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My daughter had a problem with her hand and the doctor diagnosed it as trigger finger. What exactly is trigger finger and what is usually done for it?
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Imagine you have a gun in your hand and you are about to pull the trigger. Look at the position that your finger is in. Your finger is bent inwards, folded toward your hand. This is because you've pulled on the finger and the tendons, the tissue that connect muscles to bones, responded by pulling the finger down.
In trigger finger, the tendons have pulled but not at your command - they are doing this involuntarily. Sometimes the finger will stay that way all the time unless there is surgery and sometimes it loosens up a bit with some activity.
Treatment for trigger finger varies. If it's mild or doesn't bother your daughter too much, her doctor may suggest injecting a corticosteroid into the finger to help relax it. If it is bothersome however, the doctor may suggest surgery to release the tendons and relax the finger.
Peter G. Fitzgibbons, MD and Arnold-Peter C. Weiss, MD. Hand Manifestations of Diabetes Mellitus. In Journal of Hand Surgery. June 2008. Vol. 33. No. 5. Pp. 771-775.
My mother has had diabetes for many years. She takes insulin every day and takes very good care of herself. Unfortunately, that's not helping much because she's developing a whole bunch of complications from her eyes to her kidneys. Her latest one is that she is having trouble straightening out her hands. She was sure it was arthritis, but her doctor said it was something else. I can't recall the name, but it was something about the joints and he said that a lot of diabetics get it. Would you know what I'm talking about?
It's very likely that your mother has what is called limited joint mobility or LMJ. This could be mistaken for arthritis if you're looking at her hands and how she is limited as to how she can bend her fingers. However, this is a different issue. In LMJ, there doesn't seem to be pain, just the inability to straighten out the fingers as much as before. For example, if someone without LMJ or any joint problems puts their hand palm down flat on a table, their fingers would naturally spread out as the hand goes flat. For someone with LMJ, if they put their hand flat, their fingers won't spread out and they can't put their fingers and palm on the table at the same time.
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