Wrist Pain - When Crafts Turn Bad.

It seems like recently, more and more of my knitting friends are complaining of wrist and hand pain from knitting and sewing. It makes sense - if you're spending 10 or more hours crafting a week, then you're going to be in pain from the repeated motions, right?

For me, it's been a long-time struggle. The first time I experienced wrist pain from tendonitis, I was 14 years old, and attending tennis camp. After the first week, I was in so much pain I cried. My doctor diagnosed me with tendonitis, and sent me off with just a wrist brace and a "good luck!"

After tennis season was over, it didn't effect me much. I mean sure, bowling meant a sore wrist and hand, but it wasn't a huge deal day-to-day. 

Then, I got super into knitting and opened up an etsy shop selling tiny hand-sewn accessories, and that meant multiple hours of crafting a week. It was when I was prepping for my first craft fair that my tendonitis came back and bit me in the ass, hard. 

So I bought a pair of these stress-relief gloves. And they helped! I wore them for years while knitting and sewing, and they really seemed support my wrists and hands.

But then, about a year ago, I got a Vespa scooter, started riding my bike a lot more, and started playing tennis again. I think you know where this is going... with the added motion of squeezing the breaks, and playing the tennis, my tendonitis got super mad at me, and I was in a lot of pain.

So I upped my wrist support, and got something like this:

It's a heavy-duty, stretchy wrist support, and I love it. It feels like a wrist-hug, and when I'm really in pain, it helps a lot. I got mine from Target, and you could probably find it at a drug store.

And then, the game changed. Last October, I did a few sessions with a personal trainer at a gym, and I told him about my 15 years-worth of wrist pain. He asked if I was on supplements, and was shocked that no one had ever suggested it. 

I was skeptical. He was just like, a gym-type guy who was trying to up-sell me on his $30 bottle of supplements, right? But then I tried it...

I didn't buy the gym stuff, but I found a similar, cheaper product at Rite-Aid, and then at Trader Joe's. My wrist pain has been so much better since I started taking these daily. The suggested dose for the TJ's supplement is two pills daily, but I only take one and have found that works well. 

I can knit! I can sew! I can bike and type and lift things up! I still occasionally wear my wrist supports when knitting and exercising, but I am in a lot less pain day-to-day. Hopefully if you're going through the same thing, it will help you, too. 

Ps. I'm not a doctor. I just wanted to share my experience, so if you're thinking about taking supplements, please consult a physician, etc, and so forth.