Unsure what potential wrist issue is

Hey, welcome to forum!


Correct, that's a chronic condition, whereas tendonitis comes and goes depends on whether you incorrectly stressed any part of your body.

It could be carpel tunnel syndrome, used to happen to me a lot when I was your age

Thank you for the very rapid reply!
 It could be carpal tunnel. I don't have any numbness or tingling though, are they necessary for it to be carpal tunnel or is ti possible to have carpal tunnel without that?

I had carpel tunnel syndrome on several different occasions because of my studying habits and playing first-person video games requiring mouse movement. But, more so because I would write so much. I used a brace to help it heal, they cost anywhere between 10 and $30.



Notice in the illustration that it is ligaments and tendons in the carpel tunnel that are inflamed due to overuse. This leads to pain all around your thumb and surrounding areas

Does there not necessarily have to be numbness and tingling for carpal tunnel? Maybe I have that.

I also just noticed that if I pull my thumb back ( not really hard, just gently) then it hurts at the base (only the right hand).

Exactly what I felt, so painful. I'm 98% certain we're dealing with carpel tunnel syndrome.

I used to press on that area to get relief, but it's shortlived. It needs to be rested

I was talking with some people on an RSI forum and some people were talking about this source, people seem to generally agree it's a pretty good source for how to treat tendonitis: http://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/

I am unsure about one part of it and what it means. It is talking about how it goes from a stage which it is possible to fully recover from (reactive tendinopathy) or further stages where there is permeant scar tissue.

Some of the criteria it post for what determines whether it is in the repairable stage or the permeant stage are:

"General signs and symptoms of moving from reactive tendinopathy to degenerative changes:

Total rest does not work
The tendon is stiff, achy, or sore after periods of inactivity such as after waking up
You have chronically worked through signs and symptoms such as pain, achiness, soreness, stiffness, and so on for longer than 3+ months you may be at higher risk"

I'm not really fully sure how this could apply to my case, assuming what I have is some kind of tendinopathy.

As I can remember times when my wrists were sore when doing none computer things from a few months ago, so this has been a problem that has been there for a while. However it is only recently that I noticed pain when typing (doesn't mean it hasn't been there for a while, I don't type that much so wouldn't notice it).

Based on this, I am confused as to what the previous quote from the article means.

Does it mean more a) That the problem is only likely to more from the reactive stage to the permanent stage if you actually have pain when you are doing things,

or b) That the problem can go from reactive to permeant if you have an issue and it doesn't heal, even if it isn't actively causing any symptoms.

Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both.

In relation to tendonitis, if the issue prevails for 1 year, then it becomes tendonosis. That's my understanding of it all...

Now, you seem adamant to believe that it is tendonitis, rather than carpel tunnel syndrome. Does that mean carpel tunnel syndrome is off the table now? Have you tried wearing a wrist brace to relieve the pain? They do a good job mechanically preventing movements come from your wrist.

Nah I wouldn't say it's off the table, as far as I know, the treatment, at least for the first few weeks, is rest for both conditions, so I have a while to figure out which one it is, just exploring all options really. I did the test where you hold your arm out and tap your wrist to see if you finger goes numb and it was negative. Not sure if that's really a definitive test though.

I can't remember using a test to determine what it was, but I just knew that when my wrist started to hurt, it was because I was over using it.

Regardless, I think they're both the same thing anyway. Except we call it carpel tunnel syndrome because it's localized in that area.

Let us know what happens...