Thumb arthritis is a painful and incapacitating condition. The best method to treat pain, enhance mobility, and reduce the impact of this disease on your lifestyle is to get medical treatment as soon as you notice symptoms. You can take some actions at home to make daily duties simpler while following your doctor’s arthritis treatment plan.
Here are some tips that can help you to manage arthritis in the thumbs.
Keep Your Range Of Motion By Doing Workouts
Exercises that allow you to move your thumb through its complete range of movement will help you keep and increase your thumb’s mobility. Consult your doctor or physical therapist about possible exercises.
Avoid Circumstances Where Your Hands Are Clenched
Trying to grasp the small handles of a handbag or the grips of carrier bags can cause you to clench your hand, causing your thumb joint to become inflamed. Choose a handbag with a long strap that you can sling over your shoulder with ease. Try balancing a boxy paper bag on your hip and steadying it with your arm rather than using shopping bags with handles.
Use Heat And Cold Treatment
When your joint becomes inflamed or painful, check with your doctor and ask whether to use heat or cold—or a mix of the two. Try applying a washcloth with ice cubes to your inflamed joints to alleviate the pain and bring down the swelling.
Medications
Topical drugs such as capsaicin or diclofenac that are applied topically over the joint to reduce pain, may be recommended by your doctor. Thumb pain can be relieved with over-the-counter pain medicines such acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen sodium, as well as prescription pain relievers like celecoxib or tramadol.
Try Using A Splint
A splint can help support your joint while also limiting your thumb and wrist movement. You can wear your splint only at night or all day and night. Splints can aid to relieve pain, promoting optimal joint alignment while you do chores, and rest your joint.
Surgery
Your doctor may propose surgery if you don’t react to alternative therapies or if you can barely bend and twist your thumb. For up to six weeks after surgery, you’ll be wearing a cast or splint on your thumb and wrist.
Injections
If pain medicines and a splint aren’t working, your doctor may prescribe a long-acting corticosteroid injection into your thumb joint. Injections of corticosteroids can provide short pain relief and inflammatory reduction.
