Hand pain

[evilclive]

Last June I could reasonably happily do a 70 mile ride, as Colin et al saw on a rather hilly trip in the dales :-)

Since about August/September though things have been getting painful. My left hand hurts at the palm, opposite side from the thumb, in the fleshy bit. I can do about 15 miles on an upright, but much more starts to hurt, and the pain builds up over days. There's a tangible lump in the hand which isn't present in the other one, and this is where the pain starts.

While waiting for the NHS to do their thing, I've been riding a recumbent, which solves the pain problem but isn't really as satisfying to ride and more importantly is a solo - the tandems are upright, and I'm not keen on a recumbent one.

I've had an ultrasound and an MRI, and the doctors have told me there's nothing they can do - the flesh is a bit inflamed and can't take pressure, but it's not anything distinct and removable or indeed treatable.

This is not good news for me. Riding the tandem is an important part of my life, and I really want to be able to do a couple of weeks touring or more.

I've tried more padding (pipe insulation :-) ), which helps a bit but only alleviates the problem, it still comes back. I'll be trying higher bars to try and reduce the weight on my hands, but again I'm not sure how much this will help.

So some questions :

Has anybody had a similar problem and managed to solve it? Does anybody know a suitable medical specialist for this sort of thing?

Clever ideas for bike-related solutions also welcome, but obviously I really want to solve the problem in my body rather than get round it.

cheers,
clive

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry to hear that Clive!

I did a quick search and found an article about Cyclist's Palsy which might be relevant.

 

[NormanD]

Sorry to hear that Clive!

I did a quick search and found an article about Cyclist's Palsy which might be relevant.

Good find Colin

 

[snailracer]

Is this with straight bars or drops?

 

[evilclive]

Primarily drops, though straights hurt too.

Unfortunately I don't think it's cyclist's palsy or carpal tunnel - docs were very clear it wasn't the latter and for the former, it just hurts rather than not working. Unless anybody has more experience? I'll be doing what they recommend in the article anyway just in case.

 

[Paul J]

Hi Clive,
Are we talking about and area in your palm beneath your little finger? If so I have a lump of scar tissue in my hand from a crushing injury that hurts after only a short period of time. What I do is not pad that area but raise/ pad the area that doesn't hurt. This means you are only gripping with only half the width of your hand (thumb to middle finger) but it removes the pressure point from the sore part.

Hope that makes sense, just an idea.

Paul

 

[evilclive]

Interesting - how do you do that padding?

 

[Paul J]

Anything really from making the bar bigger in diameter with padding, or on cold days when wearing gloves padding held in place with a bit of sticky plaster tape. You might find just a ring of insulation 2" inches wide x 1/2" thick is enough so you don't grip with the sore part.

 

[snailracer]

I used to get stiff wrists and achey hands, due to the bumpy roads I commute on. Ergo grips helped quite a bit - I think they work more on the principle of keeping the wrists straight and spreading the pressure more evenly across the palm, rather than by providing extravagant padding, but I think you can only get them for straight bars.

What really worked well was raising the bars - this can take significant weight off the hands. However, this had the disadvantage of making me sit up higher which means more air resistance and possibly more bumps being transmitted through the saddle and jarring my back (so I changed my saddle to a sprung one).

I then fitted "north road" bars with swept-back ends, which angled the wrists correctly without even needing ergo grips, and also reduced the reach which allowed me to sit even more upright (i.e. even less weight on the hands).

 

[snailracer]

Oh, you could try setting the saddle further back (while reducing the height to maintain the same leg extension) as a quick/cheap way to take a bit of weight off the hands.