YES. Numbness in my hands, especially when grasping objects for any length of time (knives, for example, or steering wheels, bike handles, etc).
Wearing wrist braces at night helps. I use these: Wrist Braces They take a bit of getting used to, but after a few weeks they are just part of the routine and I don't feel like I can sleep without them. They're not a cure but they make me capable of using my hands in the morning.
You can also do finger and wrist stretches. Basically putting your fingers against the edge of a table and pushing down to stretch out the tendons, then relaxing your wrists and keep pushing and stretching out the tendons in your wrists.
The numbness makes you think it's a circulation issue but it's not. I used to shake my hands trying to "get the blood flowing" and it would work -- but only because I was taking a break from grasping, not because I needed extra bloodflow.
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I went to a specialist. Luckily I have health insurance through my wife.
He gave me injections in my wrists, but warned me that the injections can last anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 years. It's hard to tell. Most people end up getting the surgery within a year or two of being diagnosed.
That was about a year ago, and the numbness is back. It's getting worse. I will probably need the surgery. He said the surgery is very quick, effective, and low risk.
(for the record, I'm 41)
I can not wear any with hard supports like metal or plastic, those actually made it worse by increasing pressure points. The night ones I use are the kind that is squishy. Beads or gel pads both work.
This is simular to the one I have now. I bought the last one at cvs because I like to try them on as I have small hands/wrist so the one size does not always work for me.
Hope this helps.
Do yourself a favor and buy a night brace on Amazon, I had to do it a few weeks ago as I was experiencing extremely similar pains. The brace will help put your hand/rest in a neutral position while you sleep. Your hand might feel stiff the first night or two but it passes. Make sure to do wrist/hand exercises now too! Rests and breaks are key! Futuro Night Wrist Sleep Support, Moderate Stabilizing Support, Adjust to Fit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057D86QA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_P5TTCbMRA3JET
For context, I work a typical 9-5 software engineer WFH job so I'm always on my computer and mouse and carpal tunnel syndrome is my biggest fear so I've done lots of research to prevent it. I've used 10+ different shaped mice big and small and I have never ever had a mouse shape hurt my wrist so you need to change something up real fast.
First I'd immediately figure out your setup ergos, make sure your arm is straight like this infographic.
If you're wrist aiming, stop doing that and pick up arm aiming: infographic. You'd be straining your wrist if you only wrist aim because you're putting full force into the wrist only to swing the mouse versus distributing the force along your arm which is significantly more durable and stronger. I used to wrist aim only at 3200 and 2400 dpi, going to low dpi forced me to learn arm aiming.
Start learning to take breaks, every 30 minutes at least since it sounds pretty bad for you. During those breaks or just any dead time (ex. lobby queue), also use those hand exercises. Just google "wrist exercises", "carpal tunnel syndrome exercises", or "hand exercises for gamers". WORSHIP THESE, this was the most important step for me.
Finally, I'd invest in a carpal tunnel syndrome arm brace like this or this you can use them during gaming but that's not the primary function I'll be mentioning. I use these when sleeping at night and it's essentially a glorified splint to make sure that your hands are proper neutral/straight while sleeping so it can properly recover. I honestly thought it was a gimmick at first but read the reviews and there's lots of people talking about how they cried for not having wrist pain once in their lives, hard to fake those kind of reviews. I've been using it for 2 weeks now and definitely notice my right hand being more relieved than my left hand.
https://www.amazon.com/FUTURO-48462-Support-Nighttime-Symptoms-Breathable/dp/B0057D86QA this looks a lot like the braces that i wore before i got custom ones made. they're padded so it's softer on your wrists, but they have rigid metal in them that keeps the wrist from bending. i agree that soft support does nothing for me while i sleep, i need something stiffer.
- Make sure your setup has good ergonomics, and that you have good posture when working as a whole. your pain in your wrist/fingers can come from postural issues higher up like in your elbow, shoulder, neck, as a lot of that stuff is connected.
- try using a soft padded night brace. These really helped for me in the past. they make sure that when you sleep you aren't messing up your wrist/fingers any more due to their angle or position. I've used this one and it was good: https://www.amazon.com/FUTURO-48462-Support-Nighttime-Symptoms-Breathable/dp/B0057D86QA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1C5JNNF32U0AA&keywords=night+wrist+brace&qid=1654573730&sprefix=night+wrist+brac%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-5 I found these to help more than wearing braces while working.
That's a GREAT idea. I'm hitting up the Dollar Tree today.
Do you wear a brace? I have the most pain in my hands and wrists. My rheum suggested this & it's really helped. Also, these . The brace is sometimes impractical during the day, I mainly sleep in it on my right hand & in the glove on my left (cant' figure out why that's the best combo for me, but it works)
I had pain in my wrists when I started out. It's gone now but this is what I did to fix it:
That pretty much cleared it up, but I didn't have any serious pain or anything. Just the early onset of something nasty. Definitely take care of it now before it gets bad.
Pain is not good man. Pain is once there is serious inflammation in nerves and you may be facing serious nerve damage for the rest of your life if you don't see a doctor soon.
At the very least, please stretch after every match or our of DM. The adrenaline rush from CS may make some of the pain go away, so that is why it's a great idea to make stretching a habit.
To recover from my injury my doctor told me I needed to sleep with a wrist brace: http://www.amazon.com/Futuro-Night-Wrist-Support-Adjustable/dp/B0057D86QA/ (She said that people sometimes sleep with their wrists at a 90* angle and that can cause unnecessary stress on your wrists when recovering from an injury)
I also found this over the counter ointment that really helped me out: http://www.amazon.com/Penetrex®-Jar-Tendonitis-Fibromyalgia-Inflammation/dp/B0026HDURA/
I wear a wrist brace at night and try to not sleep on my hands if I can help it.