My trigger fingers thanks to my RA

One of the problems that I have been having from my RA, is my trigger fingers in my right hand. Not only are all my joints swollen and inflamed, but so are the tendons in my hand. I can not grip anything with my right hand or I risk them getting stuck. Of course I am a righty, so this makes things a bit annoying. Today, I was scrapping some food into the trash when my hand got stuck. This is what it looks like:

Sorry for the blurry picture. It was kind of hard to take a picture of my hand with my left hand. As you can see my ring finger is the one that is stuck the most. My pinky finger tends to turn in and twist and my middle finger bends a little at the top joint. When it gets stuck, I have to massage the palm of my hand to see if I n get the fingers to go back to normal. The longer it stays bent, the more it hurts.

Once I manage to get my hand back to normal, I try to keep my hand as straight and flat as I can. I tend to keep my hand open and resting on my leg or bed.

At night, I have to wear a brace so that my hand does not get stuck. Nothing worse than waking up at 3am because your hand has been stuck for hours. It hurts like the dickens. So thankful that my husband is so understanding and will sit there and hold me or rub my back while I cry from pain and frustration.

The brace goes from the second joint of my fingers to the middle of my forearm. It is velcroed on.  It isn't to terribly uncomfortable, but I hate having to wear it. This is what it looks like:

There is a little pillow inside the brace that my fingers rest on and keeps them in a comfortable position, so that the fingers aren't totally straight.

The only thing that seems to help keeps my fingers from curling up is a cortisone shot in my hand. I had one a year ago and it worked very well, up until about 2-3 months ago. Thankfully I see my rheumy on Monday, so I can ask him to give me another shot.


First published 7/10/13