ArbCamp

Amongst all the joints in our body, the wrist is probably the most useful and the most complex of them all. For one thing, your daily activities most often depend on the dexterity and strength of your wrist. For another thing, your wrist is made up of an intricate network of eight carpal bones, five metacarpal bones and two forearm bones, all tightly packed and connected with nerves, blood vessels, and ligaments. As such, whenever you experience a sore wrist, you had better hop on to its treatments pronto.

Why Worry?

Why all the fuss about a simple sore wrist, you might ask? When you do not seek treatment from either your physician, at home or both you run some serious risks with your dexterity and strength. The problems can multiply three fold from something minor to actual loss of use. Think about all the times you use your wrist each day and how an injured or inflamed joint could cause serious issues.

Your common daily duties such as working at your computer, washing dishes or playing sports such as golf can aggravate a sore wrist that has not been treated appropriately. In the end, you could wind up with more expensive treatment plans, complicated surgery and even potentially more pain for not paying attention to your sore wrist in the first place. When you are experiencing pain in your wrist, you should take notice and take action. When you do, you will have longer and healthier use of the most important joint in your body.

Causes

Your painful wrist can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition, an injury brought by repetitive motions involving it, and a trauma brought upon it. Your doctor will ask questions about the history of the injury, frequency, location, and kind of pain felt, and medications being taken to alleviate your symptoms, amongst other things, to arrive at a correct diagnosis.

Medical conditions like tendonitis, arthritis, ganglion cysts and carpal tunnel syndrome are all possible culprits when you have a sore wrist. Repeating the same motion on a consistent basis can also bring on wrist pain. When you do any motion repetitively like tennis or typing for a long time with no support and improper form you run a risk for injury. You could have also sprained or cracked your wrist in a fall.

You should know that many of these causes are closely connected to one another. Any type of repetitive motion such as typing, that is done without the benefit of hand exercises and for long periods can result in this type of injury or inflammation of the wrist.

Care

You want to have the correct diagnosis before you begin treatment for a sore wrist. The wrong treatment is as bad as no treatment at all! Some instances will call for a RICE protocol such as in case of a sprain, while carpal tunnel syndrome may need surgery.

The best person to advise you on a proper course of treatment is your personal physician. That being said the RICE, (rest, ice, compression and elevation) is nearly universal treatment both for first aid and after care. If it is arthritis you are dealing with you may have to make some lifestyle changes as well. Talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of treatment particularly when it comes to surgery, medications and cortisone shots. These can be quite painful not to mention expensive.

Undeniably, a sore wrist can be a pain in the neck. With the right medical attention and personal care, however, it can be a pain of the past.

Tom Nicholson spends his time helping sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome. Please click here to learn more regarding having asore wrist.