CMC arthritis vs. De Quervain's tenosynovitis — two conditions that hurt in the same neighborhood but require completely different treatment. The Finkelstein test and CMC grind test that tell you which one you're dealing with.

The injuries I see most predictably are not the dramatic ones — they are the falls. And falls start at the ground. Every fall prevention conversation is also a hand and wrist injury prevention conversation. Your hands go out first — which means what is on your feet determines what ends up on my operating table.

Phalen's test — the classic prayer-hands maneuver — has a false negative rate of roughly 25%. Durkan's compression test cuts that number significantly. Here's the technique, what a positive test means, and why this is the test I rely on in the clinic.

"If you can move it, it's not broken" is wrong. Movement tells you whether the tendons are working — not whether the bone is intact. Here's what actually tells the difference, and the mallet finger window you cannot afford to miss.

Tennis elbow has forty different treatments because none of them truly works — except one. Eccentric loading of the wrist extensors has genuine evidence behind it. Here's the protocol, why it works, and why your instincts about rest are wrong.

We call it a FOOSH — Fall on an Outstretched Hand. Pain level immediately after impact is a terrible predictor of fracture. Here's what actually tells you which category you're in — and the anatomical snuffbox test every outdoorsperson should know.

Cold water shock happens in seconds, not minutes. Swimming failure follows within ten minutes regardless of fitness level. The window between entry and incapacitation is short enough that any protection requiring deliberate action after immersion is already too late.

The OR/OR standard and the four-question framework for evaluating risk in any environment. Why predictable injuries are preventable injuries — and why a surgeon sees gear choices as clinical decisions made outside the hospital.

Why cortisone produces excellent short-term relief for tennis elbow and significantly worse one-year outcomes — and the conditions where injection is genuinely the right call. The inject vs. load distinction every patient deserves to understand.

The four-stage progression of ulnar nerve compression at the elbow — and when the window for conservative treatment starts closing. Includes the Finkelstein test and a stage-by-stage breakdown of what symptoms mean at each point.