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Ganglier / Ganglia? 9-Sep-2005 At 12:01:34 PM Spanky

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I have ganglia on both hands in the same place you are describing, seemingly between the tendons of the index finger and thumb... from everything I've looked into, the best attitude to have towards it is... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I don't find that the ganglia impede movement or cause any pain, so there's no reason to look into smashing them with bibles or getting them cut out. Take it as a great warning from your body to LISTEN to it when you're pushing it... They had been there in a very small form from a younger age, but enlarged after I had been climbing for a couple of months. I was pushing myself at the gym one evening, my body was saying "ah, I think that's it for this particular sequence" but, being stubborn, I kept pushing it. And, as you have described, in the morning there was a big red lump on the back of my right hand, and a slightly smaller but matching one on the left. It hurt to push on it hard, but I think that's just because if you pressed that hard anywhere it would hurt.

After breaking my wrist snowboarding, the ganglia on the left hand disappeared after being in a cast for nearly 8 weeks... but it's come back now after more climbing. Moral is - don't bother resting your hands for the sake of the ganglion, it would take 8 weeks of NO movement for it to go away, and they will come back. You can stop it getting bigger by not pushing it too hard - again, listen to your body.

Predisposition to developing ganglia is apparently genetic, from a weakness in the tendon sheath. My grandmother has them around her ankles. Joy. Come to think of it, maybe those lumps on my ankles are ganglia too!