Ask HN: How are you dealing with joint pain in your hands? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How are you dealing with joint pain in your hands?

3 points500mazaire8 comments

Hi HN,

I am a software developer of 8 years and I _think_ I have a pretty good handle on ergonomics and setup of my workspace since work related injuries have been a very manageable problem, but lately there has been joint pain in my fingers that I haven't been able to manage properly.

I am currently keeping the muscular pain and wrist pain well managed (aka, I am able to work through that with stretching and other exercise whenever it flares up). But joint pain in my fingers is beginning to effect life outside of work.

I plan on seeing a hand specialist (physiotherapist) very soon to work through this but in the mean time, what are you doing to ease joint pain in your hands/fingers? Is it a simple case of posture? exercise? Is it something larger like arthritis generally speaking? What is your experience?

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There are lots of possible causes and solutions. Some are hard health-related problems you can at best mitigate. But if you're otherwise healthy and just spend a lot of time at the computer, there are potentially some "easy" solutions. In particular:

- Use proper sitting posture, change position often, stand/walk when possible.

- Use an ergonomic keyboard which avoids troublesome positions/movements.

- Exercise. In particular, do some resistance (weight) training.

Anecdotes:

- In my mid 20s emacs pinky could have done me in, but Kinesis ergonomic keyboards worked around emacs afflictions.

- In my late 30s arthritis started troubling me, but a decade later I have less pain (inconsequential) due to taking better care of my health/fitness. But on the downside 16-hour programming days are now a distant memory.

I've read many, many anecdotes over the years, and they make clear that people have diverse afflictions. Be careful about following advice that doesn't apply to your circumstances.

Do you eat foods containing tomato's?

I found after paying close attention for less than a year to the foods I eat, that when I consume foods containing tomato in any form or amount, that my fingers/hands (occasionally wrist) hurt (and pop) like mad for a few days.

Basically very similar symptoms to what you suffer from.

I also have much more general body pain and feel a bit sluggish and dull after eating tomato foods, even reasonably small amounts.

When I avoid tomato's my hands and body are pain free, so after quite a bit of research it's clear tomato causes an inflammatory reaction in my body, so I avoid them for the most part (sad face).

This may appear to be quackery, but it works for me, so I'm hoping it will lead to an alternate path than what you've been pursuing, and it will prove of some positive value in helping you out.

If you are avoiding tomatoes.. you may want to avoid the rest of the nightshade family. Potatoes, eggplant, capsicum/ peppers. There are a few others I can’t remember at the moment.

I've read many papers on inflammation and it's myriad of causes, so I already do avoid those, and family sibling tobacco as well.

I do hope this info can help the OP.

The pain might be a symptom of mild gout. Gout is when tiny crystals of uric acid precipitate out in the poorly-circulated, so poorly flushed, synovial fluid.

What happens if you drink an extra litre of water(or other fluid) when the pain occurs?

For me, it’s been the mouse not the keyboard. As long as I keep my wrists straight (usually with wrist pad or suitably adjusted armrests) things have been fine. But I guess I hold the mouse too tightly and have dodgy finger tendons to show for it. Learning to mouse left handed has helped twice: once with tennis elbow years back and then permanently in the 00’s. Way less mileage on the left hand.

I’ve tried trackballs but it felt too odd and touchpads are not useful in our work (way too much chording). Therefore, make sure you’re not getting messed up mousing.

In the 90s, I developed carpal tunnel syndrome (diagnosed), and they gave me hard wrist splints to address the problem. After a lot of pain and testing, I found out my problem was with the mouse, so I switched to trackballs and then later to trackpads. Problem solved.

Recently, I started developing problems with my thumbs that seem to be similar to De Quervain syndrome (not officially diagnosed, at least not yet). I have found that the soft and hard braces for DQS that are available at Walgreens help with this problem, but I suspect that the cause is actually trackpads. I have yet to figure out what kind of actual solution for the real cause might be.

That will be good to see what the physiotherapist thinks.

In the meantime, you could consider a topical NSAID gel like diclofenac (over the counter in some countries, or "ask your doctor if diclofenac is right for you" in the US) to address pain and inflammation.

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