Carpal Tunnel & how do you deal with it? Wrist brace, surgery, therapy?
09-30-2011, 04:17 PM
#131
Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 19
I had the surgery and did not regret it at all. When asked how my hand felt after the surgery I informed one and all that it had hurt so badly before the operation that the pain of a simple incision was a piece of cake. I had been in constant pain that would sometimes hurt all the way to my shoulder. If I did anything at all with my hands I was in for sleepless nights and an abundance of pain meds that did not work all that well.
09-30-2011, 04:27 PM
#132
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pensacola, FL
Posts: 1,599
Originally Posted by MadQuilter
Yes, I have hand/wrist pain and from the description of symptoms it acts like carpal tunnel. The Dr. did a cattle prod test and according to that, it is not carpal tunnel. So I wear my braces (particularly at night), use anti-inflammatory drugs, use ice as needed, and don't overdo the quilty thing. However, my new motto is: No parts have fallen off, so I must be OK. I WILL not give up what I love to do.
Hope you feel better soon.
Hope you feel better soon.
Not carpel tunnel. Well if it isn't I don't know what it is! Right now I have my brace on the left hand and the constent tingling
is still there! ugh... time go back again since it has been a bit over a year.
Good Luck with yours
09-30-2011, 04:29 PM
#133
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pensacola, FL
Posts: 1,599
Originally Posted by pjnesler
Originally Posted by dublb
Last week the Dr. said that the strange & painful feeling In my right hand & arm was caused by a lack of blood flow to the fingers. Probably carpal tunnel. The wrist brace is helping a great deal. (I do not intend to quite doing anything, like quilting! Maybe change the way I do it but not quit.) I see the Dr again on the 7th of Oct.
Do any of ya'll have it & what did ya do about it.
Do any of ya'll have it & what did ya do about it.
I thought I had it - hard to sleep with the pain, hard to hold the steering wheel when I drove ..... lots of the typical Carpal Tunnel symptoms - I told my doctor, she told me to go off the perscription osteoporosis meds she had me on and see if it went away .... YES! It did! Now on the nasel spray - minor side effects, but able to deal with them vs. what was going on :?
Good luck, I hope you can get some relief soon.
09-30-2011, 05:33 PM
#135
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Georgia
Posts: 1,110
You are absolutely correct in your description of carpel tunnel.
Originally Posted by ptquilts
I have braces too that I wear at night. They help.But carpal tunnel is not a lack of blood flow, it is a compression of the nerves going through the carpal tunnel, a structure in your wrist. (BTW, even "pins and needles" is not a lack of blood flow, it is also a nerve problem.)
too many years of quilting, knitting, crocheting, and mine was made worse by sleeping with my hands in weird positions.
too many years of quilting, knitting, crocheting, and mine was made worse by sleeping with my hands in weird positions.
09-30-2011, 06:07 PM
#136
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 415
Originally Posted by Zhillslady
I had the braces made to fit my hand with the steel in them and sleep in them. Allows me a lot more of my day before the pain sets in. Also spread things out. Carpal pain is from repetition. SO I cut a while, sew a while, sew, take a stretching break, etc. Just to break up repeating the same motion over and over. It helps a lot
09-30-2011, 06:09 PM
#137
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 683
I tried chiro, braces, acupuncture, medicine, vitamins etc. Then finally (and wish it had been sooner) surgery. I had severe carpal-tunnel in both wrists so had both hands done the same day as an out patient. My specialist physician cut horizontally at the wrist about a inch long and went up under instead of cutting all through the palm. Much easier recovery! Be sure to ask for this method. This was in 1986 and no problems since.
09-30-2011, 06:24 PM
#138
Power Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Lowell, MA
Posts: 14,083
I developed carpal tunnel after years of being a secretary and transcriptionist, so all that typing did my wrist in. I hand quilted only one quilt - a full size qult, but after that I could only quilt for small periods of time. I use the wrist brace at night which significantly improves the pain during the day. When I was doing transcription work, I used elastic wristlets that also helped a lot. When the pain gets too bad, I take breaks that helps relieve the pressure and the pain. Just like the arthritis in my back, shoulders, knees and ankles, I take it one day at a time, and some days minutes at a time, but mostly I get through it by pacing myself and what I do.
09-30-2011, 06:51 PM
#139
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 400
I had it for years. I went through the braces, pain pills, and finally surgery. Dr. said if I didn't quit the job I had it would come back. Crocheting was my stress buster and after the surgery it took me a year with exercising with a hand sport exerciser to build up the strength in my hands to even crochet again. From experience, you don't want to get the surgery done over so quit whatever it was that caused it. I was a janitor and years of crocheting and typewriting career caused my hands to get carpal-tunnel. I wish the best for you at whatever decision you make. :-D
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