Trigger thumb

My husband developed trigger thumb about nine months ago. It has gotten progressively worse. Cortisone injections gave temporary relief. After two injections it recurred and kept getting worse. He more recently needed to be on crutches. (The hand grips are about 1.5 inches in diameter. I put pipe insulation over them, making them closer to 2 inches in diameter.... He can just touch his thumb and middle finger around the grips)

He used the crutches for walking short distances for several weeks, but after walking with and leaning on the crutches for about three hours (the longest continuous use at that point), the next morning, his thumb had totally normal motion with no pain. He was slated for surgery three weeks in the future. After spending another two week on the crutches, he canceled his surgery appointment. His thumb continues to improve. If the thumb starts to bother him, leaning on the crutches for about ten minutes gives him pain free normal movement for a few hours or more.

We don't know if the improvement is caused by the amount of pressure (half of his weight), the direction of the pressure, or the position of his wrist and hand. One would want to use caution not to cause more hand problems with crutch use.

Update: I've included images in case he is holding the crutches in a non- standard way. For the past five or six days he has had free motion and no pain in his thumb.