Defeat new hand pain with 4 methods that DONT involve surgery or injections

Picture this:

You develop some thumb pain randomly one day, and it doesn’t go away after 3-4 weeks. In fact, it gets a lot worse. So bad that you decide to go to an orthopedic hand doctor, who takes one look at your hand without barely touching you and tells you ‘it’s tendinitis.’ He shoots your thumb up with a corticosteroid injection and says to come back to him in 6 weeks if it’s not better.

You notice slight relief in the following days, but it wears off quickly and your pain comes back with a vengeance. Following the doctor’s orders, you return to him in due time, still in just as much pain (if not worse) as when you first saw him.

Not ever mentioning hand therapy OR explaining the reason you’re in so much pain, he brings up surgery to release your tendinitis. Assuming this is the ‘normal’ route to cure thumb tendinitis, you follow your doctor’s lead and agree to the surgery.

The procedure goes just fine. However, after surgery, you scar pretty badly. Your thumb tendinitis pain is gone, but you have new feelings of pain and sensitivity in that thumb scar you’ve never experienced before.

Pins and needles zap your scar every time you use your thumb…

…and, 6 months after your surgery, that thumb tendinitis pain creeps back in.

You feel absolutely defeated. You don’t want to go through that whole process AGAIN, only for it to not work. You begin to wonder what you could’ve done differently the first time around.

I don't know about you, but that's one of the spookiest stories I've ever heard - and I can’t tell you the number of times my clients have told me variations of this same story.

The thing is, I always, always, ALWAYS assess my clients with ‘tendinitis’ for hypermobility first. Because so often, hypermobility (think: ‘elastic’ or ‘loose’ connective tissue) is the primary driver of tendinitis.

So, when the entire root cause for tendinitis (hypermobility) is ignored, it’s very likely going to come back no matter what you throw at it!

Now I’m not completely against surgery - I think it certainly has its time and place and is an effective last resort measure. 

What I AM against, though, is injections and surgery before even trying other more conservative methods to relieve your pain. Things like...

👻 the RIGHT braces, hand supports, and kinesiotape applications (AND using different 'levels' of hand supports for different activities. For example, while you probably can't type in a bulky thumb metal bar brace, you could certainly type in these silicone thumb supports).

👻 activity ‘hacks’ or helpful gadgets (such as this one-handed jar/container opener).

👻 improving your daily ergonomics (hint: think about how to use your 'whole hand' rather than just your fingertips for activities. For example, 'palm' your toothpaste tube with your entire hand rather than squeezing with your fingertips).

👻 hand exercises (I rarely recommend starting with strengthening exercises - with tendinitis or any onset of new hand pain, you first likely need to begin with range of motion exercises).

If you’re ready to take the right steps towards hand health, get instant access to my free and most popular masterclass.

And I hope this serves as a reminder to ALWAYS advocate for yourself in doctor’s offices - especially those scalpel-ready hand surgeons (🙄). You have nothing to lose by simply asking for hand therapy 💛