Hello

Xanthe

I tripped up my garden step onto outstretched hands. They cracked, swelled, looked bruised. It would have been straightforward if the X-ray showed a fracture. But, no. No fracture. Severe osteoarthritis in my thumbs and wrists. So they won’t be healing. This is it. Painkillers and braces.

Ellen

Hello to you too @Xanthe welcome to the Versus Arthritis online community.

It sounds as though you had had no idea at all that you had severe Osteoarthritis in your thumbs and wrists until that fall worsened things so suddenly. I remember something similar happening to another of our members @Lilymary although hers was her hip, but if I remember rightly, she had also been 'fine' prior to a fall.

I am going to attach a couple of links for you to read which might be of interest while you wait for some of our members to come along and say hello.

This one is about Osteoarthritis of the hand and wrist:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/osteoarthritis-of-the-hand-and-wrist/

This one is about exercises you can do at home to help:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/exercises-for-healthy-joints/exercises-for-the-fingers-hands-and-wrists/

Now that you have introduced yourself do take a look around the rest of the forum. Living with Arthritis tends to be the most popular category.

Best wishes

Ellen.

frogmorton

Oh gosh what a shock that must have been @Xanthe you poor thing.

One minute life is fine and the next you think you've broken your wrists. I am so sorry it turned out to be something not so 'easily' fixed. Mind I expect wrists aren't that easily fixed, but still.

Lovely to meet you now come on in and join us in the rest of the forum.

Take care

Toni x

Lilymary

Ellen's right, I thought my hip was a bit stiff until I had a fall, when all hell broke loose pain-wise and the Xray showed I was already so bad I went straight onto the list for a new hip there and then. I think sometimes incidents like this, where the joint was sound, would go unnoticed, but if your joint had underlying problems, it reacts much worse to injury, and it's a case of managing it thereafter. Sometimes it's better to know about it, so you can adapt around it and avoid doing it more damage.