# Anyone here ever dealt with a sprained thumb?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 25, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864 "2012-04-25T00:39:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AmberLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmberLee)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/1 "2012-04-25T00:39:42Z")
A little over three months ago I slipped and tried to catch myself with my right (dominant) hand, and twisted my thumb back, causing a hairline fracture, and a sprain in the lower most thumb joint. Has anyone ever gone through this? I’ve never had an injury last this long. I’ve been to the same orthopedist three times, each time telling me to continue wearing a hand brace and come back in a month. It hasn’t been getting any better. There is a constant dull aching pain when my hand is at rest, and sharp pain if I put any pressure on the joint at all; for example, using salad tongs is impossibly excruciating.
Should I get a second opinion? Any similar experiences and outcomes and / or advice is appreciated. I’m slowly going nuts over this.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/2 "2012-04-25T00:48:28Z")
I assume he took Xrays. They could be checked to see if you have an undocked bone in your hand. This can turn around 180 degrees in some cases and cause continued pain for a long time.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/3 "2012-04-25T01:56:03Z")
I did something similar a few weeks ago. Probably not as bad as I jammed it forcing a door I was repairing instead of falling on it with all my weight.
If you didn’t actually break a bone or tear a tendon/ligament, there isn’t really much to do except ice/heat/rest.
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### Author:  [@AmberLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmberLee)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/4 "2012-04-25T02:16:52Z")
TriPolar, what in ever-living-god-forsaken-terrible is an “undocked bone”? Geez, my google-fu didn’t show that up, thank Gad. I don’t think that’s it from your description anyway. I basically demanded an MRI after two and half months and the doctor’s advice was still the same-- let it rest for another month. Arg!
Mr Smith - I definitely tore a ligament, the MRI showed that. Been doing the ice/ rest thing for three months now. That’s how I’ve gotten desperate enough to post I think my second post in all my lurking years since around '01 or so… P.S. you and RandRover are my two favorite posters (I’m sorry!)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/5 "2012-04-25T02:30:35Z")
Apparently this is not a technical term. This seems to be covered under the wiki on [hypermobility](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermobility), but it’s not something you want to happen as a party trick. An undocked bone can move around out of position. Small hand bones can turn around completely. Others just seperate from their sockets. They’re supposed to go back into position after a period of rest. I know someone who had the hand problem, I think it was a thumb bone, but I’m not sure.
BTW: I fractured a thumb bone long ago. It was sore and painful for a long time.
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/6 "2012-04-25T02:53:22Z")
I’ve had a handful of injuries on my hand…(ha!) Never a break or a tear. They still take FOREVER to heal. I remember spraining my wrist - it was a good six months before it was back to normal.
Superficially, I don’t think your ortho is being unreasonable…although I certainly understand your desire for more testing. It’s hard to deal with it when you don’t feel progress.
-D/a
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### Author:  [@Snake\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/7 "2012-04-25T20:40:46Z")
> [@AmberLee](#):
>
> A little over three months ago I slipped and tried to catch myself with my right (dominant) hand, and twisted my thumb back, causing a hairline fracture, and a sprain in the lower most thumb joint. Has anyone ever gone through this? I’ve never had an injury last this long. I’ve been to the same orthopedist three times, each time telling me to continue wearing a hand brace and come back in a month. It hasn’t been getting any better. There is a constant dull aching pain when my hand is at rest, and sharp pain if I put any pressure on the joint at all; for example, using salad tongs is impossibly excruciating.
>
> Should I get a second opinion? Any similar experiences and outcomes and / or advice is appreciated. I’m slowly going nuts over this.
Yeah, I had a similar injury in High School. It took forever to heal, but I was playing hockey at the time so I’m sure I aggrivated it several times. I was getting injections for pain so I could play, but I was pretty miserable for a long time. I’m sorry I cant be very specific about how long it was, its been a couple decades and many different injuries ago.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/8 "2012-04-25T21:52:10Z")
Sprained mine a few years back. We had a van with removable seats. My brother and I were taking out the very back seat, when he dropped his end. Somehow I managed to catch the entire weight of the thing on one thumb.
That was the 3rd worst pain I’ve ever been in. (4th being having a cyst lanced, scraped clean, and packed with iodine soaked bandages without any type of pain killer, 2nd being my appendix rupturing and then a major infection setting up inside me, and 1st being a migraine that made my head feel like it was exploding.)
It took well over a year for it to stop hurting, and I still can’t use it as well as I could before the injury.
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### Author:  [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-ever-dealt-with-a-sprained-thumb/619864/9 "2012-04-25T22:45:07Z")
This injury freakin’ sucks. I sprained my thumb right before Thanksgiving 2008 carrying a laundry basket. It caught on something and started to drop, I tried to catch the whole thing with one digit, and poof! It went completely over backwards, snapping sound, joint and half of palm immediately swelled and turned black and blue, etc.
I never went and got it treated because I figured if I could still move it, it wasn’t broken. It was probably 4-6 weeks before I could grab anything without serious pain. I was having to reach across my body with my left hand to take the car out of park when driving because I couldn’t grasp the shifter. For months afterward, the pain would mostly fade but then I’d get a huge jolt out of nowhere doing something simple like trying to turn on the water in the shower.
I don’t get that any more, but it’s been four years and I definitely still have less range of motion in my right thumb than my left. It’s just stiffer. At this point, it’s not having a real functional impact and I assume the damage is permanent, so I ignore it.