Physio has told me I have De Quervian syndrome. Reckons a corticosteriod injection would sort it out.

Anyone have any experience of this? Does it really sort it out? For how long? Any alternatives? Reluctant to visit the doctor.

IME steriod injections need to be bang on the injury site or can cause long term problems

i would have thought that there are better alternatives, i’m sure SBZ will be along to correct me 😉

Never heard of it, there is a wiki article, go and see your doctor, steroid injections are of debatable value and to some extent rely on the skills of the doctor giving them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Quervain_syndrome

I had a steroid injection in my knee at some point after cycling too much for too long and I can confirm that it didn’t help at all.

I don’t suppose that helps you much either.

Thanks TJ. The wiki article seems a good one, that’s what prompted me to ask if anyone has had good experience with the injections.

Thanks iDave, if SBZ is around I’d be very interested to hear of alternatives.

oddjob, sorry to hear it didn’t help. I’ve a friend who had it in her foot and it’s really helped her out!

I feel for you – i had this really badly last year. What seemed to work for me was acupuncture (physio did this for me) and a neoprene wrap/support to take the swelling down and immoblise my thumb. At its worst, i couldn’t lift a toothbrush or cut up my dinner. Worst pain i’ve ever had without a doubt. My physio also recommended injections but the wrap seemed to help it heal much quicker – i was against injection.

Have to say though that mine still goes from time to time. 😥

er the usual stuff really (PRICE), so the support may help, altering activities or the way you do them to give it some rest, steroids and other anti inflamms may help, alongside ice (consider contrast bathing too if its been a long time and gets swollen).

Stretches, frictions, possibly ultrasound (depends whether your physio believes in it or not)and a graded strengthening programme should help. But a lot of the treatment will be managing the symptoms and ensuring you rest it appropriately to ensure the injury has the chance to recover. There aren’t really any short term fixes

dirtygirl, it is indeed very painful! Really tricky thing to try and rest. Will give the acupuncture a try. It does come and go though. Had it on and off for about 3 years now, seems a lot worse this time though.

marp, have been doing the ice thing which does seem to provide some short term help.

I had it, or something along those lines before christmas – felt like I had gritty gear cables in my wrist. I could actually hear them squeaking, which was weird.

Me being me, I took over the counter AIs, wore a brace and just put up with it – cleared up over the Christmas break, when I wasn’t dragging heavy kit around on site (the initial cause). It was copeable with once warmed up but occasional use was unpleasant – like DGOAB cutting food up with a knife was a bit of a ****. Riding was OK other than changing down gears.

Feels a bit different to the dirty gear cable thing, more like a sharp stabbing pain on the inside of the wrist from seemingly quite random actions. Not sure what really triggers it but my physio squeezed my wrist at a specific point and almost had me on the floor!

Shifting gears doesn’t seem too bad right now, though I usually do most rides in the middle ring anyway.

Def get a wrap/support for it – whenever mine flares up (on a fairly regular basis) i use it. I have two – one for normal day to day stuff, and another for exercise. They are something like £12 from boots and i had an instant improvement in the swelling. I found after a couple of months i could exercise by adapting my grip on the bike/weights, but changing gear with fingers/knuckles took a bit of getting used to, so only pootled around cycle paths.

The gritty feeling is horrible and hearing it is even worse, i can still hear mine grind even when its “good”. A low point was sitting down to eat eggs on toast (not exactly hard to cut) and having to get my ex to cut it up for me.

Three years is a long time to suffer – i’m about 10months now, and mainly seems to go carrying heavy things, or whenever i’m stressed/upset.

Dgoab, that sounds awful. Luckily I’ve not been that bad. Mine really does come and go, can be fine for months then bad for a few months. No idea why.

Definitely carrying awkward shaped things tends to do it, though I’ve always been able to cut up my own food!