Can you help me figure out this pain?

[foodfiend]

I woke up several days ago with a sore left arm, from my wrist to my elbow. The muscle feels tense and the wrist is quite stiff. It hurts to bend it. I thought it was strained from exercise the day before, but the pain has lasted. I've tried stretching it, but that doesn't seem to be helping. I'm not sure what's going on. Can anyon advise? Thanks.

[wallycat]

I'm not a doc but have had my share of exercise injury.
Is it more painful on the elbow??
Sounds like tendonitis otherwise known as tennis elbow (not always caused by tennis!).

Of course, if you slammed it against something, it could be a hairline fracture of the bone or ??

Maybe someone else will share their opinion too...

[AndreaU]

DH suffers from tendonitis- sounds very much like what you're experiencing.

[foodfiend]

Actually it hurts the closer you get to the wrist. It's particularly sore on the left side of my hand, near the base of the wrist. When I flex my thumb it hurts.

[Hammster]

Check out this website. Some (ok, most) of the symptoms you describe seem to be addressed here.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000433.htm#Symptoms

[ErinM]

Sounds like it could be a carpal tunnel type thing to me...

(ETA - I wrote this before I saw Hammster's post...)

[foodfiend]

It seems to sound like both, though I'm inclined go with tendonitis since I haven't been doing work that would promote carpal tunnel.

[Hammster]

It seems to sound like both, though I'm inclined go with tendonitis since I haven't been doing work that would promote carpal tunnel.

Repetitive motion isn't the only cause of carpal tunnel injuries. That weblink I provided mentions some kinds of exercise and athletic activities can cause the injury too. There was a recent study suggesting that genetics can play a part in carpal tunnel injuries. I don't have the link handy at the moment, but it was interesting reading. I tend to be interested in this issue because of my job in which part of developing assembly processes is to make sure injuries, of any kind, aren't caused by the process.
Definitely not downplaying the possibility of tendonitis. You might want to avoid the activity that caused the pain and try ice and compression for a few days to see if the pain goes away.

ETA, I found the link. Yay! (Loving the edit feature right now! :D )

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/131/118210