Bone on bone thumbs

@contentandwell I don't know what T-cream is. I use the Arnica cream and have the gel. This is just a muscle rub for the pain and doesn't break though the blood barrier. It comes in homeopathic also . I have used the pills they are sublingual . But prefer the tea for myself. I only use it when I have flare ups on fibromyalgia. Otherwise the cream helps it doesn't heal just helps with the pain. What is T-cream.?

@lioness If you google them you will come up with them on Amazon. It is homeopathic, something I generally avoid. Just looking at this again makes me think there is no way it can possibly help with healing, just with pain, maybe.

JK

Hello Stoney. My doc is suggesting thumb replacement and I just wanted to ask you if you think a person living alone could undergo this procedure successfully? I have had five hip replacements and two shoulder surgeries (looking at shoulder replacement also). But my thumbs are useless to me at this point. I'm' also having very bad wrist pain. Any insight you could provide would be appreciated. You are more than a year out now - so I'd be interested in the big picture from you. I don't know if I can bear another winter with this much pain in my hands.

Arnica cream did not give me the relief I needed. Try diclofenac sodium cream. That gives some decent relief. You could use the arnica in between using the diclofenac if you want. The doctor has to prescribe diclofenac.

There are only so many injections you should get into your thumbs. Steroids eat away at the bone. You can get some relief using arnica and diclofenac sodium gel (the diclofenac is a prescription cream). If you need more relief, in the herbal department, check out devil's claw. Take it two hours away from any prescription medications or look up the drug interactions (there are only a couple of drugs it interacts with). I also take turmeric and boswellia serrata for arthritis pain. CBD from cannabis also works great. CBD is not the part of the marijuana plant that gets you high - it will NOT get you high. It helps boost the CBD if it has a tiny bit of THC in it (THC will get you high - but not a small amount of it). CBD is a very powerful tool in arthritis pain. I've had five hip replacements (going back to 1986), and I'm looking to get my shoulder and my thumbs replaced. I have RA and OA as well as many other problems. I also went on a strict no-sugar diet that reduced inflammation in my body tremendously. It isn't an easy diet in the beginning - but OH MY! The relief it has brought is dramatic. If you are interested - the diet is in a book called The Candida Cure by Ann Boroch. I've been off sugar close to five years now and I'll never go back!

I would have gone to Mayo if I could do it over. The brand of the implant I received from a non-Mayo clinic was called Stablyx and it is only the "ball" of your thumb joint's ball and socket type mating. The "socket" part is just surgically redefined trapezium to accept the ball of the implant, but get this, there's still no cartilage on your trapezium socket, just raw bone. Other prosthetic implants have a two-part system, which makes more sense. I don't know how stable those would be or how long they would last.
Now to your question... If you plan ahead with clothes (sweat pants, etc), meal preparation, bathing tools like an extended back brush you could do this alone if you do one thumb at a time. I had three months between thumb procedures. It hurts. No doubt about it. Stay up on meds. I had a pain pump and nerve block for the first 4 days. All in all, it was worth it. My thumbs were gone. They still have pain associated with overuse but at least I can use them again. Let me know if I can answer anything else I may have overlooked.

Thank you so much for that information. You told me exactly what I wanted
to know. I did not come to this decision lightly. I have plenty of pain
meds that I have stockpiled for something like this. Shoulder surgery is
also VERY painful - and I did that alone twice. I also had brain surgery
twice and five hip replacements. I have two parrots that I cook for - that
will be the hardest part. They are elderly so farming them out to a friend
is not possible. I wish you pain free days.

Hello - can I ask what kind of brain surgery you had?

I had a pituitary tumor. They worked on it at UCSF in 2010 and thought
they got it, but the sucker grew back. So last year they took it out
again, and they told me they didn't think it would come back. They went
through my nose to get it - so no head shaving. I knew I had that tumor in
1986, but as you may know, doctors don't like it when you tell them you
have something - it has to be their idea. All the muscles wasted out of my
body and I couldn't walk or breathe without assistance. They said I had
Myasthenia Gravis and I had to go off work. I languished another eight
years until someone finally saw (on MRI) that I had a pituitary tumor. The
pituitary tumor caused me to have all the above problems and several other
problems - thyroid, adrenal, and human growth hormone deficiencies. So now
I am living my bonus life. But the pain in my thumbs has to go. Like you,
I also have overuse of my hands. In addition to prescription pain meds, I
take Botswelia serrata, boron, devil's claw, turmeric and CBD for arthritis
pain. It takes all that to help me feel my best - sometimes I feel like
I'm in my 30s!

After having your thumbs done, are your hands feeling significantly
better? You did say it was worth doing.

Ugh, sweat pants.

@parrotqueen, Good evening. Just a thumbs up for "Anchovy" thumb surgery. I went from being in pain 99% of the time to 0. Unfortunately, the thumb joint, on the opposite hand, is beginning to complain. This surgery is not a painless process. Yet, there is no loss of use when the tendon is placed in the thumb joint and the recovery from surgery is complete. May you be free of pain tonight. Chris