Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, what works OTHER than surgery????

Arthur, what was the final outcome with CTS ,surgery and recovery if you had surgery?  to quote you " 'down time' is a HUGE concern... I basically have to be load bearing on my wrists at all times".  thanks Joe

krispyyowrote:

Just get the surgery, you've already tried the non-surgical treatments for over a year. Otherwise you'll have more downtime while dealing with your ongoing CTS and you risk lasting denervation and atrophy to the small muscles in your hand. The fact that the cortisone injections worked well is a good prognostic indicator that your surgery will have a good result, and you'll probably be able to get back to climbing and stuff after 3-4 weeks when the incision is healed. It shouldn't significantly affect your ADLs in the meantime. 

This ^^^^^^^.  It's, at most, a 45 minute procedure.  There is no intubation required.  The incision is about 1.5 inches long, there is minimal to no pain from the surgery, and your symptoms are relieved immediately.  The hand is usable for minor stuff immediately.  You'll be climbing in 2-3 weeks (basically as soon as the stitches are removed), and full recovery in 6 weeks or so.

I had a saline injection at the site that enlarged the tunnel. Been about 8 months now and still working fine. Was able to increase grip strength thru climbing and cautiously start climbing in 1 week after injection.

thanks Tim and Dave, but i'm kinda hoping to hear from Arthur Torrey as he is a paraplegic and can give me a glimpse into what i can look forward to after surgery. maybe i'll look into the saline injection.

Here's an interesting article...something I wasn't aware of prior to surgery:

Is there a relation between carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger?

Had carpal tunnel surgery (outpatient) in late July.  No issues...sore hands through September and into October and a couple of climbing sessions felt painful.  Trigger finger in my thumbs started up in later October.  Started out kinda mild but has gotten annoying.  Hoping it settles out eventually (stretching helps).

Glad to have done the surgery for sure.  First time in a few years I've skied either uphill or downhill without have to constantly stop and shake the numbness out of my hands.  That's gone.  Yay.  Hoping my trigger thumbs get better...

I had the surgery, done in what the doctor that did it claimed to be the 'latest and greatest' minimally invasive method.  It was pretty much of a non-event, I was able to do transfers between my power and manual chairs within a few hours.  The biggest problem I had was cathing in the several hours it took for the anesthetic to wear off - hard to manipulate the catheter when your fingers don't work as expected...

Basically they put an IV in each arm, and a tourniquet on the surgery arm.  They hit you with 'happy juice' in the non-surgery arm, and then clamp the tourniquet on the surgery arm and hit it with major amounts of local anesthetic, then do the surgery (You don't care...  ) I ended up w/ a small incision on my wrist that was closed w/ surgical glue (no stitches!) and was told that while I could shower the day after, I shouldn't scrub on the area for about a week, same deal when washing hands.

You'll need to arrange transport to / from the hospital on the day of, as they will NOT want you driving home.  They insisted on it being a family member or 'responsible person', not just the transport van service that my insurance covers for when I'm not driving to medical appointments.

As I said, I basically was back to my normal activities within a few hours and I think I did my first climb in the gym a week or so later.

My surgeon claimed that he had a patient that reported doing 250lb bench presses the afternoon after his surgery in the morning, so he didn't think it was a big deal for down time.

ART

hotlum wrote:

Way to get it done. I had both wrists done at the same time. It wasn't fun for a few days, but two weeks out I was running my miter saw and patching siding on my house. Climbed two months out. Contact strength for crimping hard and getting back on it at six months.

Glad I did it. Really helped clear up some elbow issues also. No more numb hands at night! I had a pretty bad case with the right and a moderate-severe case on the left. 

Scar tissue near the end of my thumb gets pissy now and then but that should go away.

Yes, it should.  One of mine I had no problem.  The other actually took a few years before it went away totally, but it was never really an issue.  Just sometimes felt odd.

Thank you Arthur! i'm glad that you were basically was back to normal activities within a few hours. sounds like i should go ahead and schedule the procedure within the next month or so and get it over & done with. All the best, Joe

The only thing you should be careful about is to ask exactly what version of the procedure they will be doing...  There are several methods which mostly vary in how much they cut you open, and they have evolved over time to be less and less invasive, but some doctors are still using the older more invasive techniques...  Some of this depends on how much the doctor keeps up with the latest technology, and some on how well the hospital does on getting the fancier equipment needed for the minimally invasive stuff.  

I had my surgery at Mass. General in Boston, which is a major medical center, and usually ranked among the top hospitals in the US, so they get all the latest gear...  A small town rural hospital might not do so well...  The older more invasive procedures had a LOT more down-time.  I was told by one of the nurses on an SCI support website that they expected 4-6 weeks of no load bearing activity!  

So you definitely need to look for a doctor that can do the most minimally invasive version of the surgery

ex-Gooserider

I picked a highly recommended surgeon.  Should have done it much sooner.  I had both hands done at once.  The recovery was short.  I could do almost everything after 10 days and a lot even before.  I did ice it regularly for 4 months at the end of each day.  Absolutely the best thing I've ever done.  Nothing negative about it at all.

Brian,

 I also had a trigger finger problem after surgery.  After trying all kinds of stuff, I tried to just use a compression glove and it worked!

   Problem gone in just a few days.

Wow...good info, Roger!  

How long after surgery did you get trigger finger?

What brand compression glove?

Cheers!

Brian, 

   Muller is the brand.  I tried braces, splints, everything I could find, and nothing worked.  You can find them at any drug store.  I had both wrists done but only developed the trigger finger after the second one.  I don't remember how long after surgery but soon, I think.  Couple days maybe.  It was gone within a day or two.  

Lots of stretching. Sleep with splints on your wrists. Acupuncture. Mine was pretty bad and these worked for me. The biggest one was the splints. I thought the acu was BS but it definitely helped.