Nikki Lee Health

Trigger finger is a painful condition that causes the fingers or thumb to catch or lock when bent. In the thumb its called trigger thumb. This happens when tendons in the thumb become inflamed.

I woke up one fine May morning with my left thumb catching when it was bent because the first joint wasn’t working smoothly. A few days later, my right thumb did the same thing. After a few weeks, both thumbs had frozen first joints.

Naturally, I consulted Dr. Google first and learned that the allopathic treatment was either steroid injections into the joint or surgery. Neither of those were choices I wanted to take.

I learned that one source of tendon inflammation was the new laptop; the MacBook Air is so thin and the edge so sharp that resting my forearms on the edge had angered the tendons. (Inflammation is cellular anger.) Fortunately, I could still play guitar; working on the computer was difficult as the right thumb joint was also painful.

I did lots of different things to treat myself. I bought a stand for my laptop, so that the keyboard was upright and my forearms were not resting on anything. Sitting upright, with my elbows close to my sides and with my forearms at right angles to my upper arms was also a good idea.

I bought magnetic wrist guards to wear at night but they didn’t do very much; in fact, they seemed to make it worse.

I took anti-inflammatory homeopathic remedies regularly and used castor oil packs on my wrists. My chiropractor did adjustments to my wrists and suggested epsom salt baths that felt very good. I did passive range of motion exercises every day to each thumb to keep the joints loose.

The most dramatic changes came from acupuncture. Dr. Qingyao Shi is from China and is always learning new techniques; she has been part of my stable of healers for the past 21 years.   www.acupuncturephilly.com/officetour.php   This time, she needled some body points and my thumbs and wrists. She attached electrodes to two needles in my thumbs and when the electrical stimulation was high enough, both thumbs unlocked and worked perfectly. I went for one treatment a week for a month, and then every two weeks for several months, and have been going once a month since then.

Now, nearly 5 months later, my left thumb has fully recovered and my right thumb is 95% recovered. It is a treat to have comfortable and full range of motion to my thumbs. As with any body part, my thumbs weren’t loved enough until there was something wrong with them.

I am also happy that I didn’t have surgery or take steroid injections; neither of these options come free of challenging side effects like scar tissue formation or joint deterioration. Everything I did was free of side effects. The laptop stand is a part of my daily life.

Time and good practice are often the best healers!