Hand health

I Believed These 5 Myths About Thumb Arthritis for 3 Years. Number 5 Almost Made Me Give Away My Yarn.

If the base of your thumb aches after a few rows, clicks when you pinch, or gives out mid stitch, read this before you put the hook down for good.

By Elizabeth Burns68, crocheter for 41 years

Before

After

Three winters ago I dropped my hook in the middle of a granny square and couldn't pick it back up.

Not because I didn't want to. Because my thumb wouldn't pinch.

I'd crocheted for 41 years. A blanket for every grandchild. Hats for the church sale. A shawl for my sister every Christmas. And there I was in my own chair, with my own hook, and my own hand wouldn't do what it had done every evening of my adult life.

If you're reading this, I think you know the feeling. The dull ache right where your thumb meets your wrist. The little click when you pinch the yarn. The way it gives out with no warning, usually when you're three rows from finishing.

I spent three years believing things about my thumb that turned out to be wrong. Every one of them cost me something. So here they are. The five myths I wish someone had knocked down for me sooner.

1"It's just old age."

That's what my doctor said. Six minutes, a pat on the arm, and "at your age, it's just wear and tear."

So I accepted it. I stopped crocheting after supper and started watching television I didn't care about. I let my daughter open the jars. I told myself this is what 68 looks like.

But here's what nobody pointed out. My other hand was fine. My fingers were fine. My wrist was fine. If it was just age, why was it one spot? One small joint at the base of one thumb.

Age doesn't pick one joint. Something else does. I'll get to it, because it's the whole reason I'm writing this.

2"Rest it and it'll settle down."

I rested it. A week off. Two weeks off. Once a whole month, which for me felt like a month without talking.

And it worked, sort of. The ache faded. I'd pick the hook back up, feel hopeful for one evening, and by the second row the ache was back like it had never left.

Rest made it quiet. It never made it better. Every time I came back to the hook, I was right where I started, just a month further behind on the blanket.

3"A proper brace from the pharmacy will fix it."

I bought three.

The rigid one with the metal stay locked my thumb so solid I couldn't hold the hook. Off by the second row.

The wrist brace held my wrist perfectly still and did nothing at all for my thumb. My wrist was never the problem.

The compression gloves were warm and cozy, and they covered my fingertips so I couldn't feel the yarn. My tension went all over the place.

All three are in a drawer in my kitchen right now. Maybe yours are too.

4"Cortisone shots and pills are your only real options."

The shot hurt more than I'd been warned. It helped for about three weeks. Then the ache came back, and if anything it came back worse.

The pills took the edge off, but they scared me a little. I'd crochet longer because I couldn't feel it, then pay for it the next morning.

When I asked what came after that, my doctor said the word surgery. Taking out the small bone at the base of the thumb. Months of recovery.

I went home and sat in the car in the driveway for a long time before I went inside.

What my hand therapist told me

My doctor finally sent me to a hand therapist, mostly I think to get me out of his office. She was around my age. The first thing she did was press on the base of my thumb, watch me hold a hook, and nod.

"It's not your whole hand. It's this one joint. And it's slipping."

The joint where your thumb meets your wrist is shaped like a little saddle. It's held in place by a few small ligaments, not muscle. And it carries far more than you'd think. Hand researchers have measured it: a light pinch at your fingertips puts roughly twelve times that force through this one joint.

Every stitch is a pinch. Thousands of them in an evening. After forty years, those small ligaments stretch, and the joint starts to slip a little sideways every time you grip.

She called it the thumb slip. That slip is the ache. That slip is the click. That slip is why the thumb gives out mid row.

And suddenly every myth made sense:

• Rest stopped the slipping for a week. Then I picked up the hook and it started again.
• The rigid splint held the joint, but it locked my thumb, so it came off.
• The wrist brace held the wrong joint entirely.
• The shot calmed the swelling but didn't stop anything slipping.

"The only thing that helps a slipping joint is holding it steady while you keep using your hand."

5"You'll have to give up crochet."

This is the one that almost got me. I had a box packed. Forty years of yarn, ready for the church table.

Then my therapist showed me what she gives her crafting patients. A soft stabilizer that wraps around the base of the thumb and holds just that one joint. Nothing in the palm. Nothing on the fingers. You can feel the yarn. You can keep your tension.

It's called the Thumb Stabilizer, from a small company called Hand Hearth. It was designed with hand therapists for exactly this joint.

I put it on that night. I did a row and waited for the click.

It didn't come.

I did another row. Then another. I looked up and it was past ten, I was three squares in, and my thumb hadn't said a word.

That was eight months ago. The box of yarn went back in the cupboard. I finished my granddaughter's blanket in March. I'm halfway through a shawl for my sister now, and I crochet every evening like I used to.

I'm not the only one

When I told my crochet group, half the women there had the same thumb. A few had already found the same fix. Here's what other crafters say about it:

Where to get it

The next week I went back to show my hand therapist my finished squares. She asked where I'd ordered it, because she wanted to tell her other patients.

It isn't sold in pharmacies. Hand Hearth sells it direct from their own website. Every order comes as a pair, left and right, so you're covered whichever thumb is the bad one. Or, like me, if the other one starts grumbling later.

They also give you 60 days to try it. If your thumb still clicks, you send it back. That's what finally made me stop overthinking it.

About the author

Elizabeth Burns is 68 and lives with her husband and a very spoiled cat. She has crocheted for 41 years and is on blanket number 23. When she isn't crocheting, she's in the garden or losing at Scrabble to her grandson.

This article is an advertisement and a personal story. Individual results vary. The Thumb Stabilizer is a support for everyday use, not a medical treatment. If your pain is severe or getting worse, see a doctor or hand specialist.