Basal Joint Arthritis

Has anyone dealt with Basal Joint Arthritis or thumb arthritis with regards to Bullseye?  I've got it bad in my right (shooting) thumb and its driving me nuts.  I'd like to hear from anyone who's had the surgery and how their recovery went.  Signed up for a 2700 tomorrow and really considering pulling the plug.

-Dieselguy624

Not me but a shooting buddy just went through this.  He was to the point of just shooting 22 & even considered just shooting rifle.  After surgery he took his time and now is back to shooting 2700's he uses a M52 for CF and very light 45 loads.
- Dave

I really feel for you! I have needed shoulder surgery for 2 years so I understand the agony of this kind of pain. Try Meloxican and 5 Ibuprofen a hour before

My doc told me Meloxicam and Ibuprofen do not play well together.  Recommended extra strength Acetaminophen.  Been doin that with not much relief.  I went ahead and withdrew from the match which sucks because its supposed to be awesome weather tomorrow not too many 78 deg days in August around here.

Arthritis still bother my shooting wrist, I use Ibuprofin only and it works for me. Tylenal has zero anti-inflamatory capacity but good fever  and some pain relief. Hope things work out for you.
 Stan

Without wishing to sound like a prophet of doom here - I gutted it out with increasingly severe tendonitis and much naproxin chasing a master classification. The result was no classification and 18 months (and counting) of downtime.

That pain is your body telling you something. You can either listen to the talk now or to the loud shouting later. Your choice.

A fairly recent study for pain management indicated that a dose of both ibuprofen and acetaminophen works just as well as the opioid dope many take, and occasionally, get hooked on.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180417181101.htm

But like others mention, if you have pain after shooting, or during, you're doing it wrong. Seek medical attention, and ffs, do the physical therapy.

Arthritic left hip here.  Painful to stand for a long match.

Try laser therapy.
I also have electo accupuncture unit. It finds trigger points and tones them. In my days of martial art training it was a real relief.

Have you tried DMSO. Some years ago an AMSU coach told me the thumb and little finger contribute nothing to the competition grip of a 1911.

Had it in both of my hands for over ten years. After three years of constant pain and lots of pain meds I did not like taking, I finally went to a hand surgeon. One hand done last September and the other in February. They remove the lowest bone from the thumb attached a Kevlar band from the second thumb bone to the index finger. Takes about 6 months to get fully healed. Pain is gone after surgery is done and then just healing pain. Wish I had gone to the surgeon three years ago. Even took care of my trigger fingers in each hand during the surgeries.

Two ways to do the surgery. The above is the tight rope method. The second older method does not use the Kevlar and requires a temporary pin that makes recovery much longer and you are in a cast for a month or longer. I had a semi-cast for two weeks.

If the arthritis is keeping you from doing things or the pain is constant, get the surgery. So glad I did and again, wish I had done it much sooner. My surgeon was great. After almost a year I still have some numbness on the top of my right thumb that most likely will never go away but that is it. Certainly a good trade off from the pain.

My right foot and ankle were severely damaged 50 + years ago and gout, which is a form of arthritis, settled in later, it is so bad that at timesI cannot even stand on it. In fact I quit shooting 2700s because of it. VA gives me Allopurinol which I use daily, but at times it is not enough because it flares up at and stops me dead in my tracks. One ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate mixed with water works and I am now back to shooting matches.

Jim

Luckily the arthritis I have in my hand is in my left and not my shooting hand,  also have arthritis in both knees, both hips and my lower back and bursitis in my left shoulder. After emergency back surgery I was on opioids.  Got off opioids. Now I use arthritis strength Tylenol and naproxen at night, seldom anything during the day. (yes, you can take them together just so long as you are not a heavy drinker.)  I also use capsicum both cream and patches.  I have a wonderful acupuncturists who is classically trained. She is how I got off opioids and solved other joint problems.  I have tried electric stimulus; it works.  I now have a routine of what I do each day, each week, etc to mitigate the pain so I can shoot.  There are various supplements that can help. Yet like all medications they work really well for some and not at all for others. 

Ed

Well I had the surgery on Sep 24th and can't believe how good I feel already.  I feel like I could start shooting .22 again in the next couple of weeks. I had a carpalmetacarpal joint arthroplasty with interval removal of the trapezium and partial excision of the trapezoid. Basically removed a bone cleaned up another and set anchors and used some kind of thread to connect them back together. Recovery to this point has been way better than I was expecting.

Dieselguy624

I shot left handed for two months after my surgery and then started a little bit with .22 with my right. I was amazed at how good I felt after surgery and recovery pain is always better than chronic pain. 

Don’t push it too fast.

Well I Shot our indoor .22 600 match on Wednesday. Felt just ok not great scored a 538.  Slow fire was hard too many sixes. My hand was a little sore the next morning.  I think I'll try some limited dry fire training this week and give it another try next Wed.