Battling the chronic pain

It has been about three years since I started having pain in my right hand. I did not have a diagnosis from doctor but observing the symptoms I assumed that the condition was “Carpel tunnel Syndrome”. There used to be numbness and tingling in my fingers followed by pain in the wrist moving up to the arm.

I have been using cell phone for blogging and Hiving. The use of cell phone became terribly difficult for me, as it worsened the symptoms.

Consequently, I used to take frequent breaks from Hiving whenever the pain became unbearable. The breaks would help subsiding the symptoms but they pain never disappeared completely. Resuming to the use of mobile was followed by the increase in pain.

Although I visited an orthopaedic doctor a couple of times and mentioned about the strange pain in my hand too, but at that time, the more severe problem and pain was occurring to my left foot, so he recommended me stretching exercises for the planter fasciitis and prescribed the footwear for it.

Those visits to the doctor revealed that I was suffering from Hypothyroidism. In this medical condition along with deficiencies of vital vitamins and minerals in the body symptoms like carpel tunnel Syndrome are common.

Therefore, it was assumed that addressing the deficiencies and resuming thyroxin levels to normal would help alleviating the hand pain too. Nevertheless, it did not happen.

With low or high intensity, the pain remained with me. Writing on mobile especially intensified the symptoms which not only hampered my online activities, but also created problems in performance of my daily chores.

This year, particularly, the hand pain caused much hardship. It did not only became severe but also took various shapes disrupting my life and leaving me worried about its causes.

The pain reached to the level where the tips of my fingers, especially index finger and thumb became highly sensitive. There used to be a sharp piercing pain. I could not even write with pen on paper. When we hold a pen, the thumb nail touches the tip of index finger. That little touch caused me severe pain as if it will tear the skin.

At a point, I suffered from a sensational loss in my hand. Typically, when we hold something and our grip begins to loosen we are aware of it happening. But for me, things would simply fall from my hands without a warning or the slightest sensation that my grip was slipping. It was as if my hand had lost its natural feedback. The condition was both concerning and frustrating. It continued for a few months. I reduced the mobile usage to a great extent so that the symptoms could alleviate.

While typing on mobile devices we often use our thumbs or index fingers, and these were the areas of my hand that hurt the most. I switched to using a stylus.

This adjustment provided some relief. Whereas typing for fifteen minutes used to cause pain, now I could write for thirty minutes before experiencing the same level of discomfort.

Also, I avoided writing with mobile in my hand. Instead I use a table now. Placing the mobile on it, I try to give the optimum support to my hand so that there is not much pressure on nerves.

A couple of months ago, I started feeling stretch around the wrist. It was a different condition that I was facing previously. I investigated the symptoms using AI, Google and YouTube. It lead me to find out some stretching exercises that help in temporary reduction of pain. I made those exercises the part of my daily routine. Nonetheless, if I still use mobile a little more than my optimum limit, the pain returns with high intensity.

Though the exercises and behavioral modification with regards to mobile usage helped alleviate pain in other areas of my hand, I was experiencing severe pain in thumb until just a few days ago. This led me to worry I might have developed arthritis.

I decided to visit the doctor but, for some reasons, I couldn’t manage to go. In the meantime, I considered taking vitamin B12 and calcium supplements to help manage the symptoms until I can see the doctor.

The supplement intake helped and the pain in my thumb reduced. I am glad and grateful to God for this improvement.

Although, lately, there is much improvement in the condition of my hand, yet I still cannot put it to excessive work. Else it starts hurting again, as I am already feeling strains while typing this post. So ,it is time to say good bye with a hope that my condition will continue to improve.

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This post is in response to Hl-featured contest edition 2 of week 134.

Images are taken by me via my mobile