My wrist (left) has been terrible for about a month. Every waking moment I am aware of it. I can't turn door knobs, open bottles or write (I'm left handed). If I bump it it hurts like heck and then pulsates. A sheet or blanket just grazing it will almost hurt. Also the main area that hurt moves. It will go from the left side of my wrist (by the bony bump in your wrist) to the other side, to the area wright below my palm, to the top of my hand. All of the areas hurt but at different specific times one area will hurt more than others. I have lost a lot of strength in that hand also.
I started taking celebrex for my UVeitis and at first I thought it was actually helping the pain in my wrist. It almost totally went away for a couple of days. It was so wonderful. Then it was back with a vengeance. I had a doctor appointment set up yesterday for a pre-op visit for cataract surgery in my uveitis eye so I told the doctor about it. Since my cataract surgery isn't until December my doctor said we need to take care of the wrist first and since insurance won't pay for an Xray of your hand and the EKG and pre-op bloodwork in the same visit (this is totally idiotic in my opinion) she felt the wrist issue was more important.
After all was said and done she prescribed a medrol dose pack and she told me to ice the heck out of it. I HATE steroids. The way they make you feel when you take them and all of the serious side effects that can come with it. Steroids literally saved my life when I was diagnosed with Takayasu Arteritis and saved my sight from UVeitis but it also weakened my bones, some of my muscle has atrophied and gave me a cataract in my right eye (among other things). One time when I was given high dose prednisone (80 mg per day) I literally had a mental breakdown. I was angry and crying ALL the time and couldn't sleep. I would have left me if I were my husband during this time. It was hell.
BUT it is a miracle drug. It got me thinking about people who had arthritis "back in the day" and how they must of suffered. How a simple drug like prednisone or modern surgery could have saved many lives in earlier centuries. After taking one days worth of the medrol pack (and icing it most of the day) my wrist feels 75% better. I can turn door nobs, open my medicine bottle, put laundry in the washer and fold it when it's dry. It hurt so bad to do those things before today.
Without prednisone and the stents that were placed in three of my arteries (carotid, subclavian and vertebral) back in 1997 I would most likely be dead today. If i weren't dead I wouldn't be the person i am now as i would probably be a vegetable. If I weren't dead I would also most likely be blind from the UVeitis.
I am just thankful today for modern medicine. I feel like I need to knock on wood or something. Probably need to praise God.
