Wrist problems

**Lee Nelson** · Jan-26-2003, 08:31 PM

hey evan
you could always do the Russian remedy as tought to us in Circus school. Almost all of us students went down with bad wrists at some stage and the only way to fix it quick as touted by my tutor was this....

place a ten cent piece (if in America a quarter) over the offending area of the wrist. Place over this a large publication of some sort (phone book comes highly recommended) and source a tool such as a hammer. Procede to strike the phone book repeatedly with hammer causing ten cent piece to "pop" cyst or whatever else ails you.

This is apparently a sure fire cure.

With my wrists I opted for the simpler approach. Ignore the pain, push through it and eventually you dont notice it anymore.

Good luck and pick your quarter well!!!!

Cheers
Lee
P.S. your hat is still serving me well

**HiveQueen** · Jan-26-2003, 09:14 PM

Bashing it with a hammer (or medical textbook, as we were taught) used to be the main mode of treatment for those, but went out of fashion due to the risk of infection and increased injury.

Cortizone and advil can help reduce inflamation and pain, but do have some negative side effects, especially if you're getting cortizone injections frequently. Many ganglia can be removed surgically -- different risks, different benefits. Ignoring the pain gets tricky if it progresses and you start to get inflammatory issues or nerve problems, especially in your line of work.

(I "worked through" my wrist pain and they're now permanently damaged.)

Since you're young and your wrists are your livelihood, I would definitely talk to a specialist in joint diseases, especially if you're insured now. It will help if you can walk in with notes on how long it's been happening, what causes increased pain, how often it flares up, etc., and make sure they know that you spend however many hours a day juggling. General medical advice seems to be to leave ganglion cysts alone unless they're causing serious problems -- make it clear that yours IS.

Good luck.

[ 01-26-2003: Message edited by: HiveQueen ]

**StarPixy** · Jan-27-2003, 12:51 PM

Hey, I have a ganglian cyst on my wrist, too. I heard you shouldn't pop it because it'll release some juicey stuff or something and it'll get worse. Of course, I heard this AFTER I smashed the hell out of it. Needless to say, it got worse. Now I can't bend it back all the way. So DO NOT SMASH IT!Believe me, it's a very bad thing!!

**Evan Young** · Jan-27-2003, 03:05 PM

Yea, I can't smash it anyway, it's too deep in my wrist. To smash it I would prolly have to break my wrist. For a long time my doctors thought I had a stress fracture because they couldn't see it, I had to get an MRI to figure it out. The shots I have had pop the cyst, and they feel so good, but they are expensive and I'm sure they are just terrible for me.

[ 01-27-2003: Message edited by: Evan Young ]

**AJJames** · Jan-28-2003, 10:00 AM

As a hand balancer and tumbler , this issue is critical to me ,
I have a small ganglian, the last time it flared up it was the size of a pea, I thought about smashing it everytime it flared up , but it hasn't flared up for for about two years ,it's hard to locate now barely noticeable , and i never had to smash it.
My wrists have been fine (touch wood ) for a long time , and I put it down to NOT using wrist supports , I used them for years and they just made things worse. My rule now is if I need support, i shouldn't be working on it, or training on it. If I have a wrist injury, I don't bare any weight on it, treat it with ice/heat and physio, usually circles both directions, passively for the first 24 -48 hours then actively. And don't stop doing the physio excercises when the pain stops.
Evan, I don't know about accupuncture for wrists, but I have had it lots for my neck , back and shoulder and it works wonderfully, if you catch it early and if you have an experienced practicioner, use someone who has been personally recomended to you.
I would strongly advise against cortisone injections, they do a number of things , they work by blocking the action of prostoglandins that are responsible for the "inflammatory response", in english they stop your brain knowing you're injured, that's not good, your brain has infinitely more sophisticated systems of repair than the cleverest physician in the world.
The next thing cortisone does is to affect the levels of insulin in the blood, it does this by simulating the effect of a naturally occuring hormone called hydrocortisone, produced by the adrenal glands, because your body is an extremely sensitive instrument it responds by lowering it's own production of this hormone, this is an essential hormone and a low production of it can seriously diminish your body's ability to deal with Trauma.
The third effect of corticosteroids is they lower white blood cell production and therefore your body's ability to fight infection.
Modern medicine's approach to illness, in the whole can be likened to a neanderthol man trying to fix a pentium processor, by bashing it with a stick when ever it bleeps.

**Butterfly Man** · Jan-29-2003, 01:57 AM

AJ,
I dunno if you know this but I actually worked on all the pharmacological stuff you talk about in your post (pre-Butterfly Man) ... and if I had known that you knew all that crap as you sailed over my head during "The Wild Ones" I would've made sure to spread those torches a bit quicker. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

**AJJames** · Jan-29-2003, 05:51 AM

Robert,
I didn't know any of that when I somersaulted over your head, it was you who made me take my body seriously with your "neoprene lectures" .remember them?

**Butterfly Man** · Feb-01-2003, 12:36 AM

Sure I remember them ... my wrists are killing me though because I didn't follow my own advise when a friend gave me a chainsaw to experiment with ... Man, I didn't realize how hard that thing is to juggle ... and Mad Chad just juggled three of those things for 81 throws in Norway last week ... I feel like a wimp!

**AJJames** · Feb-01-2003, 12:08 PM

rob,I bet Mad Chad does a strange thing called "warming up" and "warming Down" , to do 81 throws he probably knows how to condition the muscles over time ,2 words my eminent pharmacologist, progressive over-load.
but surely you're grateful for any pain that takes your mind off the other.....
Hive Queen , are you a med student?If you are I take my hat off to you, I hope you don't take my objections to modern medical intervention as a slur on the medical proffession, it isn't actually meant to be, I actually have the greatest of respect for medics, their knowledge and their dedication.
I do seriously question certain approaches to illness, but so do the good Doctors, I read articles in medical journals written by Doctors they are the source of most of my limited medical knowledge.
just wanted to clear that up incase you thought I was dissing you...by the way if you are interested in things medical, did you know that Roberts Dad has a technique named after him?
evan, how are your wrists doing?

[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: AJJames ]

[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: AJJames ]

**Evan Young** · Feb-01-2003, 05:41 PM

Well, I'm ok for the most part. My wrist is pretty much never completely pain free and hasn't been for a couple years, but I can do my show with no real problems, and I can practice my juggling enough to keep improving.
Since I lost all my money in LA I'm back in a resteraunt kitchen doing grunt work until I leave for motionfest. They have been putting me on a lot of prep shifts where I have to chop stuff up, and that has caused my wrist to be real sore; but I've been getting around those tasks this last week, and when I do have to use a knife I'm getting ambidexterity practice.

I don't know, during my senior year of high school I fell down a lot and must have sprained my wrist or gotten bad tendonitis like once a month at least. Now that I have this cyst the pain is allways there. Well, when my wrist is flexed I can never put much weight on it, so no push ups and such unless I do them on my fists. When it's flaired up I can't do ANYTHING with it. Tying my shoes can hurt if I'm not carefull.
When I get back to Boulder Co. this summer I'll check out the accupuncture thing, at the moment I'm totally broke and I've allready used my parental suport system too much recently. Boulder is prolly a pretty good place for that stuff anyway. I do have insurance for another year (until I'm 22), but it's crappy government employee family insurance, still better than nothing.
Bleh, sorry to write a such novel. You guys prolly know a lot more about me than you want to. Thank you all for the insight.

[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: Evan Young ]

**theincrediblelarry** · Nov-06-2003, 11:41 PM

Evan,
Don't knock your health insurance, it's probably one of the best things about gov jobs, and you'll think its the best insurance in the world next year, when you don't have any. If i go to an emergency room, it's cause someone makes me go. That's my insurance. you wouldn't believe the co-pay. How's the gig in Mass?
Larry

**Greedybogle** · Nov-07-2003, 07:30 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Evan Young:
during my senior year of high school I fell down a lot 

...what?

[ 11-07-2003: Message edited by: Greedybogle ]

**Evan Young** · Nov-17-2003, 06:46 PM

playing soccer, you get triped and you..... fall down
try and do a back flip, mess up, and you..... fall down
get real drunk, walk off a loading dock, and you..... fall down

**Ash Circle** · Dec-08-2003, 09:27 AM

I have a cyst on the surface of my left wrist, also due to "falling down", that flares up once in a while, usually when my health is otherwise bad. I try to make sure I stay healthy overall and that seems to help a lot. I don't put much weight on it when it's acting up.

Comfrey is an herb that works well for joint and cartilege maintenance and reconstruction. A regular tea made from comfrey might help the healing process.

Cheers,

Rick

Wrist problems

Wrist problems

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