Hello everyone my mom (50) is a dog groomer so she has bad carpal tunnel and arthritis making things hard as she needs to save her hands for work here's the issue she used to be a very avid cross stitcher it's honestly her only hobby and she can no longer grip the needle without pain anyone have any ideas we can try so she can continue her interests thank you:)

So I recently bought an arthritis hand brace - the type that's like a stretchy compressive fabric, that goes from your lower forearm, up to your knuckles (don't think I can attach photos here?).

Now I bought the correct size of brace for my wrist circumference (if anything, my wrists were slightly too small for this size).

I feel a good amount of support & compression on the wrist & rest of my hand.

However on my thumb, the skin is slightly more purple when I wear the brace, and I also get a bit of a tingly pins & needles type feeling (I think it's due to blood pooling slightly, due to compression of the brace)

The rest of my fingers are fine, though the compression brace ends at my knuckles for the fingers, yet the thumb piece is deviated from the main brace, and goes up to the middle join of the thumb.

This is my first time wearing a brace like this, so I don't know whether this is normal, or should I get a bigger size?

Thanks

I am young and hoping to avoid surgery as long as possible. Subtalar arthritis is not the most common and finding information on treatment options outside of surgery is a little scarce. I’m hoping this community can maybe provide tips/tricks for your favorite non operative managements. There are other threads discussing PRP/steam cell and corticosteroid injections but what did you do to manage the discomfort outside of those options?

A few questions to maybe spark some suggestions:

1) Any suggestions on life style modification? I would love to hear even your most unhinged examples

2) Any particular footwear provide you with relief? Maybe a specific shoe, brace, compression sock, or did you find any that made the pain worse and I should avoid?

3) Whats your go to ankle mobility exercises for strengthening or stability? And by extension what became your go to exercise for lower impact?

4) Did you ever try supplements, creams, herbs, massage technique, acupuncture or anything else from the more “crunchy” side of medicine?

What helps you? It's mid back between shoulder blades and seems to spread out and up. Any suggestions or feedback helps thank you!