Weeks 1–2
Pain
Take the load off it.
Hands-on work, wrist positioning and a few changes to how you hold things settle the irritated tendon or the crowded nerve, so your hand stops waking you up.
What We Treat
Elbow, wrist and hand pain treatment in Reseda.
A grip that quits on a jar lid, and a hand that wakes you up numb at 2am. It is fixable, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, because tennis elbow, carpal tunnel and a wrist that healed stiff each need a different plan.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Carrying the full coffee cup with two hands, because one isn’t safe anymore
- Waking at 2am shaking your hand to get the feeling back into it
- Handing the jar to somebody else, when you used to open it one-handed
- A sharp point on the outside of your elbow that lights up in a handshake
- Your kid holding out a bag for you to open, then quietly taking it to the other parent
- Typing all afternoon with your wrist propped on whatever is nearest
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Elbows, wrists and hands rarely fail on their own.
Small joints, small tendons, an enormous number of daily repetitions. Four things drive most of what we see here. Tendons on the outside of the elbow get overloaded and stop tolerating grip, which is what tennis elbow is. The tunnel at the front of the wrist gets crowded and the nerve running through it goes numb and clumsy, which is carpal tunnel. A sprain heals stiff and the wrist never gets its last few degrees back. And the shoulder, forearm and neck above it stop sharing the work, so the small parts at the end absorb all of it.
You have been the one who opens things, carries things and types the reports. Of course the wear turned up in your hands first. A cause-first evaluation checks the whole chain from your neck to your fingers, and it has to, because numbness in the hand can start at the wrist or much higher up, and those are different plans. A brace and a few weeks off will calm it. Then the first real day of use brings it back, because nothing got any stronger while you waited.
The Honest Truth
Waiting it out doesn’t give your grip back.
If you keep waiting
- Your other hand takes over everything, and starts aching the same way
- Numbness that came and went starts staying, and your pinch grip gets clumsy
- The tendon tolerates less and less, until a keyboard is enough to set it off
If you start this week
- You find out whether this starts at the wrist, the elbow, or higher up
- Hands-on work plus a load you can actually tolerate, so rebuilding starts this week
- You get a plan with an endpoint, and a grip you can trust on a jar lid again
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for elbows, wrists and hands.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent look like for elbow, wrist and hand pain.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Get the motion and the glide back.
Joint mobility at the elbow and wrist plus nerve glide work, so the tissue moves freely before we ask it to work hard.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Rebuild the grip.
Graded loading through the forearm, with strength added at the shoulder blade above it, until grip and pinch hold up under real use.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Make the whole day survivable.
We fix the keyboard height, the tool grip and the lifting habit that fed this, and once your hand holds through a full day, you’re done.
She went above and beyond in making me feel comfortable. This office is very good at challenging you to push yourself to get better but they never pushed me too hard… My wrist got better after every visit… you will be treated with kindness and respect from the receptionist to the owner. I can’t recommend this office enough!
Shared by Grace F. · Google review
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for elbow, wrist & hand pain.
Usually not first. In California you can see a licensed physical therapist without a physician referral. A hands-on evaluation can tell us a great deal: whether the numbness starts at the wrist, at the elbow, or up in the neck, and whether it is the tendon or the nerve driving your symptoms. If what we find calls for a nerve conduction study or a hand specialist, we tell you plainly and help you get there.
Complete rest is not the answer here. Tendons get their tolerance back by being loaded carefully, not by being left alone, and a wrist that stops moving after a sprain heals stiff. We work out how much your tissue can handle right now, change the grips and positions that keep aggravating it, and add load as it settles. A brace and time off can help early on, but neither one makes anything stronger.
You get a plan with an endpoint rather than an open tab of appointments. Hands and elbows move through the same four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent, and the pace depends on whether we are calming a nerve or rebuilding a tendon, and how long it has been going on. We give you that answer at the end of your evaluation, and you always know which phase you are in.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back during business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed
- (818) 341-3791 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- Saturday appointments, 8:00am to 12:00pm
20+ 5-star reviews on Google
A real person calls you back, not a robot
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time, and we’ll answer your insurance questions on that same call.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Suite 200, on Sherman Way between Reseda and Northridge. Street and lot parking are both there, though the lot is a little tight for a large vehicle.
Jewel Physical Therapy
- 17750 Sherman Way, Suite 200, Reseda, CA 91335 (opens in a new tab)
- (818) 341-3791
- Fax: (818) 341-3794
- admin@jewelptinc.com
- Mon to Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm, Sat 8:00am to 12:00pm, Sun closed