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I think/hope this will work. I saw the hand doctor(Jennifer Green, at ProSports Orthopedics) today. She asked some questions, did some poking and bending, and then said yes, it's trigger finger, and asked if I would be okay with a cortisone injection.
So, I have now had a dose of cortisone, apparently a dose low enough not to be relevant as cumulative exposure (having needed steroids for optic neuritis and Bell's palsy, and with the first Tysabri infusion, I wanted to check). It turns out there are medical things I will close my eyes for, and a cortisone injection in my hand is one of them. It hurt while she was doing it (I'd guess 30-45 seconds), enough that I said so and asked if that was normal, or a bad sign, and she told me it's normal.
If this works, I may start feeling better in a couple of days, or it might take a couple of weeks. If I don't notice any effect in a couple of weeks, I can call the hand doctor again and/or call the occupational therapist and get an orthotic made. I asked for, and got, a prescription for the orthotic, so I won't have to go back to Dr. Green if the cortisone doesn't do the job. In the meantime, I should keep icing, and avoid "heavy" gripping with that hand.
The doctor said that if this works, it may solve this problem for good, or I might need another cortisone injection some months or years from now. That's a time-scale I can accept.
So, I have now had a dose of cortisone, apparently a dose low enough not to be relevant as cumulative exposure (having needed steroids for optic neuritis and Bell's palsy, and with the first Tysabri infusion, I wanted to check). It turns out there are medical things I will close my eyes for, and a cortisone injection in my hand is one of them. It hurt while she was doing it (I'd guess 30-45 seconds), enough that I said so and asked if that was normal, or a bad sign, and she told me it's normal.
If this works, I may start feeling better in a couple of days, or it might take a couple of weeks. If I don't notice any effect in a couple of weeks, I can call the hand doctor again and/or call the occupational therapist and get an orthotic made. I asked for, and got, a prescription for the orthotic, so I won't have to go back to Dr. Green if the cortisone doesn't do the job. In the meantime, I should keep icing, and avoid "heavy" gripping with that hand.
The doctor said that if this works, it may solve this problem for good, or I might need another cortisone injection some months or years from now. That's a time-scale I can accept.
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