When we have patients come to us with arthritis of the hand, a lot of times they have swelling that occurs. Either during the day or at night. So one of the first things we often do is have them wear compression gloves at night. That reduces the swelling that occurs over night. And in the morning that helps prevent some of that stiffness and pain that they have. The other thing is we look at their daily living skills. It's often very difficult to open a jar, so we have them use some of the jar openers that provider tacky things to give them a better grip. We often have them by a jar opener where you can slip anything as small as a ketchup jar to a mayonnaise jar. And it allows them to open it more easily. Writing is often a problem so there are simple things like foam pieces that you can slide over your pen or pencil, you can slide it on a fork or a knife and it really helps them throughout their daily life.
They also often benefit from the use of a unit that can be purchased retail called paraffin bath that gives them deep heat and relief of their symptoms. We also teach them exercises and often we have to do some type of splinting just to rest the finger or the wrist, whatever part may be involved.
