Tenosynovitis in Wrist

Hey guys,

A little over two weeks ago, I noticed some wrist pain on the thumb side after squatting; I was using a rack that had the pegs a little too high and had to raise my wrists a little to put the bar back, then noticed afterward when I tried to deadlift that it was hurting my left wrist.

Went to my doctor yesterday and the initial diagnosis is tenosynovitis (still waiting on the x-ray just to rule out a scaphoid fracture, but he was pretty confident).

I tried to train through it at first, but stopped once I realized it wasn’t getting better. Doesn’t seem to be getting much better with rest and a brace (which I’ve been wearing sometimes during the day and at night since Monday).

Pain happens on most exercises that aren’t machine leg work, so I haven’t been deadlifting, benching, squatting (low bar position aggravates it), etc. Bending the wrist up/down/to the side hurts, as does gripping hard (it’s sometimes tough for me to unscrew my shaker bottle without pain, for instance) and sometimes opening a door.

Any thoughts on rehab?

Hey @jmhudak17 ,

Sounds like de quervain’s tenosynovitis. Are you having symptoms over the anatomical snuff box of the thumb?

Somewhat, yeah, but it seems to be over a wider range that just includes that. If it is de quervain’s, what would the proper treatment protocol be?

Gotcha.

Typical recommendation is tolerable loading to the area with provocative movements and then isolation to the area with an eccentric focus on movements.
I typically recommend doing these two exercises 1 - 2 x / week in the beginning stages.

Resisted exercises via:
https://www.amazon.com/Finger-Streng…pIIMHw-cAF4uPs

and, pinch grip resistance:
https://www.amazon.com/Rolyan-Exerci…vkTlAVAKRiXAcI

Usual protocol is to start with 3 x 15.

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