Thread: scaphoid bone fracture or tendonitis?

About 2 months ago, I started getting a bit of discomfort in my wrist, around the base of the thumb, when hitting the 100 lb. bag. I have hit the 80 lb bag for years, off and on, but never every day. But for a couple months before this happened I was doing it almost every day, switching between the 80 and the 100. Then a couple days later I felt a slightly painful twinge when hitting the 100 bag--not enough to make me want to stop, but noticeable.

Then I noticed more frequent discomfort in the wrist, when hitting the bag or doing certain weightlifting. When doing the chin-up type pulldown with a weight machine and very heavy weights, this is the only time there was any kind of real pain or discomfort, but only with really heavy weights.

However, I noticed some discomfort in the wrist at other times, especially when turning a heavy knob on a professional DJ CD player. I kept hitting the bag for about two weeks, but not every day. There was no real pain to speak of then, maybe a bit of tenderness, but nothing serious. However I have stopped hitting the bag, as the tenderness has persisted.


It's been 6 weeks now, no hitting the bag, and I still feel the tenderness, though it is worse when I am active--for instance I just started doing acrobatic type pole tricks which of course would put some strain on the wrists. There is no longer any pain when turning the knob, though.

It felt more like I had jammed my thumb than I had broken any bone or anything--the pain has never been that bad, really. But of course I never jammed the thumb.

From everything I have read about the scaphoid bone fracture, there is pain and tenderness in the 'snuffbox' area of the wrist/thumb juncture. But I can push my other thumb very hard right into that hollow spot, with my hand held palm-down, and there isn't any pain or discomfort--the discomfort is more right under the thumb at the end of the radius bone of the forearm, looking at the hand palm-up, and sometimes running up it a bit towards the elbow maybe an inch or so.

My guess is it's tendonitis, and it's taking a while to heal since I am still being active, lifting weights, doing pole tricks, etc.

Of course I could go to a doctor, lol--but from what I have read it's very difficult to determine whether the scaphoid is broken or not--and since I am living on an island without too many doctors, I'd rather see if I can figure it out myself.

Has anyone had any similar injuries, or does anyone have any advice??

Thanks for reading this!!

My guess is the tendon of the muscles that work the thumb connecting to the inside of the elbow have tightened by bag work and need a opening up with the opposite thumb pushing the last 3 inch of the muscle into the elbow try it you might get a surprise

Interesting Scrap.

Thanks, Scrap, I will try it!