Occasional pain from pressure on the sides of fingers - arthritis?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Do any forum members with arthritis have the symptom that you only feel pain when something presses against the sides of your fingers?

I can't complain about any severe aches and pains in my mid 60's, but one type of minor pain that occasionally bothers me is caused by handling something with an edge on it like a board (not an edge like a knife). Sometimes the normal pressure of the edge on the side of my finger causes a sudden pain that is out of proportion to pressure involved. It's a mild pain, but it's enough to make me change my grip on objects.

When I describe this to doctors, they remark that I'm getting mild arthritis. But isn't arthritis a problem of joints? This pain doesn't feel like it comes from my joints. I don't get the pain often. It doesn't happen unless the edge of somethingi is pressing against the side of a finger. My fingers don't hurt when I bend them. If I repeat the action that caused the pain, I often can't duplicate the pain. I can believe this has something to do with age since I didn't notice it when I was in my 50's.

[Myk Rian]

It could mean your fingers are rotting off. :D

I have one finger that does the pain thing as you describe. Goes away in a few days, and waits to hit me another time.

[David Weaver]

Stephen, I have the same thing. Except I am only 36. When I play golf, there is lateral pressure on my fingers and they feel like that both when I'm playing and then for several days after.

When someone gives me a firm handshake, if I'm not ready for it, it feels like they are brusing my fingers, and the pain isn't something I can make a distinction from just at the joints, rather the whole finger feels like it.

[paul cottingham]

Sounds like carpal tunnel.
mind you my opinion and $2.50 will buy you a cup of coffee.

[Brian Kent]

Sounds like carpal tunnel.
mind you my opinion and $2.50 will buy you a cup of coffee.

When I was getting wrist and forearm pain, I was wondering what I could do about it before bigger problems arose. My friend told me to delete my favorite video game from the computer. I did and I am fine now. I was on my way to getting repetitive stress injuries over a lousy solitaire tower game!

[Stephen Tashiro]

Sounds like carpal tunnel.
mind you my opinion and $2.50 will buy you a cup of coffee.

It isn't carpal tunnel. I had carpal tunnel in one hand, which was fixed by an operation, so I know what carpal tunnel syndrome feels like. This pain isn't a hit-in-the-funny bone type of pain and the pain goes away almost immediately once there is no pressure.

[Brian Ashton]

Been thinking and looking into this a great deal lately. I have the same thing going on for a number of months now. Wake up with very stiff finger joints in my left hand and mild pain in the sides of some of the joints. First thing I thought was maybe arthritis was setting in and got quite freaked out. I've thought long and hard about it and I doubt it's arthritis now. I chalk it up to simply getting older and the joints are letting me know as such.

Fingers are a funny part of our bodies in that when they play up for what appears to be no apparent reason we think arthritis immediately. But we don't do the same thing when we say have chronic neck and or back pain, or even carpal tunnel syndrome or tennis elbow or a joint that suffered a bad sprain many years ago and plays up every so often... They're so common and people talk so much about them we just accept them as normal parts of the stresses of life. But fingers are a bit of a mystery and don't appear to be a common ailment - at least people don't seem to talk about them as much. But the reality is when you strain those joints they're going to hurt. The hands take a great deal of abuse, I'm surprised most don't have more joint problems.

I think if you're quite young then you need to take the symptoms more seriously but if you're like me and just shy of 50 you have to learn to take things a bit more easy; the mind still acts like its along the lines of age 28 but the body is acting its age. I.e. tissues are weaker, harder and less sinewy and you heal much more slowly - especially repetitive strain injuries. Basically you're starting to wear out a bit and the body needs to be given a bit of a break.

At least that's what I think. Now I listen to the pain and don't work as hard so my joints don't get pounded so much. YMMV

[paul cottingham]

My hands hurt badly. My solution is using more hand tools, and less machinery. Routers, sanders, make my hands either ache or go numb. An irony is now I use a power sharpener on my chisels and plane irons.
This has an unintended side effect. Way less noise, way less dust.
Woodworking is now peaceful.

[Jim Matthews]

mind you my opinion and $2.50 will buy you a cup of coffee.

You don't mind if I steal that, do you?

[Jim Matthews]

Paul makes an important point, the source of repetitive motion can set this off.
Hands are highly ennervated, for sensitivity and dexterity. Us lucky enough to reach old age
reap the rewards of endless knocks and insults. That said, pain can be "referred"
from another point, apparently originating from some portion of the hand that is undamaged.

Padded palm gloves (http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/mens/mens-accessories/mens-work-gloves/30510.aspx) for roofers, bicycle gloves and shooter's gloves all leave the fingertips free for dexterity
but use foam to dissipate shock. I also find that when my hands are driest (Winter, natch) the
pain can be diffuse. A little bag balm helps, there.

Does the OP use one tool, mainly? Is the pain in handling sharp edges constant, or only after some other activity?
I've taken to handling rough stock with gloves on, I've gone soft - and consider that a sign of my prosperity.

Those of us that work with our hands for personal satisfaction should make accommodations that extend our shop time.
I put dense rubber mats on the floor when my knee acted up.

I'm only guessing, but I would wager the Canuks fan $2.50 that a padded pair of bicycle gloves would "take the edge off".

FYI - My hands are beginning to resemble my Gramma's, the first fingers are now pointed inwards at the distal joint
(that's indicative of arthritis) and ache if I play too much tennis, chop too much wood or have an all nighter on my XBox.

I find that keeping some bag balm (http://bagbalm.com/uses.htm?gclid=CMSo_5rzurUCFc87Ogod8wYAhw)around helps keep the dull ache down, but I can't say why.

[paul cottingham]

+1 on the padded gloves. I need to wear them when I use a Plow plane, or if I am doing a lot of hand planing. Reshaping handles can help, but I haven't screwed up enough courage to take a rasp to the handles of my planes. There is a fellow who makes Stanley like handles for veritas planes, and I am going to try that as well. The gloves do nothing for me for vibration from power tools.
So I just stopped using them. :-)

[Brian Ashton]

Something to consider trying to those that have the pain issue.Made an interesting discovery over the last few days about knuckle pain issue I've been having lately in my left hand... Same issue described by the OP: mild pain when pressure is exerted on the sides of certain knuckles. I've confidently ruled out arthritis as I don't have any bone spurs forming, the knuckles are nice and straight, I have almost full range of movement in all but two knuckles (they're don't hurt anyways), there's no inflammation or redness around the fingers or knuckles... Only thing is they are stiff when I wake up in the morning. But gently closing and opening my hand a few times and the stiffness is gone not to return till the next morning...What i have noticed in the last couple days however is that the particular knuckles that have pain only have that pain when the finger joint is flexed in a lateral or side ways direction. Opening or closing the hand, or gripping thing very tightly cause pain... So I've started taping two fingers together, the one that hurts (middle finger) and the index finger so as to support and increase resistance to side ways pressure... And it appears to be having a positive affect. I've had less stiffness in the fingers in the morning. I have a lot of landscaping to do over the weekend so it'll be a good test of the idea.

[David Weaver]

I know this is an odd comment, but Stephen, when you have the joint pain, eat two bananas and see if it does anything. When I have a dull ache in my fingers after playing golf, two bananas provide a lot of relief. Not complete relief but plenty to notice it. I never thought about it until I had aching fingers a day after playing golf, and ate bananas (not for any reason other than I like them) and it probably quartered the pain.

If you only have pain when something is pressing on your fingers, it may not make a difference.