For the better part of this year – and I don’t mean better in a good sense – I’ve had strange issues with my hands. Well, technically it started last year when I hurt my right hand playing tennis. I think it may have been one particularly bad shot which jarred my hand and led to the injury. Thinking about it now though, a badly framed shot shouldn’t really injure a strong and healthy hand.

A month’s rest was required until it had healed but then, some time in January/February, again during tennis, the same pain reoccurred. This time it came on gradually throughout a game i.e. there was no particular shot that caused it. Within half an hour it had become really sore.

After that, I played a little, perhaps once a week for a few weeks or so but the pain wouldn’t subside. By this point, typing and using a mouse was starting to really tire my hand out and aggravate the injury. Now, was I imagining things or did I feel a sensation in the exact same place on my left hand? As this sensation grew stronger and started to become uncomfortable, it dawned on me that tennis may not have been the root cause of the problem.

Interestingly, whilst in Japan on holiday I had little to no pain. Perhaps those two weeks away had been just the ticket. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Within a day or two of returning to keyboards and mouses the tiredness returned. I decided to rest properly when, after coming back from Japan, I played a round of golf which was extremely painful by the end of the round.

So I headed to my doctor suggesting I might have a worsening case of RSI. I had already asked for physiotherapy a while back but was told the waiting list was 22 weeks! Now, with this starting to affect my daily life and not just being a sporting injury, I managed to get seen within 2 weeks.

I am always fascinated by physiotherapy. It’s the braking down of the body’s mechanics, seeing where something has gone wrong and the possibility of fixing the problem simply by being disciplined in rigorously following regular rehabilitation exercises. However, in this case, physio wasn’t able to provide a complete solution.

The physio initially diagnosed the problem as a muscular issue – in particular, the deep muscles between two of the bones in my hands. The muscles on the inside of the palms of my hands were weak, probably from a lack of extended range of motion whilst typing. After a couple of months of exercises, these muscles were much stronger but I still need to to these exercises daily, just in case. While they are stronger, the tiredness and discomfort whilst lessened, haven’t vanished. Perhaps it’s a nerve issue, it was suggested. Being related to my back or neck and nerves was another theory.

I had already asked my GP for another referral and was already waiting for my first rheumatology appointment when my physio decided we were no longer making progress and discharged me. It was over a month waiting with no treatment but this appointment finally came around last week. The new doctor seems to know his stuff and is sending me for a barrage of tests. The downside is that he won’t see me with the results until January!

It sounds silly but like most things, you don’t know how much you use your hands until you can’t use them. I’m typing this pretty much with two fingers and doing almost anything results in this uncomfortable pain occurring. I’ve been resting a lot, especially from keyboard and mouse work (one reason for fewer blogs); I haven’t played any racket sports for nearly half a year, now. How utterly  frustrating. I can only pray the rhumatologist can figure out what is going on.