In a perfect world, you would never experience aches and pains. Unfortunately, the truth is that most adults experience a variety of aches and pains and need to keep working regardless. The key is to find out what caused the issue and take steps to prevent it from happening again.
Of course, you also need to monitor the injury. If the pain doesn’t subside or the injury doesn’t appear to be healing you’re going to need to see a professional and have the issue resolved. Your wrists are very important and it makes sense to get treatment as early as possible. In most cases, the wrist pain will go away by itself. But, it helps to know what’s caused the injury.
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Recent Activities
The first step is to consider what you’ve been doing and when did the wrist pain start. If you can pinpoint a time, such as a fall or when you were undertaking sofa cleaning, then you’ll be able to identify the activity to avoid or change the way in which you tackle it.
Many things can cause wrist pain, such as hitting an object too hard, typing on a computer for long hours, or even operating heavy machinery.
Knowing what caused the pain helps you to identify the type of injury and how long it should take to heal. In most cases, the healing process will take up to two weeks and then you can continue normal activities.
Medical Conditions
If there is nothing obvious that caused your wrist pain then you’ll need to look into medical conditions. You’ll probably want your local wrist specialist to help with this.
One of the most common issues is arthritis. It’s common as you age as the cartilage between bones deteriorates, causing the bone to grind against bone. It’s painful.
You may also be experiencing carpal tunnel syndrome where the nerves in the carpal tunnel have been under increased pressure. This results in inflammation which causes the nerves to press against the tunnel, triggering the pain response.
A cyst can also cause wrist pain. In this instance, the pain will usually get worse if you try to do anything, although in some cases activity can help reduce the pain.
Another medical condition is called Kienbock’s disease. This is usually an issue for young adults and is a disease that compromises the supply of blood to the bones in the wrist. Because blood flow is reduced the bones collapse, causing pain and movement issues.
Deciding The Issue
Your doctor will help you to identify what is wrong. But, if you’re concerned over whether to go to the doctor or not, think about the circumstances of your wrist injury.
If the injury was sudden then it’s likely that you’ve stretched the tendons and ligaments from a specific incident. They will heal over time.
But, if the pain has been building and been there for a while then you need medical attention to identify and resolve the issue.
