone. It definitely hurt but I know it should do the trick...I hope. He said that if it doesn't, then we'll have to do surgery. I've never had surgery before and would prefer not to (besides Lasik).