conquer carpal tunnel

OK,I had the surgery, endoscopic, on Monday am. It actually hurts, still, five days out. I was supposed to have the right wrist done a week from Monday, (two weeks out,) but now, I don’t think so. I think I’m going to wait until the left wrist is as good as it can be. I surfed around and found a video of the enitre endoscopic procedure on the ‘net. I was so curious, I couldn’t resist! Let’s just say, I know why I hurt, now! Not for the squeemish!

Via the electronic Depth-Charge thingymabob. It didn’t excactly hurt, it sometimes even tickled, but it wasn’t comfy, either. The doctor said I have “extensive” damage! Yikes!
Mike has sent an A-frame, mondo-ergo keyboard, I can’t wait to use it. Today, my hands have declared mutiny, (as I sit here typing away, duh!) Typing doesn’t bother me so much, but I can’t sew, write, lift weights, and it’s getting harder to wash dishes, hold a book, or hold anything, really. I have the “dropsies”! Have new understanding for the word “crippled”. Dang!
I have a love/hate relationship with my orthotic braces. Other than they are so sexxxxxxy, they get in the way of doing things, and after a while, my hands feel dead wearing them. I’ve loosened them, but the feeling is one of disuse breeding further atrophy combined with a weird psych-out/claustorphobia. On the other hand, sometimes they really help.
Ugh! I HATE this particular pain and feeling! Stupid carpal tunnel!

My doctors tried a lot of conservative therapies: bracing, injections, anti-inflammatory drugs, etc., but nothing was really helping; in fact, I then developed tennis elbow due to the wrist brace. The orthopedic I was seeing finally referred me to occupational therapy (OT), which made a HUGE difference.

A few years after I completed treatment, I’ll occasionally have a small flare-up, but nowhere near as bad as before, and I know how to treat myself now.

I was able to paint and help put up the beadboard kitchen ceiling without pain. Yeah! My hands are weaker than before the carpal tunnel, but the pain, numbness, and tingling are definitely gone. I am very grateful to put this behind me.

I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands about 10 years ago now. The surgery was painless and only took about five minutes per hand. The recovery was painful for the first two days but after that it wasn’t bad.

Now, 10 years later, I spend 10+ hours a day on my keyboard, playing bass guitar and doing other hand work and I have no problems with my hands.

One piece of advice: If you ever opt for the surgery, do one hand, recover and then do the other. I was able to take a full month off of work so I did both hands at the same time and while it made my recovery shorter, the next month was full of inconvenience and embarassment. I got locked in rooms because I couldn’t work the door knobs, I couldn’t dress myself, tie my shoelaces, etc. Fortunately my wife was avilable to help most of the time.

But I’ve got to find a way to make this better. The pain and weakness is preventing me from doing the things that I want to do. And while I’m at it, I need to get rid of the pain in my back.