So I spent the majority of last night with a huge, almost pulsating palm of my hand. I cannot describe the pain and the annoyance as I simply could not move my hand properly which made everything harder to do. Now I know many people who think hand pain can't be that bad because it is such a small part of my body, when the rest of me is in continuous pain, but have you ever considered exactly what you use your hands for? Everything from cooking, cleaning, typing, writing, reaching for anything....pretty much everything. For me, swollen and painful hands is one of the worst areas of my body to be affected, so yesterday I was on a mission to find the best ways to combat it.
Here are my findings from an afternoon of pain combat!
Starting off with an ice pack...
We all know that ice is one of the best items to use to combat swelling, so this was my first stop. I wrapped ice within a hand towel, so that I didn't burn myself, and gripped it within my hand for ten minutes at a time. I did ten minutes holding it and five minutes not. There were two notable points to come from this; the first was that it set my Raynauds off, adding to the pain, and the second was that it did equally take the swelling down somewhat.
Overall it was not worth it for the agonising Raynauds attack, when the swelling only returned once I had stopped using the ice. However, if you don't have circulation problems then this is definitely worth trying as it did combat the actual swelling for a time and gave my hand a break from it for a little while.
Anti-inflammatory's and hold it still
Do you know how hard it is to hold your hand still......it was almost more annoying than the swelling itself. I started off by taking a dose of my Naproxen and then rested my hand on a pillow, slightly elevated, waiting to see if anything would happen. Well the Naproxen did take the edge off the pain, however they don't work as well for me anymore, maybe as I have been on them for a while now. Elevation however did help to take a little of the swelling down, but I would advise you to move your fingers every now and again to stop them from stiffening up.
I found that by elevating my hand only slightly, and wiggling my fingers ever now and again, I was able to combat some of the pain and allow my hand to rest.
Resting my hand on a hot water bottle
Now, I know that you are not meant to use heat on swelling and more for muscle pain, but it was worth a try. I set myself up with a tiny, hand held hot water bottle and just rested it within the palm for a while. The pain relief was instantaneous which was great but I could equally tell it wasn't going to do anything to combat the actual size of my palm. I would advise this method however for sheer relief and almost bliss.
One thing I did do, was to not fill the bottle to entirety and for a very good reason. This meant that the bottle was flexible enough to be used for squeezing and relaxing my hand muscles. Almost like a physio session, it helped to keep some of the movement in my hand and helped the overall amount of grip I had.
Support gloves
So next I decided to head for the ever faithful support bandage. For hands you can get a specific type, either from your GP or as I have found, they are readily available from places like sports direct. For your hands they should offer you some support for both the top and palm, offering some flexibility so that you can still move your hand. Some supports specifically for arthritis have boning within them, these are generally prescribed to you.
I have a flexible support, which by the time I needed to use my hand, was one of the only choices I had left. I find them to be incredibly useful, although I am not sure they take a lot of the swelling down, they do offer me support whilst I am using my hand....even writing this for us. It also reduced some of the pain that was being caused by movement.
Drinking a lot of water
The majority of my joint swelling is caused by the arthralgia, however some of it is caused by water retention too. So one of the best things to do in order to fight this off is to drink plenty of water, cut out salt for the day and avoid alcohol. even if I didn't notice an instant result from this, salt, caffeine and alcohol will only add to the swelling in the grand scheme of things. I will always avoid these anyway, especially during a flare up.
My overall conclusion is that really you need to be doing a mixture of each of these. None was 100% successful, but by applying a couple together, such as heat and support, you may find yourself able to cope a little better.
