De Quervain's Tendonitis

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A few weeks ago, I started having major pain from my thumb up to my wrist. It started the same week I was doing the insanity DVD workouts which included a lot of push-ups, so I thought I had strained it doing my work-outs. The pain was worst in the mornings when I first woke up, so I figured I was sleeping weird on my strained wrist. My thumb joint then started popping every time I moved my thumb. I thought that it was popping out of its socket, (which is wasn't, just what it seemed like), it was very painful and uncomfortable.

Having wrist pain with a non-walking, needs-to-be-carried baby is not very convenient. Natalie needs to be picked up, there's no other option for her, and she's not getting any lighter. It hurt every time I picked her up, and completely resting it wasn't an option.

After two weeks, the pain wasn't going away, so I finally made an appointment with an orthopedist. My mother-in-law had given me a wrist brace that held the thumb in place that I wore for two days before the appointment, and it felt tremendously better just in those two days.

As soon as I described my symptoms to the doctor, he immediately said "Oh! De Quervain's Tendonitis. I could have told you this over the phone." Well great, so glad I took an hour out of my day to get here!

Mayoclinic.org

De Quervain's tenosynovitis (dih-kwer-VAINS ten-oh-sine-oh-VIE-tis) is a painful condition affecting the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist. If you have de Quervain's tenosynovitis, it will probably hurt every time you turn your wrist, grasp anything or make a fist.
Although the exact cause of de Quervain's tenosynovitis isn't known, any activity that relies on repetitive hand or wrist movement — such as working in the garden, playing golf or racket sports or lifting your baby — can make it worse.

I was handed a piece of paper that described symptoms which included things like "Very common among new mothers" and "typically caused by carrying babies." One website even called this "Mommy Thumb" and said some 50% of new mothers experience this. My pain and symptoms were text-book. Actually, my doctor and his wife had a baby 5 days after I had Natalie, and his wife is suffering from the same exact thing right now! He assured me that if I wear the brace it should be gone within a few weeks. It is not a precursor to carpal tunnel or arthritis and is extremely common.

So that's where I'm at with my tendonitis. The brace is helping a lot, it's just annoying - difficult to change diapers, gets sweaty on these warm weather days, and blogging/typing on the computer? Yea, that's fun. 

Anyone else experience tendonitis with a new baby?