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Dave Hoskins

Dave Hoskins

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5,252
Location
Parker County, Texas
My middle finger on the right hand has that "trigger finger" problem. Curls up tight and is rather painful for such a small thing. Does it at night a wakes me up, too. I found out last Friday that I have had all the shots I can get in the hand. Any more of them and it risks ligament damage. The dang thing does it even while I am trying to turn. So, the only options apparently available are have the release surgery (which I know is minor) or put up with it. I have heard the surgery usually provides great results. Has anyone had it done?
 
My wife had it done with no long lasting ill effects except that there is a reduced strength in the hand. There is the occasionally dropped coffee cup but, this can be offset by diligently following the physical therapy protocol (assuming your doc is a fan of PT and assigns one). If not, there are plenty of YT PT videos (try Ask Dr. Joe).

I'm the guy that would rather put out some effort instead of taking a pill or going under the knife. This approach got me through a thyroid issue without radiation and life-long medication requirements so I became a fan. My trigger finger is being successfully treated with a short PT routine every morning. It just takes a few minutes (I do it over coffee) and the symptoms have disappeared . . . unless I get lazy . . . they will then return after a few days of no PT. It does take some time to get the benefit so doing something without seeing immediate result is a requirement for success.

If you're a 'silver bullet' type of guy, get the surgery. However, both methods come with after-work for success.
 
Again, stop taking "Statin Drugs", the drugs prescribed for lowering cholesterol.

I'm not a doctor, but I went through this, and then they tried me on every one of them with varying side effects, so now I'm completely off of them. Nobody ever died from high cholesterol. My sister can't take them either. Trigger fingers are the least of the side effects. The worst "Lipitor" had me so crippled that I almost couldn't stand up, and once standing I needed 2 canes to get around. This happened 21 years ago after they first put me on Lipitor in 2000. It took 2 1/2 years for it to be this crippling, and only 2 days off of it before I could stand and walk without the canes, though not completely recovered from it. These are sneaky drugs. Their side effects come on very slowly, so you don't realize what is causing your problem. But every one of them that they put me on caused varying side effects that went away in a few days to a few weeks after stopping them. Only now is the medical industry beginning to admit that these were not a good treatment. No one has died from high cholesterol, but they have sure suffered from the side effects of these cholesterol treatment drugs.

Stop taking them for 2 days and see if you feel better. Trigger finger problems take a bit longer to heal. When is the last time your hand writing was legible? Mine took 7 years to be completely legible and close to what it was back when I graduated high school (have a HS Notebook for comparison). When on Lipitor and just before getting off of it, my hand writing was so bad that even I had trouble recognizing what it said. My hands no longer have the shakes either, and I can do small projects accurately and without difficulty again.

Charley
 
Another vote for bad statins. I've been through the whole gamut of those drugs. The symptoms sneak up on you, and you really don't know what the heck is going on. Finally off of them except for one Crestor a week. See what the results are at the end of this month. Cholestrol was a little high and doc does want it lower. The doctors don't always know the effects are on some of the newer drugs. They just say try them and lets see.
David
 
Certainly good advise above. Also if you're doing an aspirin a day. I know my dad had a lot of issues with aspirin build-up. Though he was only taking a baby aspirin a day he'd have to take a break from it every few weeks, as it stays in the system, to let the levels deplete. It's amazing how many drugs have interactions to aspirin too. There are a few drug checkers out there that you put in your list of meds and it will let you know what drugs are safe or may have conflicts. For my dad, aspirin had interaction with a lot of the ones on his list. When he told his doctor about cutting back on the aspirin, he wasn't happy about it, but dad sure did feel better overall.
 
Dave Hoskins said:
My middle finger on the right hand has that "trigger finger" problem. Curls up tight and is rather painful for such a small thing. Does it at night a wakes me up, too. I found out last Friday that I have had all the shots I can get in the hand. Any more of them and it risks ligament damage. The dang thing does it even while I am trying to turn. So, the only options apparently available are have the release surgery (which I know is minor) or put up with it. I have heard the surgery usually provides great results. Has anyone had it done?
Click to expand...
I had trigger finger surgery on my ring finger on my right hand. I have not been able to make a fist since. In fact I have lost half my grip as not only has the ring finger on my right hand been made worse so has my little finger. There was nothing wrong with my little finger until I had the surgery. Now I have two fingers that I can no longer close to make a fist. Needless to say I am an unhappy camper.

But the surgery disclosure papers I signed clearly stated that it was a possibility that adjacent fingers might be affected by the operation. I don't know what is worse; having a finger that I couldn't straighten out (trigger finger) or two fingers that I cannot close enough to have a good grip.

Fortunately the handles on my lathe chisels are large enough where I can grip them even with my damaged fingers although I don't have the strength in those fingers that I had before the operation. I used to have extremely strong hands particularly in my right hand as I threw the shot put and discuss for years. Now that hand does not even allow me to give someone a manly handshake.

I see ads on TV recommending that non-surgical options for trigger finger should be explored before surgery. I don't know what those options are as I didn't explore them. Now I have half a hand....:cautious:

P.S. I do not take statins. Of all the problems I have high cholesterol is not one of them. My cholesterol stays in the 170-180 range; my triglycerides usually hover around 150...not low or high with my LDL hovering near 100 which is borderline high and my HDL hovers around 50 which is low. It is always something.
 
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I am presently taking Zocor, which of course is a statin. I never thought of a statin doing all of this. But, I did read up on the side effects and WOW! Can cause all kinds of problems. So, for curiosity I will not take it for a week and see what happens. I actually kinda figgered my hand problems were a residual effect of it having been broken a couple of times. My hands are a story in themselves as the right one has been busted a couple of times and the left has a chunk of it missing due to a rattlesnake bite back in 1976. Dang thing tried to kill me, but he/she (dunno which sex it was) died instead. As a lot of you know I do have bad back, neck and knee problems, which I seriously doubt can be blamed on a statin. More likely due to 247 airborne jumps.
 
I will be very interested in your report in a week after you stop taking Zocor. As I remember, it gave me some problems but I don't remember what. Lipitor gave me the most severe problems, followed by Crestor. All affected my hands and made it difficult to sign my name legibly.

Charley
 
I don't have any trouble with trigger finger (YEY), but I drive primarily with my left hand and that hand will go numb after a few minutes driving.... sometimes I reach a point where I can't feel the steering wheel... I drive at the 10:00 to 11:00 o'clock position and when the numbness hits, I drop my hand to the 7"00 o'clock position and it will go away... I've been told that it may be a pinched nerve in my shoulder.... but my pinky finger on the left hand is permanently numb and I can't always tell which key I've hit when I type.
 
I have exactly the same problem with the middle finger of my right hand (wise crack is that it has had too much use). A hand doctor gave me a simple finger splint (probably charged Medicare $50 for it) that gently straightens the finger. I have evolved to wearing it all night, and in the morning can work the middle finger to be part of a tight fist. The therapist said to manually stretch the middle finger back ... frequently. Outside of remembering to do the splint at night, I have full functionality and strength.
 
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