Does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome cause pain in your thumb? Well, maybe not, actually. Here’s some background:
- Something caused the pain in your wrist, hand and arm.
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome means you have a bunch of symptoms, like pain, numbness or tingling.
- A syndrome is a bunch of symptoms.
So, you might have pain in your thumb from something other than Carpal Tunnel Syndrome OR your thumb pain might be part of the syndrome.
There are ways to figure out exactly what is causing pain in your thumb. First, you need to be able to say, “The pain is on the palm side of my thumb,” or, “the pain is on the outside of my thumb.”
Is it AT your wrist or is it in the WEB of your thumb? Is the pain on the TIP of your thumb?
Your answers will give
clues to help you (or a massage professional) determine where to manually “treat” your muscles.
More background:
- Your thumb and finger muscles attach to your lower arms quite close to your elbow.
- Muscles that are tender to the touch usually need to be massaged because they are “too tight.”
- There are muscles all around your lower arm.
- The muscles in your upper arm can also cause pain in your hand.
What to do?
You are going on a seek and destroy mission. Start by “warming” or gently rubbing the muscles in your lower arm on all sides and on your upper arm near the elbow to mid-arm. While you are warming the muscles with gentle pressure, pay attention to how your muscles feel.
- Are they tender?
- Do they feel tight or hard to your touch?
- Are you surprised?
As a general rule, when you find an area of painful tightness, that is an area that should be massaged. You can massage slightly deeper and deeper as your muscles relax from your warming pressure. You may hold a painful spot for 12 seconds and then release your pressure. You can go back to tender areas more than once.
You don’t have to massage everything at once. Explore as you go into different places and see what happens when you apply pressure.
What does “pressure” mean?
It means you can press, rub, massage, pinch, roll a tennis ball on your muscles. You want to press INTO them, not just barely move your skin. Pressure is beneficial for muscles.
You’ll find an article here at Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief in the “Categories” under “Massage” that will help you know how to find a professional massage therapist if that is the route you decide to take. You’ll also find self-help massage articles there to help you get rid of your carpal tunnel pain naturally.