Wrist Tendonitis From Playing Too Much Basketball

by David
(NY)

Basically, I got my "wrist tendonitis" from playing basketball for wayyy to long one day without breaks, nearly 5 hours and only 5 minute breaks every now and then, not nearly enough breaks.

So that day, obviously, within two hours when I came home, the symptoms starting coming in. Massive tenderness when slapping the wrist area, radiating pain when bending it, and swelling of certain tendons around the wrist area. I took a week off, but at the time, I wasn't aware of your treatments, so I just rested for a whole week. (i have the same problem in both wrists)

I rested until the extreme radiating pain gone away, and it did within a week, but I still noticed that my wrists it was still tender and it was still swollen, but not knowing what to do, I decided to play basketball again and see if it would get any worse. it did that day, the radiating pain came but although not nearly as strong, I decided to take another entire week off. The radiating pain went off. then, I went to play ball again, and no radiating pain came back, but my wrists none the less are still tender and hurt to slap and still swollen, I played almost 3 more times in a span of about a week and it was the same story, no radiating pain but just tenderness and swelling.

So 5 days ago, I pretty much decided even if it doesn't get much any worse in terms of the bending radiation pain, that tenderness and swelling got me worried, so I decided to not play until it goes away completely, and be smart with my future practices and games and take breaks.

The weird thing I don't get if is normal or not is that my wrists seem to be completely normal if my arms are pointing upward so that the blood isn't traveling there, when that happens, I noticed the swelling goes away completely, and so does the tenderness, however, if I were to let my arms just freefall next to me downwards, after 20 seconds or so certain tendons seem to swell up a bit and it will hurt if you slap either one of the wrists area. I figured this was probably due to more blood filling up the tendons, but I don't get why it wouldn't hurt no matter how hard you hit the wrists even if there isnt tons of blood there at the moment....

Sorry for the huge paragraphs if you actually read it, but I simply cannot wait to play ball again, because I was actually playing at my highest level even with the injury, but I decided it would be smart to stop before I seriously hurt myself without knowing it.

If you don't get what I mean by the downwards and upwards swelling issue I mentioned above, I can show you pictures of how it looks like downwards and swelling, and how it looks completely normal when my arms are upward and looks and feel perfectly normal.

Thanks!!

P.S, for the past 2 days I started taking two 200mg ibuprofen per day, to possibly help swelling and inflammation. I ice every so often 5-10 seconds using cold water, and when I shower, I ice and heat 3 minutes on heat, and 1 minute on cold.

Other than that, I've stopped lifting weights, playing ball, and tried to avoid much wrist movement. Playing ball or lifting weights doesn't actually make me say ouch because of this wrist problem I have, and you might not even notice it until you slap it and it you feel its tender. No motion loss I think, doesn't hurt no matter how you bend it really, just tenderness and some swelling.



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Joshua Answers:

Hi David.

So what's happened with your wrist/forearm since you posted this?

1. Did you ever fall on your wrist playing basketball like these guys? Fell On Wrist Playing Basketball 3 Months Later Still Bothers Me Wrist Tendonitis

2. Does your wrist lock up at all? 18 Year Old Wrist Locks Up Months After Basketball Injury

3. How often did you ice dip? See: How To Reduce Inflammation

4. Did you ever read this page and start supplementing?
Magnesium For Tendonitis

5. Just because it hurts doing one thing/activity doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hurt 24/7 or when doing any activity. The body's funny like that.

Something very specific required for a specific activity can hurt such that only that action triggers pain. And/Or the irritation can look/behave more like Tenosynovitis.

Wrist Tendonitis can be funny like that.





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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com