Starts visit one
Pain
Settle the angry tissue.
Hands-on work, swelling and scar management, and resting positions that stop the irritated tendon or nerve from getting hit again every hour.
What We Treat
Elbow, wrist and hand pain treatment in Vancouver, WA.
The jar you hand to somebody else. The wrist that aches by noon. The elbow you stopped straightening months ago. Vague pain almost always has a specific cause.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like your week?
- Handing the jar to somebody else instead of even trying it yourself
- A wrist that aches by lunch and throbs the whole drive home
- A sharp catch on the pinky side of the wrist every time you push up out of a chair
- Waking with a stiff, puffy hand that needs half an hour before it works
- Typing all morning, then not being able to hold a full pan that night
- An elbow that catches at full straight, so you quietly stopped straightening it
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Hand pain is the symptom. Something is causing it.
Your arm from elbow to fingertip is a stack of small parts doing precise work. Pain usually traces to one of four things. A tendon loaded harder than it can recover from. A joint that stiffened after an injury, so its neighbors take on double. A nerve pinched somewhere along the line, at the neck, the elbow or the wrist. Or swelling and scar that changed how tendons glide, which is why the hand feels thick and slow in the morning.
Those four feel similar from the outside and need completely different work. That is what a cause-first evaluation is for. It is also why rest keeps failing you. Rest lowers the load for a while, then you go back to the exact same job, tool and grip, and it lands on the exact same tissue. You are the one who fixes things for everyone else. Hands like that are worth an hour of somebody’s undivided attention.
The Honest Truth
Hands stiffen quietly.
If you keep waiting
- Swelling settles into scar, and scar shortens, so motion costs more to win back
- Your good hand takes over everything, and then that one starts complaining too
- You stop testing the hand, so grip strength leaves without ever announcing it
If you start this week
- You leave visit one knowing which tissue is actually the angry one
- Splints, if you need one, fabricated here and remolded as your hand changes
- A plan with an endpoint: you always know which phase you are in and what is left
Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people wish they had stopped working around it sooner.
How We Fix It
Four phases. Built for the arm you use all day.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here is what the four phases look like for elbow, wrist and hand pain.
Once the pain settles
Prime
Win the motion back.
Joint mobility and tendon gliding work, hands-on, so the elbow, wrist and fingers move through range instead of guarding at the edges.
Once the motion holds
Perform
Load it until you trust it.
Grip, pinch and forearm strength, built in the positions your job and your kitchen actually ask for, not on a chart on the wall.
Before discharge
Prevent
Change what caused it.
Tool grip, workstation, technique and pacing get sorted out, so the same load stops landing on the same tissue. That is the endpoint.
Gabbert Clinic and their staff has the most innovative, fun and amazing exercises that makes occupational therapy a great experience. I had slow healing wrist and elbow pain which took over 6 months to completely heal. The staff was very patient and always motivating in my healing journey. I would really like to express my sincere gratitude to Emma, Tiffany, Amy, Jen and Courtney for their wonderful support. I would recommend Gabbert Clinic to anyone needing hand therapy 😇.
Shared by Omkar K. · Wrist and elbow pain
Where you start: handing the jar to somebody else
Where the plan ends: opening it yourself, without thinking about it
Elbow, wrist & hand pain
Pain to Prevent
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for hand and wrist pain.
Most of our patients arrive by physician referral, often from a hand surgeon, and some plans require one. What yours requires depends on your insurance. Tell us who you have and we will check your benefits before your first visit and tell you exactly what we find. Start that with the booking form or by calling the clinic.
Yes, and that is a very common place to start. Your first visit is a cause-first evaluation, one-on-one with a licensed Occupational Therapist, several board-certified in hand therapy (CHT). You leave knowing what we found and what the plan is. If you need imaging or a surgeon to weigh in, we tell you that too.
That depends on what the evaluation finds, so we answer it after we look, not before. What does not vary is the shape of it: a plan with an endpoint. You will know which of the four phases you are in, Pain, Prime, Perform or Prevent, what earns you the next one, and what is left.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person from our front desk calls you back to get you scheduled. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon–Fri 7:00am–5:00pm · Sat–Sun closed
- (360) 989-1200 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- One-on-one with a licensed Occupational Therapist, every visit
5.0 · 146 Google reviews
Your request goes straight to our front desk
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during clinic hours to get you on the schedule and tell you what to bring.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Gabbert Clinic
- 7710 NE Greenwood Dr # 150, Vancouver, WA 98662
- (360) 989-1200
- Fax: (360) 583-3442
- admin@gabbertclinic.com
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Mon–Fri 7:00am–5:00pm
Sat–Sun closed