My OT has been very helpful and given me thumb splints, wrist splints and oedema gloves for typing. These are all really useful and definitely help with long periods of typing and activities which make my joints hurt more like changing gear and steering when driving.
However...
They are really ugly and I'm just wondering if anyone knows anywhere to source less grim looking ones at all?
Hi there, I have a grey and white wrist splint called 'Wellgate' which I think it looks nicer than most. I found it on PhysioRoom.com which my GP recommended and then went to Amazon, where it was cheaper. It's advertised as being just the job for ladies so I thought it might be too small for my fairly large hands but it fits perfectly. It is also very light but supportive.
Thank you. Just had a look - They look much nicer than the "skin" coloured ones I've been given!
Although the ones the OT gave me were extra small (and the gloves are still a little too big!)
Now for the gloves and thumb splints!
I find the gloves very useful - mine are grey and tight fingerless stretchy cotton - IMAK - I bought them online and they seem to hold my fingers in place very well. I've never quite found the right splints yet but my physio got me some that are black and are made to support the thumb and therefore avoid the knuckles which is why she chose them for me because all the others were sitting right over my inflamed knuckles. I think the black, blue or grey ones are best because they prevent people from shaking our hands which, when my hands were at their worst, I had to try and avoid! Tilda x
Ooh just looked these up- they look much neater than mine- and won't get grubby looking so quickly- if they are too big I can put them over the ones I already have!
(Can't believe how excited I'm getting over gloves!)
The splints your physio has given soundu yo like the ones my OT calls thumb splints (she pointed out they sounds like an instrument of medieval torture!) I find them better than the wrist ones - Although at times I have felt like wearing all three types together!
I see from your posts that you started MTX a few months after me so just to let you know that I haven't touched my splints for months now as my wrists and hands have been so much better since the MTX started working - last serious flare up in wrists was in February so hopefully you will be on the mend and not needing splints too often soon too. Tilda x
Aw thanks for that!
I do hope the MTX starts working soon (On the plus side I don't have the side effects lots of other people talk about either!)
I'm seeing my rheumatologist next week- the only let up I've had so far is when I had a steroid injection last time I saw the consultant.That gave me a pain- free month but since then it's not been much fun- I can cope with painkillers and splints but it certainly isn't easy!
I also see my rheumatologist next week for the first time face to face since I was diagnosed last November! TTx
Wow that's a long wait! This is my second time since diagnosis - I'm kind of hoping I get another steroid injection to tide me over the Summer holidays but it's good to hear that I may not have too long to wait for the MTX.
We are all so different in the way we respond to medications Nikk but my hands and wrists were my worst affected joints and now they are only a bit stiff, a few MCP joints slightly inflamed and I can almost clench my hands again which is a huge difference. On the more worrying side my ESR is still up at 58 and I don't feel very well much of the time and am getting terribly tired every afternoon to the point where I can barely function. I was hoping I was in remission because of being pain free but now find myself looking for other causes that might account for this feeling of unwellness despite the lack of pain. Am vaguely fretting about Lupus but I don't get migraine and have had few rashes so I'm hoping not as I've got used to the idea of RA now ... just about! TTx
I agree. I think one of the worst things about RA is that there is no knowing which treatment will work and how the disease will progress for you- I've read about people who are severely disabled because of it and then about those who live pain-free normal lives, then there are all those in between!
I'm a bit of an oddity as none of my joints have never been stiff and only one has ever been visibly swollen - I'm hypermobile in many of my joints so I actually have better mobility in them than "average" people of my age. It must be even worse with stiffness as well as the pain.
I know that fatigue is both a symptom of RA and a side- effect of many of the drugs used to treat it- but it's odd that you're feeling so unwell when the MTX does seem to be working for you. Hopefully next week you'll have some answers - Let me know how y
Okay I will - and I don't get any visible swelling to speak of - just stiffness and in the past some incredible pain. I suppose that we could say that the uncertainty is also one of the best things about having RA too because it means there's always hope we will be the ones who get away undamaged or go into spontaneous remission? TTx
I saw my consultant yesterday and he has upped my salazopyrin to 3000mg daily (adding an extra tablet in the morning and one at night over the next few weeks.)
Also had a steroid injection which I was pleased about as although the effects are temporary it should help me out over the Summer holidays- which with three energetic children to amuse will make life a lot better!!!
Hope your visit to the consultant goes well and you get some relief from the tiredness soon.
Yes summer holidays with three kids would have got me into steroid injection territory as well if I'd had RA when kids were younger. As it happens I don't need steroids and have four young ones between 20 and 15 in the house which sounds as if there should be loads of help on hand but in practice it's like living on the set of the The Young Ones - lots of testosterone and spot cream on everything! Now going for my first jog having cleaned dog sick off the carpet - that's courtesy of MTX and Hydroxy so I can't complain about my life at all although I do have a funeral to go to today and then I have to take my 7 little MTX devils! Tilda xx
Anyone for splints?
Finger splints
To shoes or not to shoes?
