repetative strain injury in thumb

[montage]

Guessing it is this, but I am right handed, and get this at the joint at the base of my right thumb. An aching pain that gets worse with use - particuarly writing.
I can push through the pain but I think it has reached the point where it affects my exams - of which I have very shortly.
I'm also one of those note-makers for revision so cranking out pages and pages of A4 every day isn't helping. It's only a major problem when I have more than 1 exam in a day

Any advice out there?

(I refuse to call this an injury - just an inconveinience.....3 injuries is too much)

 

[zacklaws]

I used to suffer from this back in my school days when I did a lot of writing it would really wind me up with the agony and I would get very stressed out. I was recommended that instead of holding the pen between thumb and index finger was to hold it between the index finger and middle finger with the thumb underneath which takes off a lot of the strain on the thumb.

 

[ColinJ]

Are you sending lots of text messages from your phone? I reckon a whole generation will have arthritic thumbs by the time they are middle-aged...

 

[montage]

Are you sending lots of text messages from your phone? I reckon a whole generation will have arthritic thumbs by the time they are middle-aged...

middle aged? ha! I'm 19!
I know where you are coming from though - I do send them obviously, but not lodes. Definately got this from writing.

 

[montage]

I used to suffer from this back in my school days when I did a lot of writing it would really wind me up with the agony and I would get very stressed out. I was recommended that instead of holding the pen between thumb and index finger was to hold it between the index finger and middle finger with the thumb underneath which takes off a lot of the strain on the thumb.

This sounds like excellent advise - I'll practise writing like this for a bit

 

[montage]

I used to suffer from this back in my school days when I did a lot of writing it would really wind me up with the agony and I would get very stressed out. I was recommended that instead of holding the pen between thumb and index finger was to hold it between the index finger and middle finger with the thumb underneath which takes off a lot of the strain on the thumb.

How do you mean underneath? Underneath the index and middle or underneath the pen?

 

[zacklaws]

Just hold the pen between your two fingers at the bottom where they join your hand, then just close your fingers and thumb and automatically they will all meet together at the point of the pen. It may feel strange but your just retraining your muscles to do it different

Once you master it, you can then experiment with the pen between the two fingers and not even have to involve the thumb.

Just done a bit of googling and came across this site which demonstrates it:-

http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html

Plenty of info here too:-

http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Hand-Pain-from-Excessive-Writing

 

[fossyant]

It will be the writing mate............... had this myself at exam time....

Found I got STI trigger finger when back to commuting on the MTB....took some time for the right hand to adapt......no doubt it would happen again if I switched from fixed..... the disadvantage of no gears..