I've known for a while that I might have carpal tunnel. I went to my rheumatologist on Wednesday and she told me that I do have it. Right now I'm wearing splints on my wrists at night when I sleep and I'm taking B6. She wants me to do that for 6 weeks. If that takes care of it, great. If not, she said that she can give me injections.
So, do any of you have it or had it? If you do or did, what did you do for it? What about the success of treatment?
Yes, I've had and I've gotten over it, though only after seeing too many useless doctors on my way to finding a good one. You need to realize that most MDs have a poor understanding of CTS and other repetitive strain injuries (RSIs), so you'll need to inform yourself so you can take charge of your own recovery (and also find an MD who does understand RSIs.) Read a book like
It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (so named because CTS is not the root cause of your problems, which almost certainly start higher up in your arm than your wrist) to start understanding what RSIs are and how they're caused.
Splints at night and B6 are good ideas and will likely help if you have a mild case. Injections of cortizone and the like that she's suggesting are not permanent solutions, though they can be useful temporary measures to prevent or halt nerve damage arising from compression in the carpal tunnel. Read the online
Typing Injury FAQ, which contains a wealth of resources, including patient experiences with the treatments your rheumatologist is suggesting.
If the splints and B6 don't solve your problem, you'll need to address the continuously tightened muscles that are pulling on your tendons and causing them to swell and thus producing CTS symptoms. Take your thumb and press it into the mound of muscle on the top of your forearm near the elbow. If that hurts, those muscles are much too tight and need to be loosened. There are other spots to test that way, which a good doctor or the book mentioned above will show you.
Deep tissue massage from an LMT will help loosen those muscles, but it will hurt at first. Heat will also help to loosen them, but doesn't seem to have the long term effects that deep tissue massage does. Yoga, or a more formal means of movement education like the Feldenkrais Method or Alexander Technique, will teach you how to use your hands without that continual tightness, and is essential to ensuring that you don't re-injure yourself.
Facebook
Twitter