By the clicking in my thumbs

So, I stayed at the Doubletree hotel last Friday night. Which has a hard bed. I've been having trouble sleeping on harder beds, lately. It hurts my back. But much odder, when I woke up in the morning, my thumbs were clicking. When I bent them, they did this clicking, ratcheting thing. "Weird," I thought. "Must be the bed," I thought. The clicking went away after an hour or two. "Ok," I thought. Then it happened on Sunday, and I thought, "Wow, I really must not like this bed."

So, Monday we came home. (Fourth Street was awesome, by the way.) I got to sleep on my very own bed. Yay for waterbeds. Love my waterbed. And when I woke up Tuesday, my thumbs were clicking. "Must not be the bed," I thought. "It seems to be getting worse," I thought. "I wonder what the hell thing this is," I thought. If it were just the right hand, I'd assume that it was sequelae from having tragically dislocated my ring finger on New Year's Day, but it's in both hands.

So, it's Saturday, and it has happened every day after I wake up. It is very slightly worse than it was. Instead of ratcheting just once, sometimes the thumb will ratchet up to three times. The left one, as of yesterday, came up with a new trick where if I straighten it slightly, it clicks, and then in the new position, it hurts, and then I bend it, and it's ok again. And, after an hour or two, it all goes away. "Weird," I think again.

I called Nurseline, and talked to a nice lady who asked me all sorts of alarming questions about pain and fever and numbness and discoloration, all of which I could answer in the negative. Defeated, she admitted that it might be something called "trigger thumb," although maybe not. It might also be arthritis, but I have no other symptoms, and one wouldn't normally expect it to present in both thumbs at the same time. She suggested that I go see my primary care physician, on the grounds that... Actually, I'm not sure why she wants me to see my doctor, although pretty much any time you call Nurseline, they either want you to go to the ER or the doctor. The best she was able to come up with is that this sounds like a joint issue. Which actually I already knew, what with it happening in the joint and all. At least we were in agreement that there's nothing urgent going on.

Meanwhile, I'm planning on going to bed. I expect to wake up this evening with clicking thumbs. Life is weird.

Another note to self

You really, really hate weaving in the ends. Therefore, you should do it as you go along, because it's an occasional minute of annoying rather than thirty minutes of boring frustration.

Progression but not progress

When I woke up this evening, my right thumb had also developed the keen habit of ratcheting one notch back, locking, and hurting until I bent it forward again. And a new symptom! The joint where the thumb joins the hand (not the joint that has been ratcheting) aches in both hands. There was significantly more pain upon this awakening. All in all, I'd say the trend is not good. I have taken ibuprofen in hopes that this will help. Come Monday, I guess I call and make an appointment with the doctor.

Silly hands.