Hand pain from knitting

After a few marathon knitting sessions earlier this year, I noticed that my right hand really hurt. I thought that it was caused by the knitting so I did some research online to see if this was normal. I did find some posts about pain while knitting (such as this one) so I decided to share what I had learned from this experience.

Hand pain

The pain that I had was on my right hand between my thumb and index finger. It felt like a tendon was on fire every time that I opened my hand or moved those fingers. The pain shot down those fingers and my hand tended to cramp up. My hand was burning it hurt so much and I couldn't use it even to do everyday stuff like typing on the computer or cooking.

Diagnosis

I went to the doctor and she said that it was the beginning stages of tendonitis in my thumb. She said that it was caused by me having my hand in a particular position for an extended period of time. If I kept it up doing marathon knitting sessions then I would end up with carpel tunnel syndrome.

Treatment

This is the treatment that I did for one week:

• I wore a long bandage around my hand and I couldn't move it. This bandage forced me not to move it because I did try and do regular things. 
• Every day, I iced my hand twice with a bag of peas for about 30-45 minutes. This really did help.
• I didn't move my right hand to do anything, even regular things like typing, opening doors, etc. I really had to let it rest for one week. Of course, this means that I stopped knitting. I couldn't write either.
• I took Advil whenever I felt pain which was only for the first three to four days. No more than 3 per day!

After the one week:

• I removed the bandage. 
• I gradually added everyday things like opening doors, typing and cutting vegetables. If my hand hurt while I did it, I switched hands. 
• I iced my hand once a day (if I needed it). The icing really helped. 
• I did hand exercises from this website and this one twice per day. I also massaged the area between my thumb and index finger.

 After two weeks:

• I slowly started to get my hand used to normal everyday things like typing, cutting vegetables, etc. I found writing particularly difficult so I avoided writing for an hour straight. After about 10 minutes, I did a few hand exercises to avoid keeping my hand in the same position for an extended period of time.
• I continued doing hand exercises.

After one month:

• After any activity that used my right hand, I did a few hand exercises to keep my hand moving. 
• I started knitting again but only for 30 minutes at a time.In those 30 minutes, I found myself doing a hand exercise every 20 minutes or so. 
• I listen to the pain. If my hand started to get tight or hurt, I stopped, did some hand exercises and did something else.

Afterwards:

• I learned not to have marathon knitting sessions (4-5 hours straight or more). 
• I knit for 30 minutes at a time, twice a day on the bus. 
• I keep my hand moving instead of keeping it in one position for a long period of time. 
• I still do hand exercises whenever I feel like my hand is cramping up. 
• I changed my knitting needles. I noticed that I pulled the stitches more with a bamboo circular with a rubber connector cord than a thinner, plastic connector cord. So, I got rid of all of my circulars with rubber cords. 
• If I sit down in the evening to knit a blanket, I do between 4 to 6 rows (depending on how long it takes to do a row) then I stop. This is between 30-45 minutes at a time. I know that it will take me longer to finish bigger projects, but I do not want to return to the pain that I had. 
• I train my hand to take more. I could only do two rows on a blanket at a time before my hand started to cramp up so I stopped. Then I trained it to do three, four rows. I listened to the pain in my hand and stopped but that doesn't mean that I will never knit again.

Other activities that activated this hand pain

I also had the misfortune of noticing that after I had this hand pain, sometimes other activities that taxed my hand gave me some hand pain. You may notice this too:

• Using scissors for cutting anything, especially if the thing being cut is thick
• Using a one-hole hole punch
• Writing for extended periods of time
• Opening a difficult door with my hand around the door knob
• Pulling on a large rope with my right hand
• Picking up heavy bags with my right hand
• Using a mouse on a desktop computer for an extended period of time