Carpal tunnel syndrome

[CrealCritter]

During my 6 month check-up last week, my doctor said I most likely have Carpal tunnel syndrome. He gave me some exercises and ordered wrist splints. He said I should have told him sooner, before I started dropping things. But I've had pain in my wrist arm and shoulders for years. It's just within the past year or so my fingers have become numb for no good reason and the pain in my hands sometimes wakes me up at night.

Yesterday I did a little barn organizing and woodworking. I woke up this morning at 3:30am in so much pain in my hands that it brought tears to my eyes. I sat on the side of the bed and shook my wrists until the pain subsided. This morning it took a good hour for the numbing in my fingers to go away. Even now hours after my fingers and expecially my thumbs are still kind of numb.

Doing the exercises causes my wrists to pop like rice crispies. I have a high tolerance to pain and can usually ignore pain pretty well. But this pain is something else. Looking forward to the day when the pain is less or gone all together. My doctor said the braces should help at night. I sure hope so...

 

[Britesea]

Some of the pain is from swelling around the nerves. Does asprin cream help? Or taking something like acetemepherin? A hairdresser friend had the wrist op, it helped but recovery was several weeks.

If it is swelling, there are a lot of anti-inflammatories out there- aspercream is only one of them. You could also try Turmeric, CBD (internally and externally) and even castor oil (external). My orthopod (😆) says that the reason there are so many different painkillers and anti-inflammatories out there is because none of them work for everyone, but almost always at least one of them will work for you. I have a trigger finger (similar to carpal tunnel) and I use these as well as a brace when I'm sleeping, and some simple exercises throughout the day. They have allowed me to continue knitting, crochet, and needlework for several years now.

 

[CrealCritter]

Good deal. Now be careful of those 12 oz curl exercises.

12oz? More like 32oz

 

[Chic Rustler]

I've had it in both hands for years. hands go numb all the time especially when driving. not a big deal.
now I'm having issues with my elbow and forearm. can't hardly usa an 18 inch iron pipe wrench for the pain. might go ahead and get it looked at.

 

[CrealCritter]

If it is swelling, there are a lot of anti-inflammatories out there- aspercream is only one of them. You could also try Turmeric, CBD (internally and externally) and even castor oil (external). My orthopod (😆) says that the reason there are so many different painkillers and anti-inflammatories out there is because none of them work for everyone, but almost always at least one of them will work for you. I have a trigger finger (similar to carpal tunnel) and I use these as well as a brace when I'm sleeping, and some simple exercises throughout the day. They have allowed me to continue knitting, crochet, and needlework for several years now.

But what about shooting?

 

[farmerjan]

Since I had the ankle replacement and went to PT.... and the ankle did so good, but I was having/still have ALOT of pain in the knees, they switched their focus to the knees. It hurts some and I have exercises... but the thing is, it feels better afterwards. No knives, surgery, cutting..... just different ways to work on the muscles, tendons, ligaments, that all combine to make the joints workable.
I swear by my Chiropractor.... and he also does not do, nor does he advise for anyone to have surgery. He gave me back the range of motion in my shoulder after a severe car wreck and 2 years of being told I would have to live with it.
So my advice.... for what it is worth..... is either a good chiropractor or PT.... if the doctor advises PT then it is often eligible for insurance and in my case, covered under my medicare and supplement.....
Agree that if you let it go too long, you could do more damage that might not be as repairable.

 

[CrealCritter]

Well I can say the exercises seem to be doing some good. Slept like a baby last night. Woke this morning to a little.numbness but nothing at all like the previous mornings. So for now I keep up the exercises and use the splints when they come in.

These are the same exercises the doctor gave me in a printed form. I just found them on YouTube. @Chic Rustler you might want to give these a try Bro. I don't think, it would hurt anything.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Creal, a good physical therapist might be able to rebalance your muscles and skeletal system to fix that neck problem... and that neck problem just might be feeding your wrist problem. A good therapist will teach you some mobilization techniques that you can do at home to off load the cervical disc.

 

[CrealCritter]

FYI... The exercises in the video I posted a few posts back are helping substantially. There is still slight numbness when waking up but after doing the exercises, numbness is almost entirely gone. The Motorcycle revving excercise seems to help the most.

 

[FarmerJamie]

FYI... The exercises in the video I posted a few posts back are helping substantially. There is still slight numbness when waking up but after doing the exercises, numbness is almost entirely gone. The Motorcycle revving excercise seems to help the most.

Good deal. Now be careful of those 12 oz curl exercises.