Pain in Thumb Joint

From yesterday I have had pain in the area of the right wrist / thumb joint.

Was first experienced as pain emanating from the web of flesh found between the extended thumb and the back of the palm. Was a piercing intermittent pain. Have not undertaken any unusual actions which would create stress in this area. No identified or known cause.

  • Took one aspirin to moderate the pain. No noticeable effect.
  • Attempted massage of area. No effect.
  • Attempted to re-position limb in various ways to see if this altered the pain. No noticeable effect.
  • Pain is intermittent and sudden, sharp, severe.
  • Occurs and then disappears only to reoccur a few minutes later.
  • Appeared to grow worse over the course of the evening.

Went to bed, and had some trouble sleeping due to the pain. Woke around 0900 to resumption of pain. At this time the pain point had moved from the area of the thumb joint to a position higher on the wrist. The pain was similar: a sudden sharp pulse of pain.

On a scale of 1 to 10 the Jan / Feb left arm pain was an 11. This present pain is closer to a 5. My hunch is that it is the same phenomenon which is causing both events. The positioning of the pain has shifted and severity has moderated but I suspect this is some form of psychosomatic pain or neurological pain rather than pain with an acute physical cause.

As I write this the pain is not present. It does not appear related to mobility. There is no physical act / movement which appears to serve as a trigger. While writing this I appeared to trigger awareness of the pain by contemplating it.

Pain Update May 19th

There has been no recurrence since yesterday morning. First event was on the evening of the 17th. The manner of presentation, the sharp stabbing nature, and the lack of a proximate cause have made me convinced that this event is somehow related to the pain events experienced in January / February of this year and earlier. The August 2014 arm pain event is reported here.

Pain Update May 20th

No further recurrence. The first experience of this form of pain took place the summer of 2011 in the months after the accident. It was noted in July and August. This is the hot season and suggests that this event is not related to arthritic pain.

Pain Update May 23rd

As of this morning, there has been no further occurrence of this pain. I have engaged in a wide range of manual activities: cooking, washing, lifting, etc, and there has been no evidence of pain or discomfort. Pain onset did not take place in the context of an activity. Onset occurred when I was sitting at my desk and viewing video on the computer monitor. I had not been engaged in any form of manual dexterity or activity in the two or three hours prior to pain onset. I am now more or less convinced that this pain lacks any physical cause.