Wrist pain no one can explain and My doc is out of ideas

[pkarmy76]

I am hoping and praying someone can give me some much needed advice. About a year ago I started to notice my wrist hurts when I flex it back or if I put pressure on it. (like doing push ups). I'm a pretty active guy and at first thought I had a sprain. After two MRI's three X-rays and blood work. All my ortho surgeon can tell me is that  he is not sure what the pain is from. I have mild tendonitis but after a year in a brace and NSAID it should have gone away.
My symptoms are as follows: It only hurts bending my wrist back or trying to put presure on it. It is not swollen. THe pain is in my wrist and if you were to draw a line back from your first two fingers it would be right in line with it. If I push down in that area I can feel a tendon(?) and next toit the bone. The tendon is only slightly tender to the touch but id I oress on the bone its extremely painful. Its hard to describe but when I bend my wrist back it fels as if someone stuffed my wrist and I'm fighting to compress the material in there. Sometimes it also feels as if one of my wrist bones is rubbing against my arm bone.
  Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Boon001]

I have a similar wrist pain.  I had to participate in a company team building exercise where I had to break a wooden board in half with my open palm.  I broke it after about 5-6 strikes.  Ever since leaning, pushing, and twisting became painful.  This has been on-going for almost a year.  The work-comp doctors are at a loss and work has also became impatient with me.

[crumbsinmahbed]

What the? Why did you have to do that? I feel like you could sue them.. Seriously, where do you work? What kind of weird, unsafe team building **** is that? In the job I just started, the class spent about an hour doing a manual handling course just making sure we could all lift something properly without hurting ourselves, using an empty cardboard box ha  

[Lesleybe]

I have this wrist pain too - have done for the last two years. I have just found this link which may help some people solve the problem - although there may be different causes for many of us. http://reembody.me/2013/10/05/sore-wrists-during-push-ups-lets-fix-that/

[Sarah1250]

I'm 23 and have been suffering from this for almost 10 years. I have had countless x-rays and MRI's, I have had two bone scans (checking calcium deposits) as well as a CT scan, 2 arthroscopies and a neurectomy (cut nerve in the wrist) and the doctors have no clue what is going on. I have had ganglions removed and know I have cluster ganglions in my left wrist. About 4 years ago the pain spread to my right wrist. The pain comes and goes in varying degrees of severity. At its worst I can't even hold a piece of paper due to the pain. I have limited motion of both wrists and cannot put pressure on my hands (push up position). If I hit my hands into anything finger first it will set the pain off, if I move my wrists up and down too much it will set it off. Sometimes I don't even have to do anything to set it off, I just wake up and it's there. The pain can be both a throbbing pain as well as sharp, just depends on the day. Some days I don't have any pain at all, and may not for weeks, but then it comes back.
I have seen numerous orthopaedic surgeons as well as hand and wrist specialists. I have tried wrist braces, pain killers (including injections into the joint) and even acupuncture and none have worked.

[LosAngeles1988]

i have this.

you might be having some problems further up your arm.

It's not easy, but i would look into Pec Minor, Pec Major, Scalene (all 3, especially anterior and posterior), and rotator cuff (all 4 muscles) trigger points and tight muscles. Find ways to release the trigger points - try googling "Release " or "<Muscle Name" Trigger Points" etc etc.

Also look into Upper Cross Syndrome. Rounded shoulders and a forward neck cause so many problems - it really helps to understand how to fix them. Even with the knowledge of how to fix them it took me months to really understand how to fix myself.

All of these things could be bugging nerves and muscles, and they create a kinetic chain of disfunction. By starting at the top and working down you'll be focusing on the primary problems, which are aggravating issues further down.

It is not a quick fix.

Tight muscles are really bad (due to shortened muscles and trigger points), and could be constantly pulling and weakening your muscles down the arm. Your wrist is directly connected to muscles in the forearm, so if you can start to undo the chain you'll start to reduce pain.

Pec Minor and Scalenes are tough to fix yourself, so try asking for some help if you can. The muscles are awkward and tough to find without a professional, and even then i went through a lot of professionals who did help me find them, but ultimately it came down to me to fix the problem.

[Claudesdale]

Brian,

What you described is my exact issue. I have had it for a year and no luck in figuring it out. I also struggle with the limitations it puts on my yoga practice. Have you had any luck since this post (many eons ago)?

Thanks!

[Cheerpup1392]

Ganglion cyst. Very common. VERY painful if they happen to press on a nerve. I got to the point where I couldn't move my wrist at all anymore.

What's weird about them is they do come and go so they can be hard to diagnose. And a lot of docs don't believe they can cause severe pain, but believe me, they can. It just depends on where they are. My sister has one on the back of her hand that doesn't bother her at all. But mine hurt so bad I couldn't live with it at all.