My 12 year old daughter has tendonitis in her writst and got a cortisone shot and is in pain is this normal?

by Holli

My 12 year old daughter was in horrible pain in her thumb and wrist. The orthopedic surgeon put her in a cast after 4 weeks they removed it and she was still in a lot of pain. She was wearing a splint for the last 4 weeks and now they did a MRI and found nothing thank god, but today they gave her a cortisone shot in her wrist.

Here it is 5 hours later and she is crying in pain is this sharp pain normal she says it comes and goes????

Please help????


Joshua Answers:

Hi Holli.

Is a severe increase in pain 'normal' from a corticosteroid injection?

I wouldn't say normal, but I would say it's common, and unsurprising.

Is it dangerous? Probably not, even if it's REALLY painful.

If you're concerned, you should go see your doctor. Having said that, there's really nothing they can do for the pain other than prescribe pain killers (to kill the pain caused by something that was supposed to reduce inflammation and pain). (I'm happy to be proven wrong on this point.)

1. My question is, what was/is wrong with her wrist?

2. Did she fall and break it? Is she a gymnast? Etc?

3. WHY did they have her
in a cast for 4 weeks?

4. WHY did they then splint her for 4 weeks?

5. WHY did they give her a Corticosteroid Injection.

6. Why do you think it's Tendonitis, as opposed to anything else?

See: What Is Tendonitis?

The answers to those questions won't help her current injection pain, but since nothing they've done so far has actually helped, let's start looking for an actual solution.

In the meantime, the best I can offer is to get your daughter Ice Dipping ALL DAY LONG, as many dips as possible.

In a perfect world, this will quickly get the pain causing elements out and replace them with good new blood/nutrients/oxygen.

In a less perfect world, it will still do that, but maybe not have pain-decreasing results as quickly as your daughter might like.



Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert

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Jun 07, 2012
Any improvement?
by: Katie


My 12-year-old daughter has the exact same problem (minus the cortisone injection). Did you daughter ever heal or get a diagnosis?

Thank you

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