- Joined
- Jun 26, 2017
- Messages
- 48,054
- Gender
- Female
- Country
United States
Finger/Thumb CMC arthroplasty: pain relief and healing for my thumb
- Thread starter Hip4life
- Start date
AgilityDog
graduate
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2018
- Messages
- 705
- Location
- Hawai'i back to Florida in '21
- Gender
- Female
- Country
- United States
May I request some hand arthritis helpful thoughts ? I have bone-on-bone on the left. Right is probably not too far behind. The hand doc is waiting for the endocrinologist to read & digest my parathyroid nuclear scan results. I play piano & harp. I worked hard to strengthen my thumbs so the could pluck the strings with power rather than collapsing. My thumbs NEED help! I need advice from patients that have also had arthritis in their hands. I like my 'new hip', but not sure I want a new thumb. Thank you All. Please move this to a more appropriate spot, if necessary. It was different 8 years ago when I was a 'Hippie '.
Welcome back to BoneSmart, @AgilityDog.
As you have noticed, we've made some changes since you were last part of the forum. Because we are a non-profit, we established a two-tier membership program last year to help support the work we do.
You are currently a Basic Member. Basic membership is free and allows you to read others' threads and post in those threads -- as long as you limit your posts to their surgery and recovery.
However, Basic members cannot start new threads and are not eligible for advice from Forum Staff. Those are benefits reserved for members of our Insiders Club.
Since you are considering a new procedure, you might want to Become an Insider. We offer several different membership levels. If you found the support you received for your hip recovery helpful, please consider giving back to support us. We depend heavily upon member donations to keep the website and forum operating.
As you have noticed, we've made some changes since you were last part of the forum. Because we are a non-profit, we established a two-tier membership program last year to help support the work we do.
You are currently a Basic Member. Basic membership is free and allows you to read others' threads and post in those threads -- as long as you limit your posts to their surgery and recovery.
However, Basic members cannot start new threads and are not eligible for advice from Forum Staff. Those are benefits reserved for members of our Insiders Club.
Since you are considering a new procedure, you might want to Become an Insider. We offer several different membership levels. If you found the support you received for your hip recovery helpful, please consider giving back to support us. We depend heavily upon member donations to keep the website and forum operating.
OP
OP
@AgilityDog I will jump in with this as a hand arthritis member. I am also a piano player. It was getting difficult to play and to do just about anything else. Both of my thumbs were hurting most of the time and at night until I just couldn’t tolerate it anymore. Soft splints helped some and injections did nothing.
My hand surgeon did my left in Feb 2025 and the right in October 2025. It’s not a “replacement” per se. He removed the wrist bone (trapezium) and then created a sling/brace with a special suture intertwined with a piece of tendon for the thumb bone. Voilà. No more rubbing of arthritic bones. This was the base thumb joint. The surgery was outpatient, nerve block, and took about 30-40 mins. There was a large hard splint for two weeks, smaller, removeable splint with OT exercises for 3 more and then soft splint PRN with more advanced OT exercises. Then I was off on my own unless there were other issues. It takes a while to get all the strength and ROM back but doing daily tasks keeps it moving along. We also have our own special OT: plinking along on the piano.
Investigate surgeons for how they do the surgeries: some have different techniques and recovery protocols. Mine was pretty straightforward and got me back in the game fairly quickly. In any case, don’t suffer if you don’t have to. There’s too much our hands do to not have them be our friends.
My hand surgeon did my left in Feb 2025 and the right in October 2025. It’s not a “replacement” per se. He removed the wrist bone (trapezium) and then created a sling/brace with a special suture intertwined with a piece of tendon for the thumb bone. Voilà. No more rubbing of arthritic bones. This was the base thumb joint. The surgery was outpatient, nerve block, and took about 30-40 mins. There was a large hard splint for two weeks, smaller, removeable splint with OT exercises for 3 more and then soft splint PRN with more advanced OT exercises. Then I was off on my own unless there were other issues. It takes a while to get all the strength and ROM back but doing daily tasks keeps it moving along. We also have our own special OT: plinking along on the piano.
Investigate surgeons for how they do the surgeries: some have different techniques and recovery protocols. Mine was pretty straightforward and got me back in the game fairly quickly. In any case, don’t suffer if you don’t have to. There’s too much our hands do to not have them be our friends.
