Chronic pain in wrist, all tests completely normal?

Question

My husband was in Iraq working long hard days when his wrists started hurting. They diagnosed it at first as a repetitive motion injury, put him in ibuprofin, and gave him braces. His pain persisted, and he saw several more doctors in Iraq, and he was put on medrol for 7 days. This combined with complete rest eased his pain. In Feb. he re-injured his wrists by taking a required PT test for the Army. He has sharp pain, described as pressure, in the middle of the wrist joint, in both wrists. Nobody knows what's going on. X-rays, bloodwork, bone scans, MRI's, etc. have all been completely normal. He had an arthroscopy today and the inside of the wrist appeared completely normal. The surgeon also excised the nerve that supplies the wrist joint in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but he still has the same pain. Every doctor at the VA is telling us something different, and we are at a loss. Has everyone ever heard of anything like this? The doctors have NO CLUE what's going on, and his pain is so bad that he can't lead a normal life (ie; drive, button pants, pick up plates, etc) Thanks for any info!

Answer 1

Generally speaking, the pain in wrist is induced by tenosynovitis. But now that all the tests show it's normal, that's really hard to say.

My advice are as below.

1. Block therapy with procaine on his wrist, which is the most effective solution to ease the pain without too much side effect.

2. Physical therapy is another choice for a long-term therapy.

3. Since no doctor can tell what disease is it, maybe you can turn to traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese acupuncture-moxibustion have amazing effect on pain and a lot of chronic illness. Chinese herbal medicine may take effect as well.

Good luck, madam. Best wishes.