sore thumb joint
 

When ever I sew by hand, my thumb joint in the hand, hurts, what can I do for it? Does this happen to anyone else?

my thumb joints have arthritis. near the wrist mainly. i end up massaging the muscles in my hand a lot and pushing my thumbs away from my palm as they tend to want to move inward over time.
ice for any inflamation and then heat for comfort helps. i sometimes rub in Aspercreme which helps. also try wearing a wrist guard/wrap. they do help the thumb some too. good luck.

I went to the doctor with this problem. He said it is osteoarthritis of the thumb joint, and very common. If you Google, you will find more information about it.

What I finally figured out is that repetitive motion was causing the immediate problem. To make a long story short, I stopped playing Wii games with the remote controller. It probably wouldn't cause a problem for most people, but my thumb and little finger bones happen to be half of normal size, so operating the button on the remote with my thumb was putting stress on the thumb joint. I purchased a thumb joint splint from Amazon and wore that every night, in addition to giving up the remote controller, and my joint has definitely gotten better (although not perfect). Here is a link to the splint I purchased:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i01_details
(I leave the velcro in place and just slip it on and off my hand without readjusting the wrist velcro.)

For osteoarthritis in general (I have it in my knees and spine also), I take calcium citrate, glucosamine chondroitin, and Vitamin D every day. I started this after my knees got worse so rapidly. It seems to have halted at least obvious progression, as my knees have been stable for the last 8 years or so. I'm assuming this might help my thumb joints too.

One other thing I take every day is citrus bioflavanoids. This seems to help with my carpal tunnel syndrome (diagnosed as moderate to severe, now in remission). May not be relevant to thumb joint problems, but I figure it can't hurt.

Edit: I want to stress that it's important to have a doctor diagnose this condition. After describing the problem, my doctor was able to place pressure on a specific spot to determine whether or not it was osteoarthritis. There are certainly other medical issues that can create pain or discomfort in the thumb joint.

I just had carpal tunnel surgery 2 weeks ago. What a relief! Still healing but numbness is gone. I had both hands done. I didnt want to suffer twice!

I hope yours doesn't get to the point that mine did. I had to have surgery on it after trying many other options including cortizone shots and physical therapy. Mine was osteoarthritis and had to have a joint resection, bone removed, and tendons reconnected. It was a long recovery, but as hard as it was, it did work. Has been 10 years now since I had the surgery, and as long as I don't overuse it, don't have the problems I had before the surgery.

As you have read, many different things can cause this problem. It's best to see a doctor about it. I hope it's something easily fixed, either by treatment or changing your work habits.

Bonnie and all,
I've read about arthritis in the thumb where the thumb meets at the wrist. But does anybody have problems at the second joint of the thumb - second joint from the nail? I've scoured the internet on this but can't find anything. It eases if I don't use the computer mouse too much.

Maybe Trigger Thumb. I had it in both thumbs (second joint). I had those fixed, but
I have arthritis at the thumb joint base in both hands.

I just keep taking more calcium with magnesium, zinc and vitaminD. Calms it down quite a bit.

I was having awful pain in my right thumb and it would pop when I moved it (manually couldn't move it by myself). I changed my mouse to one that I could lay my thumb flat on (Performance MX by Logitech)and my pain went away. That sure is painful when it was acting up, it even made it difficult to drive!