Gout in a finger strikes overnight, peaks within a day and settles over 7 to 14 days untreated. A first red hot joint looks identical to a joint infection, so it gets checked the same day, and there are two separate treatments people constantly confuse.
Numb hands on the bike are a nerve squashed at the wrist: ring and little finger is the ulnar nerve (handlebar palsy), thumb to middle finger is carpal tunnel. Change hand position every 10 to 15 minutes, get weight off your hands, and treat numbness that lingers after the ride as a deadline.
A hook of hamate fracture causes deep heel-of-palm pain on the little-finger side after a golf, bat or racquet impact, and routine X-rays often miss it. A CT settles it; most late-found cases do well with removal of the hook and a return to sport around 6 to 8 weeks.
A scapholunate ligament tear often follows a fall, shows a normal X-ray and gets called a sprain. Back-of-wrist pain, a click and weakness still there at 6 weeks need proper imaging: six weeks buys a repair, six months a reconstruction, six years a fusion.
Guyon’s canal syndrome is the ulnar nerve squeezed at the wrist: numb ring and little fingers with a normal back of the hand. Pressure cases usually settle in 6 to 12 weeks once the load comes off; a cyst or hamate fracture needs finding and usually surgery.
Rheumatoid arthritis in the hands shows up as morning stiffness over an hour, soft swelling of the big knuckles, middle joints and wrists on both sides, and feeling unwell. Early treatment protects the joints; late treatment can’t rebuild them.
CRPS is pain that escalates after a hand or wrist injury instead of settling, with swelling, color and temperature changes and fast-building stiffness. It’s real, most people improve over months, and the hand has to keep moving while it hurts.
About 3 months for everyday life, 6 to 12 months for full strength. A hand therapist’s week-by-week trapeziectomy recovery: splint, pain, driving, work, and why pinch feels weaker at month 3.
Carpal tunnel surgery recovery takes 3 to 6 months for grip strength and scar comfort, while night tingling usually stops within days. Pillar pain, a sensitive scar and a weak grip at week 4 are all normal; here’s the week-by-week.
Most mild wrist sprains settle in 2 to 3 weeks and are fully back by 4 to 6; moderate ones take 4 to 8. Tender in the hollow at the base of the thumb, or not clearly better by week 3, means it may never have been just a sprain.