Most hand, wrist and elbow conditions have a window where treatment is simple.
Inside the window: a splint, a habit change, a few weeks of the right loading.
Past it: injections, surgery, or stiffness that never fully refunds.
The Closing Window Chart puts 15 of the most common conditions on ONE page: when each window is open, the signs it’s closing, and what’s lost once it shuts…plus the red flags that skip every window and mean get seen now.
It’s the sorting I do across the table in clinic, printed.
Free. One page. Enter your email below and it lands in your inbox.
You’ll get one email first, asking you to confirm. Can’t see it within a few minutes? Check Promotions or Spam, and search for “Closing Window”.
(The chart explains; it doesn’t examine, and it doesn’t diagnose. It tells you how urgent your situation is likely to be, so you stop guessing at 2am.)
Written by Nigel Chua, hand occupational therapist in practice since 2005. Thousands of hands, wrists and elbows assessed and treated. My credentials are here.