Trigger Finger? Yikes!

It seems I may have trigger finger on two of my fingers (right thumb and left middle finger). It is pretty annoying and sometimes a bit painful.

My doc shared with me a resource that described the condition (the bolding is mine):
When one of your fingers gets stuck in the bent position, it is called a trigger finger. Usually a trigger finger will then straighten out on its own. Trigger fingers seem to occur more in people who have diabetes or arthritis or who have injured their hands in the past. Trigger finger also occurs in musicians and people who grip tools repeatedly. While a trigger finger can be painful, it normally is not a serious problem.

I found a few other topics about this on TuDiabetes from about two years ago:
http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/trigger-finger
http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/duprens-aka-trigger-fringer
http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/trigger-finger-trials-and

Wondering anyone currently living with trigger finger: how are you doing? how you treated it? thoughts on cortizone shots, etc. etc.

Thanks for sharing.

Tags: finger, trigger

Views: 394

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Renee on May 26, 2011 at 10:30am
some of the times i cant even get blood out of them so i run warm water over them and try to rub them and them pain hurts so bad
Permalink Reply by s6954118 on May 26, 2011 at 11:00am
I had a trigger thumb for a long time but had outpatient surgery to re-locate the tendon and have not had a problem since. This was about 15 years ago
Permalink Reply by Doris D on May 26, 2011 at 11:05am
That's the samething as me but it's been so long ago I can't remember what I had to do b/f the surgery. so I'm not sure about what to do.
Permalink Reply by Heather on May 26, 2011 at 11:11am
I've currently got trigger thumb problems. I had a cortisone shot back in the fall (which did nasty things to my BGs). It gave some relief for a few months, but the triggering has started again. It locks up at night and gradually loosens over the day. I think I'll try surgery next.
Permalink Reply by Doris D on May 26, 2011 at 11:15am
Oh now I remember the cortazone Yep it does strange things to your bs's.
Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on May 26, 2011 at 12:16pm
I know this may be whacked, but has anyone tried ultrasound massage? A few years ago, I was really considering a home unit for my carpal tunnel and they were so expensive. My physical therapist used them and it really loosened up the soft tissues. They are available quite reasonably now, there are a number on amazon. I wonder if those might bring some relief to trigger finger?
Permalink Reply by Betty J on May 26, 2011 at 2:11pm
About 20 years ago I had a middle finger the was a trigger finger I went to a specialist and he gave me a shot and it fixed it. Renee, because D affects our circulation sometimes it is hard to get that drop of blood so what I do is to wrap a rubber band around the finger and it will get that drop you need.
Permalink Reply by Pastelpainter on May 26, 2011 at 2:15pm
Thanks for that tip Betty J, I have awful problems getting blood out of my fingers sometimes.
Permalink Reply by still_young_at_heart on May 26, 2011 at 3:41pm
I had a trigger finger about 6 years ago as part of what seemed like a general inflammatory attack about a year before I was diagnosed with T1. After about 6 or 8 months of too much Motrin everything subsided including the trigger finger.

Maurie

PS - I've always wondered if all that inflamation was a signal of the autoimmune storm...
Permalink Reply by Kelly WPA on May 26, 2011 at 4:23pm
I have had surgery on 4 so far. When the first one started back in 2003, the orthopedic surgeon tried cortisone & that did not work. The 2nd one started before I had the surgery on the first one and he did not want to try cortisone but I wanted to try – that did not work either. The surgeon told me that because of my complexion, I would probably end up with trigger finger in all 10 fingers. In 2006, one of my thumbs got it. When that happened, I was doing HBO for my foot wound so didn’t really have time to get that fixed. That one the pain actually went away but it will still pop every once in awhile. In 2008, I had 2 more go – I had surgeries on both of those. The surgeon that did those didn’t recommend using cortisone – which I was glad since the only thing it did was raise my BS. I have had 5 so far – hopefully that is all.

The surgery is really easy. The hardest part is keeping the stitches dry for a week or so till they come out. I was given pain pills for the first & fourth surgeries and did use the pain pills for any of the surgeries. My fingers are back to normal and you can’t tell anything was wrong. When I had the last one, they had a monitor there & asked if I wanted to watch – I made the mistake of saying yes.
Permalink Reply by rosieb on May 26, 2011 at 4:50pm
Okay, I may be the only one here but when I had trigger thumb(s) I had one operated on, and then learned from a friend that a good chiropractor could also release them. So, rather than go the invasive route I had the other thumb, along with carpal tunnel, all released by a chiropractor. It really works people. And it doesn't take many visits before seeing results. I currently go in for a visit whenever my hands start to tingle (maybe 2x a year) and there's no recovery time.

Good luck with whatever you choose!
Permalink Reply by Melanie Hofmann on August 14, 2011 at 9:15am
Can you tell me what technique your chiro used and who you went to? I have been dealing with trigger fingers on both hands. I had surgery finally on 2 fingers and my thumb on my left hand. Even with hand therapy, I still have a lot of stiffness and pain (in 2 fingers) in my left hand. I am reluctant to get the surgery on my right hand where I have 2 trigger fingers.

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