Pain in my thumb?

About 3 weeks ago I hurt my thumb. I was pushing myself up from the floor when I heard a clicking noise and got the worst pain in my thumb. I was a little worse for wear at the time, so just got up, wiggled my thumb and went to bed. The following day my thumb was swollen to double its size and the fleshy bit at the bottom of my thumb, (palm side) was also swollen. The swelling went down, and it bruised quite badly. I didn't go to the Docs at the time as I was working abroad with no health insurance. but I've noticed my thumb is still fairly swollen, I can't get my thumb to touch my little finger like I used to, and I can't do a 'thumbs up' properly. I've no real pain anymore, except when I put pressure on the joint, or try to open tightly closed bottles, jars etc. Do you think I could have done something serious to it, or have I just strained the muscle and its taking a while to heal??


I don't want to bother my GP if its just a sprain thats almost healed.

Pain in my thumb?
You will have to see Doc %26amp; expect X-rays. Could be out of joint. Could be torn ligament. Could be cracked joint cartledge or bone. Definite damage of something.
Reply:I'm guessing it's tender at the joint at the web. If that's the case, you can make a pretty good bet you have "skier's thumb," AKA "gamekeeper's thumb," and your GP may very easily refer you to an orthopedist, depending on its stability. Some little sprains can be quite a problem.